As a jame. Camille Joubert’s column is broadcast daily on Jimmy Gourmaud’s “Sea Jamie” program from Monday to Friday at 5:00 pm on France 5.

Can you name five names of human scientists in ten seconds? How about five female scientists now? If women interested in science are not as easy to find as men, it is because of a phenomenon called the “Matilda Effect”.

The Matilda Effect or Hide the Female Scientific Contribution

The Matilda effect indicates the systematic underestimation of the contribution of women to research, a theory developed by the American science historian Margaret Rossiter in the 1980s, named by the feminist matilda Jocelyn Gage, who observed that since the end of the nineteenth century some men have monopolized the work of women. To theorize the Matilda effect, Margaret Rossiter investigated the “Matteo Effect” that was invented by sociologist Robert King Merton in the 1960s. The Matthew Effect defines the way some great personalities are recognized at the expense of their relatives, despite their contribution to the reason for their fame. Matthew’s influence takes his name from a verse in the Bible according to Matthew 12:12:Because he who has will be given, and he will have much, but he who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.. ”

Trottola de Salerno, Marie Curie, Marty Gautier: (very) victims of the Matilda effect

Victims of the Matilda Effect are many. Marie Curie herself would not have won the first Nobel Prize in 1903 had it not been for her husband, Pierre Curie, to intervene. Henri Becquerel was only hired by the Academy of Sciences for their joint discovery of radioactivity.

Also in France, in the 1950s, Dr. Marty Gauthier discovered that the cells of people with Down syndrome contain an extra chromosome. But to confirm these results, it must use more efficient equipment from CNRS researcher Jérôme Lejeune. But then, Jérome Lejeune alone announced the discovery, linking honors and promotions. “I have no fond memories of this period, I just felt cheated in all respectsMarty Gautier later explained.

Another example, in 1967 in the United Kingdom. Physicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell is involved in analyzing the results of the new radio telescope. Then she noticed anomalies: pulsars discovered neutron stars that rotate very quickly on themselves, and emit large electromagnetic radiation. Although she gained much fame from the discovery, it was her thesis supervisor, Anthony Hewish, who would receive the Nobel Prize.

Neither Trotula de Salerno was an 11th-century gynecologist, Lise Meitner on nuclear fission or Rosalind Franklin for discovering DNA (the latter two were excluded from Nobel Prizes for rewarding their work in favor of their male colleagues). A victim of the Matilda effect throughout the centuries.