BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING

10 Hugely Important Discoveries Made By Women But Attributed To Men

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Did you know that women made many scientific contributions, but their names were hidden and their discoveries attributed to men? This phenomenon is so common that it even has a name: the Matilda Effect. American historian of science Margaret W. Rossiter coined the term in 1993 in honor of Matilda Joslyn Gage, a prominent suffragist and abolitionist who had highlighted the importance of women inventors almost a century earlier. In an attempt to give them back at least some of the recognition they deserve, in this article, we have selected 10 women who changed the history of humanity.

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Probably one of the best examples of the Matilda effect is the story of British scientist Rosalind Franklin. While doing research at King's College in London in 1951, Rosalind discovered that the molecule of DNA existed in a helical conformation when she was taking X-ray photographs of the structure. She presented her findings, which included a picture of the double helix, at a conference attended by the American molecular biologist James Watson.

Later, this important finding was the basis for Watson and Francis Crick's research on the subject. In 1953 the scientists published a study attaching the photograph taken by Rosalind without giving her credit for it. Watson and Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Rosalind had died four years earlier without ever receiving recognition for her work.

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In 1967, British scientist Jocelyn Bell Burnell was studying for her PhD at Cambridge when she noticed signals repeating at regular intervals through the radio telescope she was working on. It was the first step in the discovery of pulsars, stars that emit very small radiation.

The findings appeared in scientific journals signed by her advisor, the astrophysicist Antony Hewish, as first author. For this reason, it was only Hewish who received the Nobel Prize in 1974. At the time, the academy ignored her altogether, although now the entire scientific community accepts that it was Jocelyn Bell Burnell who first made the observation.

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The prehistory of computer science was blessed with the invaluable contribution of Ada Lovelace, one of the most exciting characters of the 19th century, not only because of her lineage —she was the daughter of the great poet Lord Byron— but also because she was a pioneer in computer programming.

Her excellent notes to mathematician Charles Babbage's work on the "analytical machine" are

considered the first approaches to computer algorithms. Although Babbage himself acknowledged Lovelace's merit, his contemporaries tried to minimize her contribution based on Ada's eccentric nature and, above all, for being a woman. Fortunately, today her achievements are vindicated: Ada Lovelace Day is celebrated every second Tuesday in October as a way of honoring women's contributions to science and technology.

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This Chinese scientist is one of those women who deserve an extensive biopic for having dedicated almost her entire life to working passionately on the development of science. Emigrated to the United States before World War II, Chien-Shiung Wu was part of the team that worked on the Manhattan Project and the birth of the atomic bomb.

After the war, scientists Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang formulated the theory that the principle of conservation of parity was not valid and asked Chien-Shiung Wu to join in proving the ineffectiveness of this then-commonly accepted law. Although it was her work that finally disproved the theory, only Lee and Yang were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957. Be as it may, her legacy is not entirely invisible: she is now known as the "First Lady of Physics" or "the Chinese Madame Curie" for her contributions to experimental physics.

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Hollywood star by day, researcher by night, Austrian-American actress Hedy Lamarr was not only a beauty icon of the 1940s but also responsible for developing a secure communications system called "frequency hopping."

Lamarr patented her invention in 1942, but unfortunately, at the time she was not given any credit due to the widespread belief that women could not be scientists or inventors and the fact that she was an actress. It wasn't until many years later that her work was finally recognized and became the basis for the development of technologies we use every day, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. So now you know, it’s thanks to Hedy Lamarr's groundbreaking invention that today we can send messages, make calls, and connect to the internet without any wires.

Image: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Unfortunately, the story of Esther Miriam Zimmer Lederberg is very common, not only in science but also in other disciplines such as art and philosophy. Lederberg was a professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University and did pioneering work in genetics, yet it was her husband who took all the credit.

Esther and Joshua Lederberg specialized in research on bacterial colony transfer. It was she who, in 1951, discovered a virus that infects bacteria. Together they developed a transfer technique, called the Lederberg Method, which is still used today. But in 1958, her husband received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and during the award ceremony, he didn’t mention Esther, even though the work had been done in collaboration.

