These women have changed the world with science...Too bad a man was given all the credit...

[Playinghardball]

Rosalind Franklin might be the most famous example of a woman scientist getting screwed over by her male colleagues, but she’s far from the only one.

Yes, misogyny was very much just a fact of society during the careers of these women, but it isn’t too late to pay homage to them and correct the public’s perception on who really made these amazing contributions to science.

Found on the I love fucking science Facebook page...

[seabeyond]

1. silly me, thought women accomplished nothing, until last couple years see all the kick ass women

in our history. in HOF, there have been a lot of posts identifying women have are very accomplished that we never heard of. so much of history omitted for an agenda. it has been fascinating to me, in my own personal growth, but also, the manipulation how we shape our world into a created image.

this is an excellent OP. thank you allowing us to be that much more aware.

[Xipe Totec]

2. Regarding Cecilia Payne

Shapley persuaded Payne to write a doctoral dissertation, and so in 1925 she became the first person to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy from Radcliffe College (now part of Harvard). Her thesis was "Stellar Atmospheres, A Contribution to the Observational Study of High Temperature in the Reversing Layers of Stars". Astronomer Otto Struve called it "undoubtedly the most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy".

Payne was able to accurately relate the spectral classes of stars to their actual temperatures by applying the ionization theory developed by Indian physicist Meghnad Saha. She showed that the great variation in stellar absorption lines was due to differing amounts of ionization at different temperatures, not to different amounts of elements. She correctly suggested that silicon, carbon, and other common metals seen in the Sun's spectrum were found in about the same relative amounts as on Earth, but that helium and particularly hydrogen were vastly more abundant (for hydrogen, by a factor of about one million). Her thesis thus established that hydrogen was the overwhelming constituent of the stars (see Metallicity)

When Payne's dissertation was reviewed, astronomer Henry Norris Russell dissuaded her from concluding that the composition of the Sun is different from that of the Earth, contradicting the accepted wisdom at the time. However, he changed his mind four years later after deriving the same result by different means. After Payne was proven correct, Russell was often given the credit, although he himself acknowledged her work in his paper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecilia_Payne-Gaposchkin

I think it is unfair and deceitful to characterize Russell as a misogynist.

[question everything]

3. And don't forget Hypatia

In ancient Alexandria, who was an early astronomer. Some 1800 before Galileo she claimed that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe and paid for this in her life.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/womens-history/Hypatia-Ancient-Alexandrias-Great-Female-Scholar.html

[AtheistCrusader]

32. I think there were a lot of reasons they killed her.

All of them boiling down to 'you have the wrong genitalia to be offering opinions on anything'

Back then, simply refusing the advances of a suitor risked things along the lines of 'she must be a witch, burn her'.



They flayed her alive with Abalone shells. Unspeakable.
Eventually, the library was burnt too...

[happyslug]

35. We have NO idea what Hypatia did beside so work on the stars and Philosophy

We have two reports on her (one written almost 200 years after her death) and some reports that may be hers but NOTHING as to the sun being the center of the Solar System. Thus we have no idea what she actually did, beside TEACH astronomy and Mathematics, and the speculation can be outrageous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia

No written work, widely recognized by scholars as Hypatia's own, has survived to the present time. Many of the works commonly attributed to her are believed to have been collaborative works with her father, Theon Alexandricus, this kind of authorial uncertainty being typical for female philosophers in Antiquity.
A partial list of Hypatia's works as mentioned by other antique and medieval authors or as posited by modern authors:
A commentary on the 13-volume Arithmetica by Diophantus.
A commentary on the Conics of Apollonius. Edited the existing version of Ptolemy's Almagest.
Edited her father's commentary on Euclid's Elements
She wrote a text "The Astronomical Canon".(Either a new edition of Ptolemy's Handy Tables or commentary on the aforementioned Almagest.)
Her contributions to science are reputed to include the charting of celestial bodies and the invention of the hydrometer, used to determine the relative density (or specific gravity) of liquids. However, the hydrometer was invented before Hypatia, and already known in her time.
Her student Synesius, bishop of Cyrene, wrote a letter describing his construction of an astrolabe. Earlier astrolabes predate that of Synesius by at least a century, and Hypatia's father had gained fame for his treatise on the subject. However, Synesius claimed that his was an improved model. Synesius also sent Hypatia a letter describing a hydrometer, and requesting her to have one constructed for him.

