In the shadow of men
These 11 inventions came from women
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History would have us believe that men were the geniuses who made important inventions. Although the female gender previously had less access to education, these women prove the opposite.
History books are sexist – the successes of men were and still are praised, while the Inventions by women are deliberately kept in the background. It was not uncommon for a man to receive sole credit for a woman’s scientific work. The discrimination and denial of female successes in research is “Matilda effect“. This term was coined by the women’s rights activist Matilda Joslyn Gage, who was the first to describe the phenomenon.
It was hard and still is
It’s no secret that the proportion of women in science subjects was negligible back then. The reason is patriarchal social principles that have resulted in structural sexism. It starts with a lack of access to education: the focus on domestic economics lessons and the ban on studying did not make it easy for women in science. It was hard and it still is.
That’s exactly why we want to celebrate the heroines of history – for these great inventions:
Female geniuses
Women invented these 12 things
How do you prevent the “Matilda effect”?
One might assume that a lot has changed in the last 100 years. But this does not apply to the gender distribution of the Nobel Prize: only five percent of science prizes in medicine, physics and chemistry go to women. Do women really invent less? We won’t know the answer until 50 years from now, when the archives release the files. The first step to improving the current inequality of opportunity would be to provide more transparent insight into the selection processes of award committees. Only the Nobel Foundation archive provides information about the decision-making processes. Only then can you understand whether the “Matilda effect” has struck again and women are only honored for their achievements retrospectively.
Sources used: nationalgeographic.de, spiegel.de, sueddeutsche.de, companisto.com