Image: NASA

You've probably heard of Katherine Johnson thanks to the 2016 three-time Academy Award- nominee Hidden Figures. But before her film fame, Johnson was only known at NASA, where she worked for 35 years in the Space Task Group.

Her journey, however, was not an easy one. Her accomplishments often went unrecognized by her male co-workers, and she faced double discrimination: as a woman and as an African-American. Despite this, and thanks to her brilliant mathematical skills, Johnson gradually earned a place on the teams that worked on the first spacecraft launch in 1961 and her tireless work ultimately helped send astronauts to the moon in 1969.

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In 1938, Austrian physicist Lise Meitner had to flee Nazi Germany for being Jewish. Settled in Sweden, she embarked on a research on uranium with her laboratory partner, the German chemist Otto Hahn. Shortly thereafter, they discovered that the act of splitting atomic nuclei during "fission" releases enormous amounts of energy.

Although it was Meitner herself who wrote the first theoretical explanation of the process after the discovery, it was only Hahn who received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1944. Well, not everything is lost, although she wasn’t awarded, she has an element of the periodic table named after her, meitnerium.

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American biologist and geneticist Nettie Stevens had the misfortune of discovering the XY chromosomes at exactly the same time as another —male— scientist in 1905. After receiving a master's degree from Stanford and a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr, Stevens set out to revive and explain the genetic research of Austrian-Czech biologist Gregor Johann Mendel.

But Edmund Beecher Wilson also published his findings about the chromosomal XY sex-determination system and was widely praised as the sole discoverer. Interestingly, the two reports differed slightly: Wilson claimed that environmental factors determined sex, while Stevens thought it was only genetic. Lo and behold, time has proven that Nettie Stevens was right.

Image: NASA Hubble Space Telescope

Vera Rubin was a pioneering and brilliant American scientist. Through her research, she managed to convince the scientific community of the existence of dark matter, considered a scientific milestone and one of the great persistent mysteries of the universe.

Her work was also a forerunner in the study of the rotation of spiral galaxies. However, despite being one of the most influential astronomers of her time, Vera Rubin was not awarded the Nobel Prize nor did she receive the same recognition as some of her male colleagues. Perhaps this is why Vera dedicated her life to relentlessly advocating for the advancement of women in science, inviting them to important conferences and awarding them prizes in fields that historically were exclusive to men.

Some names stick around

From Table Tap Joe to Ziggy Stardust: Who are the best song characters?

Sometimes, a character is the perfect alter-ego to write a song about oneself without self-referencing so much. Other times, a character is just a character. Over the years, musicians have come up with lonely dreamers, fearless heroes, mysterious strangers, and even supernatural villains who have become just as famous as the songs themselves. Some were inspired by real people, others sprang entirely from imagination, but all of them left a lasting mark on music history. Which of these 12 do you remember?

Tom Waits has always had a soft spot for society's oddballs, and few are even stranger than Table Top Joe. Introduced on the 2002 album Alice, Joe is born with only a head and hands, yet grows into a brilliant piano player whose extraordinary talent earns him fame despite the odds stacked against him.

The song unfolds like a forgotten American folk tale, complete with references to Coney Island's legendary Dreamland amusement park and composer Igor Stravinsky. Although many listeners assume the story is based on an old carnival legend, Table Top Joe is entirely Tom Waits' own creation.

Few fictional musicians have ever become as famous as Ziggy Stardust. Introduced in 1972, Ziggy is an alien rock star sent to Earth shortly before humanity's end, only to be consumed by the very fame that makes him a savior to millions.

David Bowie blurred the line between fiction and reality by performing as Ziggy onstage for more than a year. When he unexpectedly announced Ziggy's retirement during a concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon in 1973, many fans believed the character, and perhaps Bowie himself, had truly reached the end of the story.

Tommy Walker isn't just the hero of a song, he's the central figure of one of rock music's first great operas. After witnessing a traumatic event as a child, Tommy becomes deaf, mute, and blind, yet somehow develops astonishing pinball skills that transform him into an unlikely celebrity.

Pete Townshend built an entire musical world around Tommy, exploring themes of trauma, faith, and redemption. First released in 1969, Tommy later became a hit film, a Broadway production, and one of the most influential concept albums ever recorded.