Notice NOTHING about the sun being the center of the Solar System. This story seems to a 20th century invention just to show how evil the Christian mob that killed her was. The contemporary account clearly indicate she was caught up in a Political struggle between the Perfect, Roman Governor, of Alexandria and the Bishop of Alexandria. Both the Governor and the Bishop seems to have been shock by her death for they did not think the dispute between their supporters had reached that point. On the other hand such riots had been known in Alexandria for at least 600 years for various reasons many long forgotten. Such riots appears to have been a characteristic of that city and that time period, a characteristic Alexandria shared with Rome at that time period and Constantinople after it replaced Rome as the largest city in the world after about 400 AD.

[LittleBlue]

4. Half of the human race's intellect was wasted

A few women were willing to brave the ostracism of learning and working. And that's not even contemplating the number of forgotten geniuses, men and women, who toiled among the peasant classes and had no opportunity to learn or write.

You mentioned a few and I'll submit my own: Hypatia of Alexandria.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia


?w=520&h=399



edit: someone beat me to it


Oh well, I'll go with Heloise d'Argenteuil then.

[Nay]

28. It's why I am pissed off at the MRA types who say that if there were no men, we wouldn't even have

electricity or running water. They actually think that women are too stupid to discover and work on such things, when the reality is all those MRA-type men in the past spent a lot of time stealing ideas and inventions from women themselves, when they weren't busy oppressing women in general.

[Xipe Totec]

5. Regarding Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Dame (Susan) Jocelyn Bell Burnell, as a postgraduate student, she discovered the first radio pulsars while under her thesis supervisor Antony Hewish, for which Hewish shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Martin Ryle, while Bell Burnell was left out despite having observed the pulsars. Bell Burnell was President of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2002 to 2004, president of the Institute of Physics from October 2008 until October 2010, and was interim president following the death of her successor, Marshall Stoneham, in early 2011.

The paper announcing the discovery of pulsars had five authors. Hewish's name was listed first, Bell's second. Hewish was awarded the Nobel Prize, along with Martin Ryle, without the inclusion of Bell as a co-recipient. Many prominent astronomers expressed outrage at this omission, including Sir Fred Hoyle. Hoyle harshly criticized the Nobel committee, going so far as to accuse Hewish of stealing Bell's data. (Ironically, as some would later conjecture, it was this public outburst that would later cause Hoyle to be excluded from the 1983 Prize).

However, Bell has also been hesitant to express indignation at the omission. In an after-dinner speech made in 1977, she had the following to say on the matter:

There are several comments that I would like to make on this: First, demarcation disputes between supervisor and student are always difficult, probably impossible to resolve. Secondly, it is the supervisor who has the final responsibility for the success or failure of the project. We hear of cases where a supervisor blames his student for a failure, but we know that it is largely the fault of the supervisor. It seems only fair to me that he should benefit from the successes, too. Thirdly, I believe it would demean Nobel Prizes if they were awarded to research students, except in very exceptional cases, and I do not believe this is one of them. Finally, I am not myself upset about it -- after all, I am in good company, am I not!

Although she didn't share the 1974 Nobel Prize for Physics with Hewish for her discovery, she has been honoured by many other organisations:

The Albert A. Michelson Medal of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia (1973, jointly with Dr. Hewish).
J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize from the Center for Theoretical Studies, University of Miami (1978).
Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize of the American Astronomical Society (1987).
Herschel Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1989).
Jansky Lectureship before the National Radio Astronomy Observatory(1995).
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to Astronomy (1999)
Magellanic Premium of the American Philosophical Society (2000).
Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) (March 2003).
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to Astronomy (2007)
The Grote Reber Medal at the General Assembly of the International Radio Science Union in Istanbul (19 August 2011)

She has also been awarded numerous honorary degrees, including:

Doctor of Science: Heriot-Watt University (1993), University of Warwick (1995), University of Newcastle (1995), University of Cambridge (1996), University of Glasgow (1997), University of Sussex (1997), University of St Andrews (1999), University of London (1999), Haverford College (2000), University of Leeds (2000), Williams College (2000), University of Portsmouth (2002), Queen's University, Belfast (2002), University of Edinburgh (2003), University of Keele (2005), Harvard University (2007), Durham University (2007), University of Michigan (2008), University of Southampton (2008), Trinity College, Dublin (2008).

