When it comes to women in science, perhaps only a few names come to mind: Maria Sklodowska-Curie, Sofia Kovalevskaya and Natalya Bekhtereva. These women legends, thanks to their unique abilities, work, perseverance and courage, were able to make a great contribution to fundamental science. Their discoveries were applauded by the entire scientific world.

However, the list of talented women scientists is not limited to their names. Let's try today to destroy the stereotype that science does not have a feminine face. Let us remember the names of great women who received recognition in surgery, biochemistry, genetics and cybernetics and those achievements thanks to which they became known in the world.

Ada Lovelace, first programmer

Ada Lovelace

Who do you think is recognized as the first programmer in history? Lady Lovelace, the only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron (although she never saw her father, and her mother did not take much part in her upbringing), was not only a talented mathematician, but also developed the first ever computer program for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine , which calculates Bernoulli numbers.

Ada Lovelace's life is cut short tragically. The woman dies at the very dawn of her strength in 1852, at the 37th year of her life, from cervical cancer. But her work did not disappear without a trace; it marked the beginning of a new computer era. As a tribute, in 1979 the US Department of Defense named the universal programming language Ada after her.

Ada Lovelace was a century ahead of her time. “The essence and purpose of the machine will change depending on what information we put into it. The machine will be able to write music, draw pictures and show science ways that we have never seen anywhere.” These words turned out to be prophetic.

Francine Leka, cardiac surgeon

Francine Leka, the first female cardiac surgeon in France, specialized in pediatric cardiac surgery. In 1989, she was appointed head physician of the famous Laennec hospital in Paris, working in this post until 2006. Today, Francine Leka is involved in charity work, teaches cardiac surgery, and devotes a lot of time to her grandchildren.

Valentina Tereshkova, first female cosmonaut

Valentina Tereshkova is the first lady in space, and is still the only woman in the world to have completed a solo space flight. After the first successful flights of Soviet cosmonauts, Sergei Korolev had an ambitious idea to send a woman into space. Out of 400 applicants, only 5 were selected to prepare for the flight, including Valentina Tereshkova.
The training took place in extreme conditions: the girls spent 10 days alone in a soundproof chamber - a room isolated from sounds; The real test of strength was a thermal chamber with a temperature of 70 °C and air humidity of 30%.

How I would like to say that it’s hard to study, easy to fight, but... In June 1963, Valentina Tereshkova’s flight into space took place on the Vostok-6 spacecraft, which lasted almost three days and brought her worldwide fame. Only 40 years after the flight we learn that it could have ended catastrophically. Due to incorrectly connected wires, the ship inverted manual control commands, and the orientation of the aircraft in space was disrupted. In addition, due to the spread of coordinates, Tereshkova had to land on the surface of the lake. After her flight, Korolev will say: “As long as I’m alive, not a single woman will fly into space again.”

Anne Chopinet, engineer

How long ago do you think women began to be accepted into technical universities? In the USSR in the 30s. In the 20th century, the number of girls studying in colleges of heavy industry amounted to 8,200 people (15% of the total number of students), by the 80s this figure reached 25%.

In progressive Europe, women were not allowed to receive higher engineering education until the last quarter of the twentieth century. To be fair, it is worth noting that the first female student to try to overcome gender discrimination was Albert Bloch in 1900. Her application was not accepted then. The Paris Polytechnic School, known for its liberal views, only admitted representatives of the fair sex to its students in 1972. One of the seven girls who decided to master a male profession was Ann Chopinet. She becomes one of the best on the course. On July 14, 1973, at the grand parade in honor of Bastille Day, she was entrusted with carrying the banner of her alma mater.

After graduation, Anne works in leading positions at the French Ministry of Economy and Finance and participates in the creation of scholarships for young women scientists. From 1995 to 2000 She holds the post of Technical Advisor to French President Jacques Chirac.

Emilie du Chatelet, mathematician

Marquise du Châtelet, Voltaire’s wonderful muse... It is in this capacity that most historical manuscripts mention her. But Emily was not only the mistress of the great classic, but also a progressive mathematician and physicist who did not receive due recognition from her contemporaries.
Emilie du Châtelet, née Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, was born in Paris in 1706 into an intelligent noble family. The girl received an excellent education: by the age of 12 she speaks fluently four foreign languages ​​- Latin, Italian, German and Greek, shows ability in mathematical sciences, and is interested in philosophy. In addition, she is seriously involved in fencing, singing, dancing, theater arts, and plays the spinet.

