Classy, ​​that’s why women win less than men

It’s a painful presence of women in science. If we think of the Nobel Prize, for example, only one woman wins for every fifteen men. Numbers in hand, it seems the prestigious honor has a gender issue.

This inequality must be denounced and analyzed Elizabeth Strickland in his essay The Mothers of Ideas. scientists and the Nobel Prize (Nemapress editions), which presents the biographical and professional profile of female Nobel Prize winners. “In more than 120 years – writes the Italian mathematician and academic – only sixty-one women have received this coveted recognition: given that there were almost nine hundred winners by 2022, this means that for every 15 men only one woman won.” And the winners are “mostly white American males,” according to data published on the Nobel Foundation website.

She was already a full professor of algebra in the mathematics department of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Strickland, and was the first woman to be appointed vice president of the National Institute of Higher Mathematics. A curriculum distinguished by teaching at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Gender inequality is particularly close to her heart, as she is a co-founder of the Gender University Observatory of the three Roman universities, which has been active since 2009. In 2013 Strickland was awarded the Excellent Women Prize by the Capitoline Administration in Rome.

The reasons for the deviation
But why is this discrepancy? Is the committee that awards the Nobel Prize really male-dominated? “According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, women make up less than 30% of all scientists worldwide,” explains Strickland. While progress has been made, the fight for women’s inclusion in these areas remains urgent. The pandemic has exacerbated this situation as the lockdown has forced many women to take on more household chores, reducing their time for scientific research and publishing.

The illusion of 2020
“The Nobel Prize seemed to have registered a change in 2020 – Strickland writes – when, after decades of antechamber and unjustified underestimation of talent and results, no fewer than four prizes were awarded to women. You illustrate them
among the four winners (Louise Gluck received the Nobel Prize in Literature instead) were Andrea Ghez for physics, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for chemistry: the latter two who developed a technique that allows you to cut and paste DNA and thus rewrite it Code of Life, represented the first case in the history of the Science Prize to be split between two women.”

Because quotas for women are not a solution
How to correct this inequality? Some have also suggested a “women’s quota” for the Nobel Prize, but according to Göran Hansson, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, a quota would not be desirable to correct the gender imbalance as it would be inconsistent with Alfred’s will Nobel, that women must win because they improve and not because they are women. But what if women’s work is ignored and their peers are recognized for similar research?

The lives and exploits of women scientists against stereotypes
From Marie Curie to Gerty Cori (Nobel in Medicine 1947), from Maria Goeppert Mayer (Nobel in Physics 1963) to Rita Levi Montalcini (Nobel in Medicine 1986), Strickland’s essay shows the qualities that connect these 23 “mothers of ideas”. , which highlights her determination and passion for discoveries essential to overcoming gender stereotypes: “Even though some have been told that science is for men – Strickland writes – they went on undaunted. However, it must also be said that in most cases the path in question was paved by far-sighted families, patient parents, conscientious teachers.”

When determination and passion are not enough
Despite the difficulties in the world of scientific work, many female students often show curiosity for science early on, but just as often lose interest due to a lack of motivation or uninspiring teaching». But another quality must also shine: “Margherita Hack said that women have all the skills to be valid scientists – Strickland concludes – but they must add determination to their cultural background”.