Doctor of the University: University of York (1994).

Hardly an obscure figure in scientific circles.

Many fellow scientist came to her defense and recognized her brilliant contributions. Even those who were handicapped with testicles and a penis.

(ETA) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocelyn_Bell_Burnell

[jtuck004]

10. Ignaz Semmelweis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis

It doesn't just happen to women, and, as you pointed out, sometimes it really doesn't happen as reported. But it does happen, and it's better when we have the facts. If we are about solutions, that is.

[Xipe Totec]

19. Absolutely agree.

In all endeavors, but especially in science, an honest reading of the facts is crucial.

[Democracyinkind]

6. It even has a name: "Matilda Effect"

Just to point out how widespread this was (and sadly still is to some extent).

[cab67]

7. The situation with Lise Meitner was a little more complicated.

That she didn't get a Nobel really is an outrage and a stain on the reputation of that award, but her absence from the paper wasn't just sexist - she was Jewish, and the paper was published in a German journal during the 1930's. It would have been very difficult (if not impossible) to include her as an author under those circumstances.

Not saying it was right - only that it's more complicated.

[PoliticAverse]

27. BTW element #109 was named 'Meitnerium' after her, perhaps in the end a more significant

legacy than a Nobel.

http://periodic.lanl.gov/109.shtml
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meitnerium

[Manifestor_of_Light]

8. Caroline Herschel

[malaise]

9. You'd be surprised how much this continues today

Plagiarism is contagious and stealing women's work is a global pandemic.

[zwyziec]

11. And you forgot Marie!

Marie Skłodowska-Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish physicist and chemist, working mainly in France, who is famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity.

She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the only woman to win in two fields (2 Nobel awards), and the only person to win in multiple sciences (physics and chemistry). She was the first person to win or share two Nobel Prizes, and remains alone with Linus Pauling as Nobel laureates in two fields each.

She was also the first female professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Marie Curie did get a lot of recognition

2 Nobels, an element and a unit named after her.

[IDemo]

26. Despite that and other qualifying factors,

The French Academy of Sciences denied her a membership.

[longship]

12. Well, Rosalind Franklin couldn't win the Nobel because she died before it was awarded.

So there's no telling whether the Nobel committee would have honored her. Nobels are not given posthumously. The only exception was last year when the recipient died the day before the announcement. The committee was unaware of that but opted not to change the award.

I would like to think that Franklin would have shared the prize with Crick and Watson, but we'll really never know that. Without photo 51, the discovery would have been delayed and might not even been made by Crick and Watson.

[Unknown Beatle]

13. Hedy Lamarr

Yes, that Hedy Lamarr, once considered the most beautiful woman in the world, a title which she hated, she considered her beauty a hindrance to her intelligence, invented Frequency-hopping spread-spectrum.

Very interesting true story, Goggle Hedy Lamarr Inventor.

[Xipe Totec]

20. My heroine

No computer scientist worth his salt can ignore her contribution.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. FWIW, Lise Meitner had an element named after her

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meitnerium

which is rarer than a Nobel.

[shenmue]

16. Recommended and bookmarked

[MgtPA]

17. The very first computer programmers were women.

Mauchly got all the credit.

http://www.topsecretrosies.com/

[efhmc]

18. Ada Lovelace

http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/lovelace.html
Born: London, England, December 10, 1815
Died: London, England, November 27, 1852
Analyst, Metaphysician, and Founder of Scientific Computing

[roguevalley]

21. Einstein's wife. You want to be pissed? Check that one out.

[magical thyme]

22. back in the 60s a woman, Tikvah Alper, hypothesized the malfolded proteins

were the cause of transmissible spongiform encephalitis. The idea that proteins could cause an "infectious" disease was unacceptable and she was dismissed by medical science.

