Kim Cattrall poses in Diana and Actaeon recreation

We always joke about the lacuna of men in museum studies; at least in our department, the masculine half of the race forms but a tiny proportion of all our students. It's an amazing testament to the strides made by women over the last 150 years that we can laugh and boast of our predominance in any academic field. The history of the struggle of women for recognition in higher education in the English-speaking world is fairly well known, but I came across a very interesting account of a true pioneer and urge you to read it. Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia was the first woman ever to be awarded a PhD in 1678 from the University of Padua; she simultaneously became the first woman to ever be awarded any university degree. Not a bad way to start, was it?