Born: 14 January 1862, Canada
Died: 10 November 1941
Country most active: Canada
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
In some cases, women can’t even get hired for jobs they are already doing. In 1909, botanist Carrie Derick’s boss fell ill, and Derick assumed his role as chair of the botany department at McGill University. She ran the department for three years (he died in 1910) and had strong support from colleagues, yet when McGill finally began the search to officially replace him in 1912, they did not offer her the job … that she’d been doing … for three years. Instead, they appointed her as a professor of morphological botany, which was not her area of specialty and did not come with a pay increase or a faculty seat, and the new chair assigned her work suitable for a lower-ranked demonstrator, not a professor. It did, however, make Derick the first woman in Canada to become a university professor…
Derick completed the research required for her PhD at the University of Bonn in 1906 but was not granted a degree because the university refused to grant women doctorates.
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
Carrie Matilda Derick was a notable Canadian botanist and geneticist. She became the first female professor in a Canadian university and played a crucial role in founding McGill University’s genetics department.
In 1889, Carrie Matilda Derick graduated with top honors in natural science from McGill University. She began teaching at the Trafalgar Institute for Girls in 1890 while working part-time as McGill’s first female botany demonstrator. Derick pursued her master’s at McGill, completing it in 1896, and conducted Ph.D. research at the University of Bonn in 1901. Despite not receiving a Ph.D. due to sexist restrictions, Derick made significant contributions at Harvard University and the Royal College of Science.
In 1905, after seven years of teaching and research at McGill without pay, Derick was promoted to assistant professor at one-third the salary of her male counterparts. In 1909, she assumed the role of chair for McGill University’s Botany Department. Following three years of leadership after Penhallow’s death, she was not selected as the department chair in 1912. However, Derick became the first female university professor in Canada in 1912, albeit without a pay raise or faculty seat.
Derick’s legacy includes founding McGill University’s genetics department, creating the Evolution and Genetics course, and publishing numerous botany papers. She retired in 1929 due to health issues, receiving the title of “professor emerita” from McGill University, making her the first female professor emeritus in Canada.