In 1725, Emily married the Marquis Florent Claude du Chatelle. Three children are born in the marriage. In 1733 she became close to Voltaire. Due to the persecution of Voltaire, the couple leaves the capital of France. The lovers find refuge in the small, dilapidated castle of Emily's husband in Siry-sur-Blas in Champagne. Over time, thanks to Voltaire’s funds, a new wing appeared in Sira, which housed a natural science laboratory, where Emily studies optical phenomena and explores the properties of vacuum. Voltaire's plays were staged in a small theater. Siré became a meeting place for scientists and artists.
In 1745, Emily began translating Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, work on which continued until her death. Chatelet's main merit lies not so much in translating the work from Latin into French, but in integrating Newton's mathematical model into the method of infinitesimal calculus developed by Leibniz. In 1746, Châtelet was admitted to the Bologna Academy of Sciences.
Voltaire would write about her: “She was a great person whose only fault was that she was a woman.”

Rosalind Franklin, microbiologist

Rosalind Franklin is the “forgotten lady of DNA,” a biophysicist and brilliant radiologist.
Perhaps one of the greatest and most dramatic discoveries in biology of the last century is the discovery of the structure of DNA.

Rosalind was born in 1920 in London into a wealthy Jewish family. Having brilliantly graduated from school, the girl enters Cambridge, after which she defends her doctoral dissertation on her own method of X-ray analysis of the structure of matter. During the war he worked in Paris, where he studied the structure of coal. In 1951 he returned to the capital of Great Britain and went to work in the laboratory of M. Wilkins. The area of ​​her research was the structure of the DNA molecule, and the main goal of the work was to obtain a clear X-ray image of the DNA structure.

By the mid-50s, it became clear that the discovery of the structure of DNA was a guaranteed Nobel Prize, and several scientific laboratories in the USA and post-war Europe entered the race for it. Nobody perceived Rosalyn as a serious scientist, rather as a talented laboratory assistant. The woman’s difficult, proud and independent character added fuel to the fire. Relationships with male colleagues did not work out.

The much-coveted photograph was taken in May 1952. X-ray image of sodium salt fibers, so-called “Photo 51”. Alas, the discovery did not receive recognition in the scientific world; all the honors went to others. Wilkins, secretly from Franklin, showed her photographs to scientists from a competing laboratory, J. Watson and F. Crick, who later received recognition for the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Having dedicated her life to science, Franklin died in 1958 from ovarian cancer. Four years later, the coveted Nobel Prize was awarded to Watson, Crick and Morris. Who knows, if Rosalind had lived to see this day, perhaps she would have received part of the prize for her contribution to the discovery. It is probably unfair that the Nobel Prize cannot be awarded posthumously.

Vera Rubin, astrophysicist

Thanks to this woman, today we know about the existence of a black hole in the center of our Galaxy. But to prove this theory, Vera Rubin had to fight with all her might.

Born in 1928 in the United States, Vera Rubin decided quite early on her vocation - astrophysics. However, her scientific research regarding the rotation of galaxies in the universe was met only with grins from the luminaries of the American Astronomical Society. Criticism did not break Vera; she continues her research and writes a dissertation in which she theoretically proves the theory of galactic clusters. And again, her research is viewed with skepticism by her academic colleagues. Only in the 90s did she gain recognition in scientific circles - in 1993 she was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences and awarded the highest scientific award in the United States - the National Medal of Science. Vera Rubin's persistence was not in vain. It is thanks to it that we know today that 90% of our universe consists of dark matter.

Of course, the list of women who have made enormous contributions to science is not exhausted by the names listed. But we hope we were able to prove that women and science are quite compatible.

The arrival of women in theoretical and practical science, including chemistry, took on the character of a systemic phenomenon at the end of the 19th century. The growth in the number of educated women and the emergence of educational opportunities in Russia, often precisely where the direct development of any branch of science took place, created the conditions for a noticeable presence of women in all areas of scientific activity. Chemistry attracted young female students as a largely mysterious subject, but undoubtedly promising, significant for the present and future.

Separate articles on our website are dedicated to women chemists who have made a significant contribution to chemical science: Anna Fedorovna Volkova Yulia Vsevolodovna Lermontova Vera Evstafievna Bogdanovskaya

Olga Alexandrovna Davydova, who graduated from the Higher Women's Courses in the first graduating class, Europe dedicated her activities to the widespread dissemination of chemical knowledge among women, as well as the popularization of the work of Russian chemists in Western Europe. As Butlerov's assistant, she supervised laboratory and practical classes during the courses. With an excellent command of several foreign languages, including Italian, Davydova reviewed the works of Russian chemists for the journal “Cazetta critica italiana”, published in Rome since 1871.

