Nicole Boivin, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology; Janet G. Hering, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology; Susanne Täuber, University of Amsterdam, and Ursula Keller, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
Studies reveal women’s research receives tougher assessment, less funding, fewer prizes and less citation than men’s.
Florence Bell made an incredible contribution to science but was almost forgotten.
Estate of Florence Bell
In the academic world, researchers are rewarded for publishing frequently. Not only is this affecting research quality but it is also hindering female scientists.
From primary school to academic positions, despite some progress, gender inequality continues to be rife.
Lise Meitner, in the front row, sits alongside many male colleagues at the Seventh Solvay Physics Conference in 1933.
Corbin Historical via Getty Images
The trailer for ‘Oppenheimer’ fails to include female physicists, which is indicative of a broader media trend that, if reversed, could lead to greater gender diversity in science.
Elizabeth Campbell operating the Floyd Telescope, 1922 total solar eclipse.
State Library Western Australia 4131B/3/8, enhanced detail
History might give you the impression astronomical discoveries were only done by men. But women were participating in scientific expeditions of eclipses too, even though it wasn’t easy.
A new book explores a paradox: women have been excluded from Australian science for many social and political reasons, but were also present and active in it from its earliest days.
Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, was more than just another mathematician.
Watercolor portrait of Ada King, Countess of Lovelace by Alfred Edward Chalon via Wikimedia
Lovelace was a prodigious math talent who learned from the giants of her time, but her linguistic and creative abilities were also important in her invention of computer programming.
Women in Antarctica experience significant barriers of sexism, prejudice and abuse.
milehightraveler/E+ via Getty Images
By surveying over 100 people in academic medicine, a researcher found that women are consistently excluded from important networking activities like watching sports, drinking at bars and playing golf.
Tu Youyou shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015.
Claudio Bresciani/AFP via Getty Images
The proportion of women in a discipline influences how rigorous and trustworthy people rate the field overall, as well as whether they categorize a STEM field as a ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ science.
Working from home comes with many distractions.
MoMoProductions/Digital Vision via Getty Images
We spoke to 332 Year 3 students about what they want to be when they grow up. Some responses raised alarms.
Mary Elizabeth Shutler in Vanuatu, in the1960s. Permitted to join the first archaeological expedition to New Caledonia in 1952 as a ‘voluntary assistant’, she was the only French speaker and chief interlocuter with the Kanak people.
Family archives, reproduced with the kind authorisation of John Shutler & Susan Arter.
‘Wives’, volunteers, assistants: the vital contribution of women archaeologists has long been underplayed, if not erased. A new project uncovers trailblazers in the Pacific.
Science fields are improving at being more inclusive. But explicit and implicit barriers still hold women back from advancing in the same numbers as men to the upper reaches of STEM academia.
Excluding, silencing and discouraging so many brilliant minds carries a very heavy cost, not just to the women directly impacted, but to all of humanity.