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Wasn't the story of the Nobel with Meitner, that they took her off the list to protect her from Nazis? In any case, she was given the highest possible honor by having an element named after herself, Meitnerium. It's absurd that she keeps appearing on those lists of allegedly overlooked female scientists. Sure, she may have had to fight for recognition, but that is not unique to female scientists. Einstein had to work in a patent office, for example. Similar with the story of Bell - not sure what exactly happened, but in any case she is not the only scientists who didn't get credit for her work. It happens to men on a regular basis, too. The assumption that it happened because of her gender may simply be wrong. (Edit: in the meantime she received 2.3M GBP via the "Special Breakthrough Price in Physics" https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/journeysofdiscovery-pulsars - as for the Nobel, they are a private organization, and it may be difficult to judge for outsiders what is the elementary work in a discovery. Maybe the people who designed the telescope are more deserving than the person who manned it, or whatever). Sadly, there are few sources discussing why women were excluded from academia in former times. I suspect part of it was the church, another economic reasons as women had a high risk of dying from childbirth, making their education a risky investment. Even today, women work less on average over their lifetime compared to men, so investing in their education has lower returns. |