Among the students of women's courses, she was one of the first to publish her works Rudinskaya(student of Bogomolets). Significant research was carried out in the course laboratory and published in Russia and abroad (independently or together with their supervisor Gustavson) and other women chemists: Bogoslavskaya, Markova (née Bulatova), Popper, Kaufman (née Soloveichik).

At the beginning of the twentieth century. In the journal of the Russian Chemical Society, a number of works of a physical and chemical nature appeared, carried out by students of women's courses. Of these, we note the works Richter-Rzhevskaya, Balandina. At the same time, works of a purely applied nature were published, for example, research Voinarovskaya and Naumova.

Maria Pavlovna Korsakova, who graduated from the Higher Women's Courses, a member of the Russian Chemical Society, took up a critical examination of the issue of the free organic radical triphenylmethyl, first described shortly before by Gomberg. In her article, she agrees with Gomberg’s view of the nature of this hydrocarbon and writes that its composition “cannot be explained except by assuming the existence in it of one carbon atom associated with three monatomic radicals.” Korsakova then points out the difficulty of explaining the too high molecular weight of the compound: “The number is of such a kind that it does not allow us to decide whether we have a dolo with a single or doubled particle of triphenylmethyl.” Here Korsakova showed scientific insight: her opinion was confirmed seven years later (1909) in the classical works of Wieland.

Of the chemical laboratories in Moscow, the most democratic in terms of admitting women was the university one. The good traditions of Markovnikov and then Zelinsky were developed by their students and followers, especially Konovalov, an ardent advocate of higher education for women. He trained a large galaxy of teachers, from among whom came researchers who published their works in chemical journals; Some of the former students worked in factories. The most famous students of Konovalov were 3.B. Kikina(later the closest assistant to honorary academician N. M. Kizhner), A. Yu. Zhebenko(assistant to A. N. Reformatorsky), S. R. Kotsyna, A. N. Sheremetevskaya, A. Plotnikova and others. Of their works published in ZhRKhO, the articles by Kikina and Plotnikova are worthy of mention. M. Idzkovskaya, S. Bushmakina and others came out of Wagner’s scientific school. The first of them published interesting work on the destructive oxidation of organic substances.

Of the students of A.P. Borodina at the Medical-Surgical Academy was the most capable Adelaide Lukanina, which, according to the professor, “worked very intelligently.” She studied protein oxidation under the influence of potassium permanganate; at the same time, contrary to the statements of the French chemist Bechamp, it was never possible to obtain urea. Next, Lukanina studied the effect of succinyl chloride on benzoin, and this time she corrected the data of the German chemist Limpricht. Three interesting works by Lukanina were reported by Borodin at a meeting of the Russian Chemical Society, and were published in the journal of this society. The last of the articles was also published in the Bulletin of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences; Apparently, it was the first chemical work published by a woman in the publications of the Russian Academy.

Among the women chemists of pre-revolutionary Russia who achieved the scientific degree of doctor, it should be noted Evdokia Aleksandrovna Fomina-Zhukovskaya (1860 - 1894). She was born in the town of Lukha, Kostroma province, into the family of a collegiate secretary. Having lost her father at the age of four, the girl lived in difficult conditions. First she studied at the Kostroma Women's Teachers' Seminary, and then at the Samara Women's Gymnasium. After completing the latter's additional course (1881), the girl received the right to teach mathematics with the title of “home tutor.” But she was not content with this title and went to Geneva to continue her education. There Evdokia Alexandrovna lived from hand to mouth, giving private lessons, but she studied hard at the university and worked enthusiastically in many laboratories. In Grebe's laboratory, she carried out interesting research on the transformations of substances from the xanthone group. Having successfully passed difficult exams, Fomina-Zhukovskaya presented, for which she was awarded the academic degree of Doctor of Physical Sciences. After this, Geneva professors offered the Russian girl a position as an assistant in organic chemistry, but she was eager to return to her homeland.

In Moscow, Evdokia Aleksandrovna was only able to get a position as a mathematics teacher in the lower grades of a private gymnasium, and this, of course, did not satisfy her. Fortunately, after some time, Markovnikov invited her as an assistant to his university laboratory. They collaborated on important research on cycloheptanone. Then Fomina-Zhukovskaya helped N.D. Zelinsky in the study of thiophene. Unfortunately, the life of a talented researcher was cut short at the age of only 34 years.

