Where are the Women in Science?

Apart than Marie Curie, how many famous female scientists can you name? What about mathematicians?

Yesterday would have been the 96th birthday of English chemist and X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin. To put it quite plainly, Franklin was robbed of recognition throughout her career, just like many women scientists.

If you know anything about science, you’ve probably heard of the names Watson and Crick, credited for the discovery of DNA’s structure. What you may not necessarily know is the controversy around their “discovery” and how it was really more of a discovery of the papers Rosalind Franklin had been working on, what led them to the Nobel Award.

Over the centuries, female researchers had to work as "volunteer" faculty members, seen credit for significant discoveries they've made assigned to male colleagues, and been written out of textbooks.

Another example; Cecilia Payne (1900-1979) who is remembered as an enthusiastic woman who refused to give up her career at a time when married women were expected to do so. Her biggest contribution to science was the discovery of what elements made up stars -  Guys, I don’t know about you, but in my view, pointing out what the sun is made of is a pretty big deal. Her male colleagues apparently did not think the same.

She was recommended by her (male) supervisor to NOT publish the paper, reasoning that it was contradictory to the standard knowledge of the time, and it wouldn’t be accepted. Funny enough, some years later, the same man published a similar conclusion and took all the credit. Are we surprised? Not really (note how upset I get here that I refuse to type the name of the professor that stole Ms. Payne’s ideas).

Going against the dogma is dangerous. Especially dangerous if you are a woman. I am pretty sure that this sounds quite familiar to some of my female friends. 

Many people think that sexism in science isn’t a big issue today... But is this really true?

I recently had the pleasure to chat with the brilliant female scientist that has changed the way we understand Alzheimer: Prof. Michal Schwartz, a world pioneer in Neurobiology, who has demonstrated that the immune system plays a key role in life-long brain plasticity  - we are talking here of more than 25 years leading the research at a world class institution! – Just Wow!

With the curiosity that characterizes me, I asked straight away: "you are a woman, has this fact played a role in your career as a scientist?" – Her answer was yes. According to Professor Schwartz, “one way the change would come is when males would be condemned by both law and society for any immoral attitude to females”.

Today, we like to believe that attitudes have changed, however bias has not gone away. Fact is, that despite enormous progress in recent decades, women still have to deal with biases against them in the sciences.

Women scientist don't always have research jobs, it's sadly common that many of the positions offered to women are focused on teaching or administrative and management duties. And let's don't even mention the tremendous difficulties to combine family and career. 

We need a systematic approach to boost the numbers of female researchers. I am not talking here about positive discrimination; I am talking about providing with equal opportunities. It's time to come up with a strategy to boost the number of women in the fields of STEM.

Companies and research institutions should increase their efforts for retaining women in STEM careers. This is not a matter of feminism. If we want to attract the best and brightest minds into the fields that will move us forward, we must look to all of the population. 

Attracting and retaining more female talent in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics workforce will maximize innovation, creativity, and competitiveness and this is good for all of us.

Almudena Berzosa 

Follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter @A_berzosa and on Facebook at Facebook/BuildingYourBackbone