The Mathilda Effect

Picture this: A brilliant woman makes a groundbreaking discovery, but her male colleague gets all the credit. That's the Mathilda Effect in action.

Named after suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage,the Mathilda effect is the frustrating pattern where female scientists watch their work get attributed to men, or worse, forgotten entirely. From Rosalind Franklin's crucial DNA work to Jocelyn Bell Burnell's pulsar discovery, brilliant minds have been pushed into the shadows simply because they belonged to women. It's not just about missing credit – it's about missed opportunities, delayed careers, and the countless "what-ifs" that have shaped science for generations.

The problem runs deeper than missing credits on papers. Women in STEM face a maze of obstacles: their papers are cited less often, they're invited to speak at fewer conferences, and they're less likely to be hired or promoted. When they do succeed, they're often asked if they "really" did the work themselves.This isn't just about historical wrongs. Today, female scientists still battle these biases. They're more likely to have their expertise questioned, their work scrutinized more harshly, and their achievements attributed to luck rather than skill. Even when they lead research teams, reporters often quote their male colleagues instead.

The real tragedy? We'll never know how many scientific breakthroughs we've missed because talented women were pushed out of science or denied the resources to pursue their ideas. The Matilda Effect isn't just unfair to women – it's holding back all of science.

Our guidelines aim to explain the Mathilda effect to children from primary and secondary schools while proposing two short educational activities towards STEM research, collaborative work and public speaking depending on the grades to raise awarness on the issue.