It would be an understatement to say that history has not been kind to women, particularly to individuals who made groundbreaking contributions to fields largely dominated by men. Textbooks to this day still show overwhelming bias towards attributing both intellectual and recreational achievements to male figures with little regard for the oversimplification and neglect of female involvement. The implications of crediting major achievements to men without mentioning the foundations from women not only slights their importance to history but also exacerbates ancient stereotypes about perceived inferiority of women to men.
In honor of Women’s History Month, this article will highlight two out of numerous women in history who have had their contributions unfairly overlooked.
Rosalind Franklin was one of the first hidden characters in history that I learned about during the later years of my highschool career, which in itself is already a testament to the neglect of accurate female representation in history. In the science curriculum at my high school (and presumably most other institutions), James Watson and Francis Crick are the two more familiar names regarding discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. As a chemist and X-ray crystallographer, Franklin had taken an X-ray photo of the double-helix in 1951, two years before Watson and Crick published their research papers referencing Franklin’s photo of the double helix structure of DNA in 1953 without due credit. In 1962, Watson and Crick claimed the Nobel Prize while Franklin had passed away in 1958, four years before their claim to fame. Some argue that the Nobel Prize being attributed to Watson and Crick has no relation to Franklin, as the Nobel committee does not consider posthumous candidates, but the fact that Franklin’s X-ray is not mentioned in discussions of the discovery of the structure of DNA is harmful and misleading.
Another hidden figure of importance is Ada Lovelace, whose contributions to computer programming are too often overlooked. As Lord Byron’s daughter, she is often labeled as such – just another child of a critically acclaimed English poet. However, she was intellectually brilliant not just in poetry like her father but also in her own right, as supported by her collaboration with Charles Babbage who is nicknamed the “father of the computer.” Babbage was an inventor, mechanical engineer, philosopher, and mathematician who worked on the Analytical Machine which was an early prototype of the computer during the 1840s. Ada Lovelace had the role of a notetaker and interpreter, who is praised for her extensive notes – particularly in her clear and precise communication of explaining how the machine was programmed to compute algorithms, or in simpler terms how it could utilize data to achieve functions like solving math problems.
Despite debates about how conditional or relatively important their contributions were, it is safe to say that without their work, history would have been different – and the fact of this difference necessitates acknowledging their work. By overlooking the contribution of women in history, it becomes too easy to continue spreading rhetoric of misogyny passed down from generations that date back to the ancient claims of inferiority of women. We can combat the generalizations and underminging of female accomplishments by remembering the women who have proved time and time again that brilliance is not restricted by conceptions of sex or gender.
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