Johnny B. Goode is every aspiring musician's dream. Growing up in rural Louisiana with little more than a guitar and natural talent, he plays so brilliantly that listeners predict "his name will be in lights."

Chuck Berry based the character partly on himself and partly on pianist Johnnie Johnson. Originally described as a "colored boy," Johnny became a "country boy" in the final lyrics, making the song more likely to receive airplay during the segregation era. Nearly two decades later, Johnny's anthem would even travel into space aboard NASA's Voyager Golden Record.

Few fictional characters have captured loneliness as powerfully as Eleanor Rigby. She quietly moves through life unnoticed, while Father McKenzie delivers sermons that no one hears, creating one of popular music's saddest portraits of isolation.

Paul McCartney later explained that Eleanor's name came from actress Eleanor Bron and the Liverpool shop Rigby & Evens. The discovery of an actual Eleanor Rigby gravestone in Liverpool only deepened the song's mystique, though McCartney maintained the coincidence was unintentional.

Billie Jean may be one of pop music's most famous women, yet Michael Jackson insisted she wasn't a real person. Instead, she represented several women who falsely claimed that he had fathered their children during the height of the Jackson 5's fame.

Released in 1983 as part of Thriller, the song became a global phenomenon. It also provided the stage for Jackson's legendary moonwalk during Motown 25.

Unlike many legendary song characters, Stagger Lee actually existed. His real name was Lee Shelton, a St. Louis criminal who murdered Billy Lyons during an argument over a hat on Christmas Eve in 1895.

The shocking crime quickly entered American folklore through countless folk songs before Lloyd Price transformed it into a chart-topping hit in 1958. More than a century later, Stagger Lee remains one of the most enduring antiheroes in American music.

Tom Dooley was inspired by Thomas Dula, a Confederate veteran executed in North Carolina in 1868 after being convicted of murdering Laura Foster. His surname was locally pronounced "Dooley," giving the ballad its familiar title.

The Kingston Trio revived the old Appalachian folk song in 1958, turning it into an international hit and helping launch America's folk music revival.

When the narrator of "Lola" meets an intriguing stranger in a Soho nightclub, expectations quickly give way to surprise. Ray Davies crafted one of rock's earliest mainstream stories exploring gender ambiguity, decades before the topic entered popular conversation.

The recording rarely reached British radio. Because BBC rules prohibited commercial product names, Davies had to interrupt a U.S. tour and fly back to London simply to replace the lyric "Coca-Cola" with the now-famous "cherry cola."

Unlike most famous song characters, the Piano Man is really Billy Joel himself. Before becoming a superstar, Joel spent six months in 1972 and 1973 performing under the pseudonym Bill Martin at the Executive Room, a piano bar in Los Angeles, after becoming trapped in a bad recording contract. The song transforms those experiences into a bittersweet portrait of ordinary people searching for escape at the end of another week.

Joel has said that virtually every character in the song was based on a real person, from bartender John to "Paul, the real estate novelist" and Davy, who really was in the Navy. Yet the Piano Man himself became the story's most enduring character: a quiet observer who offers music as a brief refuge for dreamers, lonely souls, and regulars alike. More than fifty years after its 1973 release, "Piano Man" remains Billy Joel's signature song, and its title has effectively become his lifelong nickname.

Standing nearly seven feet tall and missing an arm, Amos Moses roams the Louisiana swamps hunting alligators. Jerry Reed filled the song with colorful Southern expressions and exaggerated storytelling that make Amos feel like an authentic folk legend.

Although fictional, Amos embodies the larger-than-life heroes found throughout American tall tales. His adventures turned the song into one of Reed's biggest crossover hits and secured Amos a permanent place among country music's greatest characters.

Big Bad John hardly says a word, but he doesn't have to. The towering coal miner earns everyone's respect through quiet strength before sacrificing his own life to save fellow workers when a mine collapses.

Jimmy Dean's 1961 ballad became a smash hit, winning a Grammy and inspiring several sequel songs. More than sixty years later, Big Bad John still stands as one of country music's defining working-class heroes.