Some 15 years later, Stanley Prusiner dusted off her hypothesis and gave the malfolded proteins a cute name -- prions -- and won the nobel prize for it.

Go figure.

My final presentation in Microbiology was on prion disease. My professor sat squirming in his chair looking like he could barely contain himself when I started talking about how Alper's hypothesis. After all, *everybody* knew it was Prusiner. When I got to that part of my presentation, the professor looked like he wanted to hide under his chair.

[Igel]

29. Not quite.

But since it's important to you to believe that, so be it.

That's what a lot of this kind of stuff is. There's a point to be made, and the facts will be adduced that will substantiate it.

Alper said 'not a protein.' No RNA or DNA, to be sure, which was the key finding.

Retconning isn't just for bad sci-fi.

[magical thyme]

33. hey, chill. I can't find my paper right now, but may find it tomorrow to link to sourcing

if the sources are still available. (I'm scheduled to clean my storage room, so if I've still got it, it's in there.)

I've just read the wiki entry on Alper, which supports what you say. However, we were not allowed to use wiki as a source back when I was a student. My sourcing was solid, but also did not include Griffith's role.

[magical thyme]

23. not to forget Lynn Margulis. nt

[jimlup]

24. Lise Meitner was not "forgotten"

As latter years and science itself came to know that she was the brains behind the discovery of nuclear fission. She has an element named after her - Meitnerium.

[Egalitarian Thug]

25. K&R So many and for so long, disgusting and shameful. n/t

[Triana]

30. The women of ENIAC were also pushed into the shadows while...

....the men took all the credit for the machines those women mathematicians programmed. Without the programming, the hardware was useless. It wasn't until the women were in their 80s that they were given any credit at all...now I think most or all of them are dead.


http://eniacprogrammers.org/

http://www.army.mil/article/98817/

The ENIAC, the world's first computer, was invented to calculate ballistics trajectories during World War II - a task that until then had been done by hand by a group of 80 female mathematicians. The six women who were chosen to make the ENIAC work toiled six-day weeks during the war, inventing the field of programming as they worked. But although they were skilled mathematicians and logicians, the women were classified as "sub-professionals" presumably due to their gender and as a cost-saving device, and never got the credit due to them for their groundbreaking work.

"Somebody else stood up and took credit at the time, and no one looked back," explains Anna van Raaphorst-Johnson, a director of WITI. "It's a typical problem in a male-dominated industry. And there's still a lot of frustration with men taking credit for women's ideas - it doesn't seem to have changed much over the last 50 years."

But although the women had been categorized as "clerks," they were rediscovered by a Harvard student named Kathryn Kleiman in 1986, during her research for a paper on women in computing. When the 50th anniversary of the ENIAC computer rolled around last year, Kleiman - now an Internet lawyer at Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth - decided that it was time to get the women the recognition they deserved.
"I called and asked what they were doing to honor the ENIAC programmers, and they said, 'Who?'" says Kleiman.

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/1997/05/3711

[Scurrilous]

31. K & R

[avaistheone1]

34. I had no idea.

Kudos to these great women, and shame on the men who stole these discoveries from them.


k&r

[LongTomH]

36. Add Rear Admiral Grace Hopper to the list

Rear Adm. Grace Hopper was one of the pioneers of programming languages and compilers that allowed programs to be written in English-like statements. Her work on the FLOW-MATIC language contributed to the invention of COBOL.

She retired in 1966, with the rank of Commander. She was brought out of retirement, when the Navy needed her to work on the COBOL compiler. She finally retired again, in 1986, with the rank of Rear Admiral.

I remember seeing a video of one of Hopper's lectures at the first computer services company I worked for:

During many of her lectures, she illustrated a nanosecond using salvaged obsolete Bell System 25 pair telephone cable, cut it to 11.8 inch (30 cm) lengths, the distance that light travels in one nanosecond, and handed out the individual wires to her listeners. Although no longer a serving officer, she always wore her Navy full dress uniform to these lectures.

"The most important thing I've accomplished, other than building the compiler, is training young people. They come to me, you know, and say, "Do you think we can do this?" I say, "Try it." And I back 'em up. They need that. I keep track of them as they get older and I stir 'em up at intervals so they don't forget to take chances."