In 1906, the Russian Chemical Society awarded the Small Butlerov Prize to a woman for the first time - M. G. Ageeva - for research in the field of organic chemistry.

The first Mendeleev Congress, dedicated to the memory of the internationally recognized leader of the “Russian chemical squad,” brought together over a thousand chemists and physicists from the country in December 1907 in St. Petersburg. Among the delegates there were women - 55 people; This is a considerable figure for that time. Most of the delegates lived in St. Petersburg and Moscow, but some came to the capital from distant cities - Kharkov, Odessa, Tiflis, Baku, N. Novgorod, Voronezh, Kazan, Penza, Vologda, etc. In the lists of delegates we find - L. E. Kaufman, O. E. Ozarovskaya, L. N. Nametkin, A. V. Balandin A. F. Vasiliev etc. In subsequent Mendeleev Congresses, women took an increasingly wider part. Already at the III Congress in 1922 (the first congress in Soviet times), there were 68 delegates, which amounted to 20 percent of all congress participants.

Some of the publications of women chemists:

Rudinskaya. On the isomerization of paraban ammonium salt to oxaluramide. ZHRKhO, 1885, vol. 17, p. 278;
. Rudinskaya. The effect of ammonia on parabanic acid. ZHRKhO, 1885, vol. 17, p. 279.
. N.V. Bogoslavskaya. On the effect of trimethylene on benzene in the presence of aluminum chloride. ZHRKhO, 1894, vol. 28, dep. 2, page 6.
. E.A. Markova. Uber die Bildung von Keiopentamethylen aus Viniltrimethylenbromid. Journ. fiir prakt. Chemie, 1897, Bd. 56.
. O.M. Popper. Beitrag zur Constitution von Pentaerytrit. Joum.. fiir prakt. Chemie, 1897, Bd. 56;
. L.E. Kaufman. On the effect of salts on the rate of bromination of aromatic compounds. ZHRKhO, 1898, vol. 30, dep. 2, p. 215.
. N.P. Richter-Rzhevskaya. Rate of hydration of acetic anhydride. ZHRKhO, 1900, t. 32, p. 349;
. N.P. Richter-Rzhevskaya. On the solubility of ethyl cyanide, acetal and ethyl alcohol in water and saline solutions. ZHRKhO, 1900, t. 32, p. 362;
. V.A. Balandina. Chemical study of the water of Plodbischenskoe Lake in the Yenisei province. ZHRKhO, 1900, t. 32, p. 194,
. S. Voinarovskaya, S. Naumova. Technical analysis of watermelon seed oil. ZHRKhO, 1902, vol. 34, p. 695.
. M.P. Korsakov. About triphenylmethyl. ZHRKhO, 1902, vol. 34, p. 65.
. 3.B. Kikina. On the nitration of mesitylene. ZhRKhO, 1896, t.28, dep. 2, p. 3; aka. Nitration of dihydrocamphene and pinene hydrochloride. ZHRKhO, 1902, vol. 34, p. 935.
. A. Plotnikova. Materials on the study of Grozny oil. ZHRKhO, 1900, t. 32, p. 834; 1901, vol. 33, p. 50.
. M. Idzkovskaya. To the oxidation reaction of alicyclic compounds. ZHRKhO, 1898, vol. 30, p. 259.
. M.G. Ageeva. Reversible isomeric process between P-phenylpropylene and symmetrical methylphenylethylene when heated with anhydrous alkali. ZHRKhO, 1905, t. 57, p. 662.
. A. Lukanina. Protein oxidation by chameleon. ZHRKhO, 1871, vol. 3, p. 127;
. A. Lukanina. On the effect of succinyl chloride on benzoin. ZHRKhO, 1872, vol. 4, pp. 60, 129;

Women chemists

From the history of the development of chemistry

IN XIX century women in Russia were not allowed to enter higher education institutions, and those who sought higher education had to go abroad or study science on their own.

The first woman in the world to publish research in chemistry was Anna Fedorovna Volkova(year of birth unknown, died in 1876). Since 1869, she worked in the chemical laboratory of the St. Petersburg Agricultural Institute under A.N. Engelhardt. Under the leadership of D.I. Mendeleev, she conducted practical classes with students of the Vladimir Women's Courses (St. Petersburg). For outstanding research in the field of chemistry, she was accepted as a member of the Russian Chemical Society, and edited the journal of this society. In 1876, drugs synthesized by Russian scientists were exhibited at the World Industrial Exhibition in London.

