“In 1956, four years before Jane Goodall ventured into the world of chimpanzees and seven years before Dian Fossey left to work with mountain gorillas, in fact, before anyone, man or woman, had made such a trip, 23-year-old Canadian biologist, Anne Innis Dagg, made an unprecedented solo journey to South Africa to become the first person in the world to study animal behaviour in the wild on that continent. When she returned home a year later armed with ground-breaking research, the insurmountable barriers she faced as a female scientist proved much harder to overcome.” This is the synopsis of “The Woman Who Loves Giraffes” found on the film's website. I urge you to see it.

Denied tenure as a college professor of zoology at the University at Guelph in 1972, she was told that her work was insufficient, in spite of the fact that she had published 20 research papers in esteemed journals. She didn't apply to work at the University at Waterloo because the Dean told her he would never give tenure to a married woman. Although she appealed the decision at Guelph, it didn't change the outcome, which turned Anne into a feminist activist.

This film beautifully shows Anne's amazing journey to Africa and her research in the veldt with footage taken during those very different days when giraffes were plentiful. She did it without hesitation, she says, because she didn't think of herself as a woman, she thought of herself as a person, although she did have to hide her identity when looking for a place to do her research in Africa because no one would accommodate a single female.

Anne was the first person to study African animals in the wild. She returned to Canada and earned her PhD, writing “The Giraffe: Its biology, behavior and ecology,” recognized as the seminal book on giraffes, in 1976. She revised her work in 2014, based on the continuing research into giraffes in the book “Giraffe: Biology, Behavior and Conservation.”

People working with giraffes rightly consider her the founding mother of giraffe research. And now she is continuing her work helping to save the giraffe, which is an endangered species and using the platform the film has given her to speak on her work as a zoologist as well as a feminist, an interest of hers “because of the personal discrimination (she) faced.”

Her story reminded me of the story of my dear, late mother-in-law Rosemary Witt Werner, the first in her family to go to college (at Elmira College), earning a degree with the double major of Chemistry and Biology. She ran her own lab at Kolmar Laboratories in Port Jervis until she married and became a mother. When she wished to return to work, she was told that her pay would not be the same “since she was married.” Rosemary refused to accept that and instead waited on tables at the Flo-Jean Restaurant in Port Jervis while she attended the State Teachers College at New Paltz to get her Master's in Education (she also earned many credits toward a doctorate there). She then began teaching in Port Jervis, whereupon a female member of the Board of Education there tried to have her brought up on charges of incompetence “as a mother!” saying it was impossible for her to work as a teacher with five children to care for. Rosemary prevailed, but such an incident gives one a flavor of the time.

Rosemary and Anne are both feminist heroes and their refusal to accept discrimination (not that long ago) led to many of the gains we take for granted today. Our view is clearer and our possibilities wider because we stand on the shoulders of these indomitable women.

You can check out Anne Dagg's website at annedagg.net.