Inventors, astrophysicists or philosophers: In the past, scientific achievements were mainly attributed to well-known men. Contributions by women often remained invisible - this influences the science scene to this day.
In 1945, Otto Hahn received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering nuclear fission. His colleague of many years, the physicist Lise Meitner, got nothing - even though her knowledge and her work were essential for the award-winning discovery.
Lise Meitner is not alone with this omission. Numerous women scientists have suffered the same fate throughout history: their achievements have been forgotten, sidelined or ignored in the history of science. This systematic discrimination is so widespread that it even has a name: the Matilda effect.
The phenomenon is named after the American suffragette, activist and sociologist Matilda Joslyn Gage. In 1870, she wrote a pamphlet entitled Woman as Inventor , condemning the then-widespread idea that women lacked inventive drive and scientific talent: “Such statements are made lightly or ignorantly. Tradition, history and experience prove that women possess these abilities to the highest degree,” the essay says.
..and even the Scots and Australians are not above writing women out of their due recognition. Rosalind Franklin in many people's opinion, should be credited with DNA double helix discovery,
and a certain scribe was stunned to learn the George Orwell, also failed to recognise his wife's "ghost writing" in his novels, and even saving his life during the Spanish Civil war.
Let's hope we've moved on?