Howdy, howdy bug lovers! Today's show is part one of a two part series on women in entomology as we celebrate Women's History Month. For this episode your three regular hosts get together to introduce the topic and get the conversation going and the second episode we will feature guest interviews about current issues for women in entomology.  We start our discussion today though by talking about two luminaries in entomological history, Maria Sibylla Merian and Edith Patch. After that, Jody solicited stories from scientists of today to hear about mentors and issues that persist in our field. We also discuss the role of social media in breaking down barriers, as we saw with #BugsR4girls. We hope you enjoy and learn a little something about our history and how we can still work towards a more equal tomorrow.   Maria Merian (left) and Dr. Edith Patch are our two historical luminaries for today's episode!Show notes: To learn more about Maria Sibylla Merian, check out these resources https://entomologytoday.org/2015/02/26/famous-female-entomologists-part-4-maria-sybilla-merian-the-mother-of-entomology/http://www.themariasibyllameriansociety.humanities.uva.nl/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/01/the-woman-who-made-science-beautiful/424620/http://public.gettysburg.edu/~ketherid/Merian%201st%20ecologist.pdf https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/science/maria-sibylla-merian-metamorphosis-insectorum-surinamensium.html To learn more about Dr. Patch, check out these resources Entomology Today - Looking beyond Edith Patch's CV by Katie ToddEntomology Today - Remembering Edith Patch, the First Female President of the Entomological Society of America by Amanda ClarkWikipedia - Edith PatchBiography: Without Benefit of Insects: The Story of Edith M . Patch of the University of MainePhotos of Patchiella (under a CC BY 3.0 license) Friends of Edith Patch - “non-profit organization dedicated to celebrating and continuing the legacy of Dr. Edith Marion Patch, a pioneering entomologist whose scientific, educational, and environmental work expanded the ecological understandings of scientists, educators, children, and families around the world.” We also want to thank everyone who retweeted, favorited, or responded to Jody on Twitter! Your responses were very helpful in making our Women in Entomology Series! Questions? Comments? Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_PodshowFollow the hosts on Twitter @JLarson_UNL, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36Get the show through iTunes!Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!   We're on Stitcher too!  This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0