Madeleine Alberta Fritz (3 November 1896 – 20 August 1990) was a Canadian palaeontologist. She was a professor at the University of Toronto, where she taught vertebrate studies in the department of Geology. Fritz's writing on the fossil Bryozoa along with her research on the stratigraphy of Toronto and the surrounding areas were major contributions to the geological field.
Fritz was one of the pioneering researchers on the Palaeozoic fossil Bryozoa, which is a type of sea creature that bonds together and builds joint skeletons composed of tiny chambers or tubes. Her work on these creatures later lead to her being called the “great-grandmother of Palaeozoic Bryozoa". Her scientific journals on these extinct marine invertebrates are internationally acclaimed.
Fritz worked at The Royal Ontario Museum as an associate director from 1936 to 1955, and later became the Invertebrate Palaeontology Curator at the ROM from 1955 to 1957. In 1956, she became a palaeontology professor at University of Toronto under the Department of Geology until her official retirement in 1967. Fritz was a member of the Geological Association of Canada and the Geological Society of America. She also was a member of the Canadian Confederation of University Women and the International Federation of University Women Panel of Experts.
Early life
Madeleine Fritz was born in Saint John, New Brunswick. Growing up, she developed a fascination for the geological formations, like mountains, of her hometown. Her father was a sea captain, so she spent many of her early years in and around the ocean. As a young girl she often played on the beach with marine life, which sparked her initial interest in fossil invertebrates.
Fritz studied Arts and English at McGill University in Montreal. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1919, she went on to teach at Elmwood Private Girls School in Ottawa, Canada. While living in Ottawa, she met palaeontologist Alice Wilson. Wilson was an assistant palaeontologist at the Geological Survey of Canada, which was based out of Ottawa. Wilson was the first woman in Canada to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (in 1942, Fritz would become the second). When they met, Wilson was preparing to embark on a geological expedition to Lake Winnipeg. Due to strict gender rules of that time, Wilson would not have been permitted to travel with any male colleagues. Therefore, she invited Fritz to join her on the expedition as her assistant while school was out for the summer. Fritz signed up as a "cook and canoe man," and accompanied Wilson for the six-week expedition in Manitoba.
After returning from her expedition with Wilson, Fritz remained a teacher at Elmwood for one more year before deciding to enroll in the geology program offered at the University of Toronto. She was the only woman in the Geology program at that time.
Academic career
While attending the University of Toronto in 1920, Fritz was the only female graduate student in the geology department. Despite this, Fritz mentioned that she felt accepted by those in her class and that no one ever tried to deter her from pursuing her degree in geology. She completed her M.A. in 1923 and her Ph.D. in 1926, making her the first woman in Canada to have ever received a Ph.D. within the geology/palaeontology field.
In 1927, Fritz was hired as an assistant at the Royal Ontario Museum of Palaeontology, which was affiliated with the University of Toronto. This position made her the only female geologist in Canada to hold an academic position in the field of geology during the interwar years.
In 1935, Fritz was hired as an assistant professor in the geology department at the University of Toronto. In 1955, Fritz became the curator of the Department of Invertebrate Palaeontology of the Royal Ontario Museum of Palaeontology. She was the first woman to hold this position. In 1956, Fritz became a full professor at the University of Toronto. It is important to note that it took over twenty years for her to be promoted from assistant professor to full professor; this demonstrates lateral segregation. She ended up juggling fieldwork, teaching and administrative duties for a good part of her career. Fritz officially ended her career with retirement in 1967, but she continued to research human evolution and origin of the Earth for the majority of her life.
She also took part in a lot of fieldwork over the course of her career which was opposed quite strongly by the Geological Survey.