IN Among them were substances obtained by Volkova. activities of the “Journal of the Russian Chemical Society”* actively participated and Vera Evstafievna Bogdanovskaya

(1867–1896). She was an assistant to the editor-in-chief N.A. Menshutkin.

Bogdanovskaya took part in the preparation of the posthumous edition of A.M. Butlerov’s book “Introduction to the Complete Study of Organic Chemistry”, and also wrote the “Elementary Textbook of Chemistry” (the original is kept in the local history museum in Sosnitsa, Chernigov region).

Vera Evstafievna lived in the Vyatka province since 1895. Here, true to her calling, she created a small laboratory at the Izhevsk plant, where she conducted scientific research. Her last work was the preparation of a phosphorus analogue of hydrocyanic acid. For research, sealed glass tubes were used that were heated to high temperatures. On April 25, 1896, one of the tubes ruptured and injured Vera Evstafievna’s hand. Poisoning with highly toxic hydrogen phosphide (phosphine) resulted in rapid death.

The article was published with the support of the federal network of educational centers "Godograph". Unified State Exam (USE) and GIA (OGE) courses - preparation in such school disciplines as mathematics, Russian language, social studies, physics, chemistry, biology, English, literature, history, computer science. Mini-groups of different levels with individual programs, monitoring student progress. You can find out detailed information about courses, prices and contacts on the website, which is located at: http://godege.ru.

V.E. Bogdanovskaya was buried in the village. Shabalinovo, Koropsky district, Chernigov region.

P having received higher education in Germany, Yulia Vsevolodovna Lermontova(1846–1919) carried out a number of works at the request of D.I. Mendeleev, translated his works into French and German. With the rank of Doctor of Chemistry, she returned to Russia, where she worked together with V.V. Markovnikov in Moscow, and then with A.M. Butlerov in St. Petersburg. Lermontova's most significant works relate to organic chemistry. Lermontova's research contributed to the emergence of the first Russian oil and gas plants. Her work is still used today, for example, for the synthesis of high-octane hydrocarbons. Since 1875, Lermontova's name has been officially included in the list of members of the Russian Chemical Society.

E the only female chemist, twice awarded the Nobel Prize for her work in the field of physics (1903) and chemistry (1911), – Maria Skłodowska-Curie(1867–1934). The discoveries she made marked the beginning of a new era in the history of mankind - the development of inexhaustible reserves of energy hidden in the nuclei of atoms of chemical elements.

No female scientist was as popular as Marie Curie. She was awarded 10 scientific prizes and 16 medals. She was an honorary member of 106 academies, scientific institutions and societies. In 1926, Maria Sklodowska-Curie was elected an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. And, moreover, she was so modest that A. Einstein uttered memorable words on this occasion: “Marie Curie, of all the people in the world, is the only person not spoiled by fame.”

Marie Curie’s youngest daughter, Eva, wrote in her book about her mother: “Madame Curie is a living bibliography on radium: fluent in five languages, she read all the published works on research in this area. ...Marie has an invaluable ability to understand the tangled tangles of knowledge and hypotheses.” Marie Curie said about herself: “I am one of the people who think that science is a great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not just a technician: he is a child, face to face with natural phenomena that act on him like a fairy tale.” For her, extracting a gram of radium from a thousand tons of ore and studying its properties over many years was true poetry. In 1911, Marie Sklodowska-Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize “for outstanding services in the development of chemistry: the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element.”

C Marie Curie's eldest daughter Irene Joliot-Curie(1897–1956) – an outstanding scientist in the field of radiochemistry. After graduating from the University of Paris, she worked in her mother’s laboratory and became her successor - she later headed the department at the University of Paris. Her work played a major role in the history of the discovery and research of the fission reaction of atomic nuclei. In 1935, the couple Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie were awarded the Nobel Prize for their synthesis of new radioactive elements.

IN 1947 The Royal Society of London elected a 37-year-old Dorothy Crowfoot-Hodgkin(1910–1994) by its member. This is the first time a woman has received this honor.

Dorothy Hodgkin began her research in 1933 together with Professor John Bernal, who said about her: “Without being such an outstanding personality as Dorothy Hodgkin was from the very beginning of her scientific career, one cannot be awarded such a high award.”

