How Mary Leakey carved a place for women among man's earliest steps

“Mary was more diligent about sticking to one thing and sticking it out,” Morell says. “That may have been one reason that, for her more careful approach, she as the one who often discovered things.”

Mary Leakey expected everyone to carry their own weight around. Literally. Morell recalls meeting the researcher in Kenya for the first time in the mid-1980s. Morell was invited to help work on the digs and carried her own dirt off, which she says was how she earned Mary Leakey’s respect.

"She was very impressed that I carried my own dirt, that I hadn't asked her or the men in the dig to carry it for me. She thought I was okay,” Morell says. “In retrospect, I can see why she would like that … She didn’t appreciate girls who played the weakling card.”

Despite her strong personality, Mary Leakey never liked the spotlight, Morell says. In 1948, she discovered the Proconsul africanus skull in 1948, and Louis Leakey asked her to take the credit. Mary Leakey traveled to England to present her findings, but found the press attention daunting.

“Part of it was that she was a very shy person,” Morell said. “She wasn’t trained as an archaeologist in a traditional way, and she realized that.

Louis Leakey went on to give lectures and present their work, including the discovery of the Australopithecine skull from 1.75 million years ago. Meanwhile, Mary Leakey continued the excavations with a team of workers.

After her husband’s death in 1972, Mary Leakey continued her research. She studied at the Laetoli site in Tanzania, where she found the remains of 25 early hominids and 15 new animal species. Among these were the footprints of the Australopithecus afarensis.

In 1969, Leakey received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, followed by several other honorary degrees. 

It was after those distinctions, Morell says, that Mary Leakey began to feel more confident with giving lectures and speaking publicly about her work.

“Once she was recognized that gave her the confidence she needed to speak out,” Morell says. “I don't think it had anything to do with her being a woman because Mary … never took a second seat to Louis.”

Mary Leakey did not advocate for women's rights and even disliked the feminists of her time, but she demonstrated the strides women can make in research. She led by example, not by protest. At the end of the day, all Mary Leakey asked for was to everyone, regardless of gender, to carry his or her own dirt.

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