Let’s talk parity – What is Matilda effect ?

It refers to the recurrent denial or minimization of women scientists’ contribution to research, their work often being attributed to their male colleagues.

It was the American science historian Margareth Rossiter (1944-) who, in 1993, named this effect Matilda, in homage to Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898), an American feminist and abolitionist author who fought against all forms of oppression throughout the 19th century. Among other things, she analyzed how men attributed to themselves the thoughts of intellectual women.

For example, Rosalind Franklin discovered the double helix structure of DNA, Jocelyn Bell the first pulsar, Lise Meitner nuclear fission and Nettie Marie Stevens sex chromosomes.

The contributions of all these women can be found here.

Source : L’effet Matilda, travelling exhibition produced by Femmes et Sciences, CNRS Occitanie Ouest and Quai des Savoirs.

To go further :

The play “Le Prix”, starring Pierre Arditi and Ludmila Mikael and currently playing at the Théâtre Hébertot, is about the interview between Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn just before the latter was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (https://www.theatrehebertot.com/spectacle/le-prix).

Video from France Culture « Les découvertes oubliées des femmes scientifiques, ou l’effet Matilda ».