Women in Science

The 14th of March this year marked the 144th birthday of Albert Einstein, easily one of the most widely known figures in science. An aspect of his discoveries that many don’t know, however, is that his wife is thought to have largely contributed to these revolutionary studies. The recent uncovering of various letters on the topic of relativity sparked a heated debate on what portion of Einstein’s work could truly be accredited to him. Mileva Marić was Albert Einstein's first wife, but also a highly educated physicist who met Einstein while they were studying together, in many occasions being able to match his performance in school.

In a similar instance, the scientists Watson and Crick, are one of the most celebrated in terms of DNA structure and genetic information discovery. The missing puzzle piece that led them to their conclusions, as well as subsequent fame, was provided by Rosalind Franklin, and in some part her colleague RG Gosling.

It is not uncommon for women in STEM to be discredited for their work, but in these two particular instances, they were met with something arguably worse. It remains unconfirmed and unlikely that Mileva Marić contributed so heavily to Einstein’s discoveries, to the point where researchers begin to sound like fanfiction writers. What remains true, is that she was “an intelligent woman who worked hard to get an intellectually demanding education and suffered deep personal blows on top of the deeper bruise of being the wrong gender at the turn of the wrong century.” In Franklin’s case, the main indiscretion was analysis of her data without permission. The four scientists (Watson and Crick, Franklin, and another significant scientist, Wilkins) agreed what publications would correspond with who in a series of three back to back articles in one of the most prestigious scientific journals– Nature, in which Franklin did include her photo: the first clear depiction of the double helix. Franklin was hindered by her gender in the same way Marić was, normally studying in seclusion and without the benefit of a second mind to argue with. Later on, Franklin passed away of ovarian cancer, 4 years before the other 3 male scientists were awarded their nobel prizes, although, it remains significant the remarkable progress she made on her own.

Women currently only make up 28% of the STEM workforce, a number that doesn’t do justice to the many women who were denied fulfilling careers in the past. The stories of these two women show us that there were moments of hope. In times during history when we expected a sexist tragedy, a percentage of the reality could be attributed to an unfortunate series of events. The other percentage is representative of our necessary areas of growth as a society, in which it would have been impossible for Albert and Mileva Einstein to work side by side.