The first alchemists, healers, physicians and scientists in Western history were all seen as witches. These women who developed their knowledge based on empirical studies and through ancestral teachings were judged as criminals, stating that the only valid knowledge was the one found in books (all written by men).
The history of science could be summarized in a lengthy timeline of events and discoveries led by men, with a few exceptions made by women, deserving of their honors, but apparently abnormal. However, this few recognitions are enough to document in depth the other side of historic science, in which women have always been present.
The Matilda Effect
In 1993, Cornell University science historian Margaret Rossiter called the denial of recognition to women scientists the “Matilda effect” by suffragist and abolitionist Matilda Joslyn Gage. The Matilda effect means that many great women have had their achievements unfairly attributed to men. The mechanism is perverse, as it turns their own bias into a reality.
Matilda Gage was a 19th century suffragist and women’s feminist abolitionist. In her 1870 essay: “Woman as Inventor”, she lashed out against the tendency of men to steal women’s technological inventions. According to Rossiter, even their most decisive contributions have been attributed to their male colleagues, or even their husbands, thus attributing their own work to the rank of mere footnotes. Therefore, women’s objective importance has little to do with their public visibility.
Very few women escape this rule, as Marie Curie did by winning the Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband in 1903.
A famous example of the Matilda effect is the often overlooked role in Rosalind Franklin’s discovery on the structure of DNA, which is attributed to her male colleagues Watson and Crick. Another example is that of Lise Meitner, who did not receive the 1944 Nobel Prize in chemistry along with her male colleague for their fundamental work on nuclear fission, or Marthe Gautier, who discovered the chromosomal source of Down syndrome, but for many years the credit was given exclusively to a male colleague of hers. These prominent examples are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to women who made significant contributions to scientific history and were rewarded by being eliminated from their work and denied from receiving awards and recognition in their lifetime.
Contemporary studies show that the Matilda effect is still alive, although generally much more subtle than in past decades. Some common contemporary manifestations include the disproportionately small number of award nominations and wins by women scientists, citations of studies by women scientists and opportunities for collaboration especially in fields that are more associated with men.
More work needs to be done to normalize the concept of women being scientists, including efforts to increase the representation of women in the field of science, among many other efforts.
This story was originally published in Spanish by Cultura Colectiva.