Émilie du Châtelet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Émilie_du_Châtelet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Émilie_du_Châtelet), mentioned at the beginning of the articl

Émilie du Châtelet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Émilie_du_Châtelet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Émilie_du_Châtelet), mentioned at the beginning of the article, was a fascinating woman, living at a time when “natural philosophy” was morphing into different sciences. For a time she was also very active in the social scene. Like so many brilliant women of history (see Marry Wollstonecraft for another example), her biography ends in death during childbirth. Voltaire was her long time companion and lover (among many others), see this post for a look at their relationship: https://www.geriwalton.com/voltaire-emilie-du-chatelet/ https://www.geriwalton.com/voltaire-emilie-du-chatelet/. For an in-depth coverage of her work, check out the Stanford Encyof Philosophy entry: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emilie-du-chatelet/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emilie-du-chatelet/. Her life would make for a fantastic movie. Maria Agnesi, of the Witch of Agnesi fame, was another woman mathematician whose life overlapped with du Châtelet‘s. She was also from a wealthy family (a must for being an educated female in those times) but she lived quite a different type of life, focusing on religion towards the end.