Throughout history, women scientists have made great discoveries that have changed the future of science. Today, in honor of all of them, we bring you a selection of the most relevant.
Today, women represent less than 30% of the people who are dedicated to research in the world . According to the Ministry of Education in Spain, in 2019 the number of enrollments of female students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers did not reach 29%. There are many variables that may be influencing these data and we are going to dwell on some of them.
Until the last century, few women had access to education. Getting to university in science careers or dedicating oneself to research was a challenge that could only be achieved by a few and with many difficulties such as rejection by the scientific community (represented by men) or the need to sign their achievements with male pseudonyms. so that their work could be recognized.
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Who have been the most relevant scientific women?
Today this has changed a lot, but not as much as we would like, far from it, to talk about real equality. Currently, it may seem that the same opportunities are offered to women and men, that women enter university on equal terms and that they can freely choose their studies.
But in practice, the figures tell us that there are still important conditions for this not to happen. Many studies show that gender stereotypes are the main reason why women have less presence in science .
If we add to this the lack of female role models and the difficulty of reconciling family and work life. Reality shows us data such as the presence of women in educational materials is 7.5% and that 50% of women when they reach a level in research, and decide to start a family, leave the scientific career.
Since 2012, every February 11th the International Day of Women and Girls in Science is celebrated to demand full and equal access and participation of women and girls in this sector.
Science and technology today have become fundamental tools to respond to many problems and challenges. We cannot afford not to have half the population to solve them. The absence of women in science means a loss of knowledge, talent and potential. That is why today, we will show the 10 most important scientific women and their contributions to science.
1. Hypatia of Alexandria
Hypatia of Alexandria was the first female mathematician in history , as well as a philosopher and astronomer. She was born in Alexandria in the year 355 AD, which at that time was the capital of Egypt. With her work she expanded the knowledge existing at that time on geometry, algebra and astronomy. She invented various gadgets that are very important today and we continue to use, such as the hydrometer and the astrolabe, an instrument widely used by sailors at the time.
2. Maria Andresa Casamayor de la Coma
María Andresa was one of the first Spanish scientists, born in Zaragoza in 1720. She wrote the first mathematics book in Spanish published by a woman when she was only 17 years old , but she had to use a man’s name, Casandro Mamés de la Marca y Araioa to be able to do it. The book is called “Tyrocinio arithmetico.
Instruction of the four plain rules” and is a manual where operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are taught in an easy way. He also taught the basic units of length, weight, and currency, which were very important for payments in businesses at the time.
3. Nettie Stevens
She was born in Vermont, a city in North America in 1861, and from a very young age she dreamed of going to university. She was the woman who discovered that the chromosomes of our cells were the ones that determined the sex of the animal species through the study of the mealworm.
In 1905 she was the first to publish these scientific results showing that the female sex was determined by the XX chromosomes and the male by the XY chromosomes . But, despite the great discovery, another male scientist published something very similar inspired by Nettie’s work shortly after and it was this other scientist, Edmund Wilson, who got the credit as the discoverer of sex determination by chromosomes.
4. Marie Curie
Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie, better known as Marie Curie, was born in 1867 and was the first person in the world to receive two Nobel Prizes in two different specialties , as well as holding a teaching position as a woman at the University of Paris. She was a pioneering physicist, mathematician and chemist in the field of radioactivity, since through her knowledge about it she was able to discover two of the elements that we have today in the periodic table: polonium and radio.
5. Mary Agnes Chase
Mary Agnes Chase was born in 1869 in Chicago, and was a noted botanist, illustrator, and feminist who, in addition to studying plants, fought for women’s right to vote . In 1903 she became the official illustrator of the United States Department of Agriculture, where she made important classifications and collections of different species of plants, more than 10,000 grasses that she collected on various trips to the United States and Latin America, despite the difficulties economic for being a woman.
Mary called “the plant that holds the soil” a grass. Grasses are plants such as rice, oats, bamboo, sugar cane, barley, rye and many more, so his work was essential for the classification and advancement of this type of plant, which is so important for the human.
6. Lise Meitner
She was born in 1878 into a Jewish family in the interior of Vienna, and was one of the first to pass the exam to enter and become a doctor in quantum physics in 1906. Lise Meitner was the scientist who discovered nuclear fission , a process from which energy is obtained in nuclear power plants around the world.
However, as was normal at the time, after the discovery it was only her colleague Otto Hahn who received the Nobel Prize and she, being a woman, was not recognized any merit. What Lise did not know is that some time later her discoveries were going to be used as weapons. She was offered to be part of a project in which they wanted to create an atomic bomb to destroy the Nazis. She knew that this could be very dangerous and she was the only scientist who refused to do so.
7. Angela Ruiz Robles
Ángela was born in 1895 in a town in León, in a wealthy family. Her father was a pharmacist and her mother a housewife. She studied at the Escuela de Maestras de León, where she taught writing and mathematics. In 1917 she became headmistress of an important school. During that time she was able to invent what is now considered the first tablet in history .
It was a mechanical encyclopedia that could be read vertically and horizontally, the surface could be illuminated for reading in the dark, and it had a screen where it was possible to draw and write. Also, for people who couldn’t read well, he also put a magnifying glass, like the zoom on tablets. This encyclopedia was shaped like a briefcase and on the sides they could exchange reels of different subjects to be able to use it in many areas.
8. Rosalind Elsie Franklin
Born in 1920 in London, Rosalind Franklin was a brilliant chemist and crystallographer whose work was based on the use of X-ray diffraction, which was of great importance in advancing multiple investigations. Among her most famous is the discovery of the structure of the genetic material , both DNA and RNA, and also of chemical compounds such as graphite.
9. Margarita Salas Falgueras
He was born in 1938 in a town in Asturias called Cañero and studied Chemistry at the university. She then got to do her doctoral thesis and got to work as a researcher in New York with Severo Ochoa. Back in Spain, Margarita and her team managed to find a protein in a virus that was capable of multiplying DNA and that today is used in laboratories to investigate in many fields, the polymerase. It gave rise to the most profitable patent in the history of the CSIC .
In addition to being an important researcher, she also worked to promote the dissemination of science, and the fight for equal opportunities for women in this environment, so that the work of women scientists would be recognized as well as that of men.
10. Josefina Castellví Piulachs
She was born in 1935 in Barcelona, and became the first Spanish woman to make an expedition to Antarctica where she investigated the bacteria that live in such extreme and cold environments. It was very hard work and they lived in very extreme conditions, but her passion for science made anything worthwhile.
He has published 74 works on the different discoveries of bacteria in those places, providing knowledge on how these organisms manage to live in such cold places. Thanks to this, she has received many awards for her work as a scientist.
To the classic question “what do you do?” I always answer “basically I am a psychologist”. In fact, my academic training has revolved around the psychology of development, education and community, a field of study influenced my volunteer activities, as well as my first work experiences in personal services.