–Shrayana Ghosh and Ayooshi Mitra, Amity University Kolkata
As Rita Levi-Montalcini, the eminent Italian Nobel Laureate and role model to many, once said, “Above all, don’t fear the difficult moments. The best comes from them”, women continuously have prospered in difficult times and have proved their worth to the society by overpowering various obstacles and have had their voices heard. When we talk about pioneers in science, the number of female scientists we come across, however, is comparatively lower.
In several countries, science, technology, and engineering are among the top scoured fields-for skills. A gender gap in STEM, however, remains worldwide. This gap starts in education, driven by gender stereotypes and expectations about “women in the workplace.” But women irrespective of all the hurdles, have always been able to find their selves in unimaginable ways and achieved incredible things. With strong belief and compassion, women have always aimed high to achieve what is rightfully theirs, with a positive influence on all. Unfortunately, society is not always able to empower them and their achievement is often foreshadowed under the pressure of patriarchy. Thus, recalling all those unsung heroes is not only crucial but also serves as a cornucopia of inspiration for all.
The limited number of female Nobel laureates leads to grave concern, similar to the rarity of women in scientific and educational careers. Since the last century, female researchers have come forward by leaps and bounds. But there is overwhelming evidence that women remain underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
The first and foremost name that comes to our mind when we talk about forgotten women, is Rosalind Franklin whose work on X-Ray Diffraction on DNA molecule was vital in the discovery of the DNA structure, later serving as a base for Watson and Crick’s DNA model. The latter unethically saw Franklin’s unpublished notes with the help of Wilkins. While Watson, Crick, and even Wilkins did receive their Nobel Prize, Franklin was excluded.
Esther and her husband Joshua equally contributed to the discovery of the lambda phage and replica plating technique describing how bacteria transfers genes. But, in 1958 she was invited at the Nobel Prize ceremony; not as a scientist, but as a spouse where her husband was awarded. Esther is among the long line of women overlooked for the Nobel Prize in favour of men. Even the renowned Nobel laureate Marie Curie was denied membership at the French Academy of Sciences for being a woman and encountered a great gender discrimination during her time.
Keeping the recent events in mind whilst the word is in the middle of a pandemic, we cannot continue without mentioning the name of June Almeida who discovered the first Human Coronavirus at the age of 16, but, has sadly received no recognition until now.
Most of us do not recognise the women in the field of biotechnology who did not receive a Nobel Prize for their contributions, but whose accomplishments have helped us widen our horizons about the different fields of science. Even after thousand years of patriarchy, a numbers of women are leading the world of biotechnology today. From Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Managing Director of Biocon, who is named as India’s richest self-made woman, Jennifer Doudna, who changed the world of genomics with her ground-breaking discovery of CRISPR/Cas9 to Nina Tandon setting up a company to grow bones for skeletal reconstruction; women have come a long way, breaking barriers and believing in themselves. Gender discrimination in the field of science is still a major issue, but through the years women have triumphed, albeit without recognition. A lot more could be achieved if women do not have to constantly fight discrimination and focus solely on their work.
References
1. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/nobel-prize-awarded-women/
2. https://www.catalyst.org/research/women-in-science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics-stem/
Great to know such fields and amazing development.
Great to know such fields and amazing development.