1780 Mary Somerville

Mary Somerville, In 1834 she became the first person to be described in print as a 'scientist'.
Born in 1780, was a Scottish scientist, writer, and polymath. She studied mathematics and astronomy. In 1835 she was elected together with Caroline Herschel as the first female Honorary Members of the Royal Astronomical Society. When John Stuart Mill, the philosopher and economist, organised a massive petition to Parliament to give women the right to vote, he had Somerville put her signature first on the petition.  

Mary Somerville. A portrait of Mary Somerville as a Young Woman by John Jackson (1778-1831). The portrait hangs in Somerville College, Oxford.