Anning's father was a religious dissenter, subjecting the family to the legal discrimination which that entailed, and women were not eligible to join the Geological Society of London. The latter in particular precluded Anning from the recognition she deserved, and her only scientific writing published in her lifetime appeared in the Magazine of Natural History in 1839. Even this was only an extract from a letter that Anning had written to the magazine's editor questioning one of its claims.