For several years, Professor Hodgkin studied the structure of the penicillin molecule and refined its chemical formula.

But Hodgkin’s work on deciphering the structure of the vitamin B 12 molecule brought him the greatest fame. As a result of this complex research, which required more than eight years of dedicated work, B 12 crystals suitable for X-ray diffraction analysis were obtained for the first time. In 1964, English professor Dorothy Crowfoot-Hodgkin was awarded the Nobel Prize for “x-ray structural determination of the structure of vitamin B 12 and other important biochemical objects.”

Literature

Baykova V.M. Chemistry after school. To help the school. Petrozavodsk: Karelia, 1976, p. 147–152; Goldansky V.I., Chernenko M.B. Marie Sklodowska-Curie (on the 100th anniversary of her birth). Chemistry and Life, 1967, No. 12, p. 27; Musabekov Yu.S. 27;. Yulia Vsevolodovna Lermontova, 1846–1919. M.: Nauka, 1967; . The first Russian women chemists. Chemistry and Life, 1968, No. 3, p. 12;

Sergeeva I.
Yulia Lermontova. Chemistry and Life, 1966, No. 1, p. 8; http://www.alhimikov.net/laureat/laureat.html.
M.A. GOLOVAKHINA,
chemistry teacher of secondary school No. 20

(p. Psebay, Mostovsky district,

Krasnodar region)

* Since 1878 it was called the “Journal of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society”.

Humanity develops thanks to science. It seems that opening new horizons is the lot of men. In any case, among scientists, the majority represents the stronger sex. However, the role of women in science should not be underestimated. For example, the first programmer in the world was Ada Byron, the daughter of a famous poet. One of the first computer languages ​​was named in her honor. This woman's life turned out to be unique. Radioactivity became a part of her life, in the literal and figurative sense of the word. Even today, almost 80 years after the scientist’s death, her documents are so “phony” that they can only be viewed using protective equipment. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Polish emigrant, together with her husband Pierre, worked to obtain radioactive elements such as radium, polonium and uranium. At the same time, scientists did not use any protection, without even thinking about what harm these elements could cause to a living person. Many years of work with radium led to the development of leukemia. Marie Curie paid for her negligence with her life, and she even wore an ampoule with a radioactive element on her chest, like a kind of talisman. The scientific heritage of this woman made her immortal. Maria received the Nobel Prize twice - in 1903 in physics together with her husband and in 1911 in chemistry herself. Having discovered radium and polonium, the scientist worked at a special Radium Institute, studying radioactivity there. Marie Curie's work was continued by her daughter, Irene. She also managed to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958). Few people know who actually discovered DNA. By the way, this honor belongs to the English biophysicist, the modest Englishwoman Rosalind Franklin. For a long time, her achievements remained in the shadows, but everyone heard the achievements of the scientist’s colleagues, James Watson and Francis Crick. But it was the woman's precise laboratory experiments, and her x-ray imaging of DNA that demonstrated the tortuous structure, that made the work so significant. Franklin's analysis allowed the work to be brought to its logical conclusion. In 1962, scientists received the Nobel Prize for their discovery, but the woman died of cancer 4 years earlier. Rosalind did not live to see the triumph, and this prestigious award is not awarded posthumously.

Lise Meitner (1878-1968). The Vienna native took up physics under the guidance of leading European luminaries. In 1926, Meitner managed to become the first female professor in Germany, a title awarded to her by the University of Berlin. In the 1930s, a woman worked on the creation of transuranic elements; in 1939, she was able to explain the fission of the atomic nucleus, 6 years before the atomic bombings of Japan. Meitner, together with his colleague, Otto Hahn, carried out research that proved the possibility of nuclear fission with the release of a large amount of energy. However, the results of the experiments could not be developed, since a difficult political situation developed in Germany. Meitner fled to Stockholm, refusing to cooperate with America in creating new weapons. In 1944, Otto Hahn received the Nobel Prize for his discovery of nuclear decay. Prominent scientists believed that Lise Meitner was worthy of the same, but due to intrigue, she was simply “forgotten.” Element 109 of the periodic table was named in honor of the famous woman scientist.

Rachel Carson (1907-1964). In 1962, the book “Silent Spring” was published. Based on government reports and scientific studies, Carson described the harm that pesticides cause to human health and the environment. This book became a wake-up call for humanity, spawning environmental movements around the world. A trained zoologist and marine biologist has suddenly become an eloquent environmentalist. It all started back in the 1940s, when Carson and other scientists raised concerns about the government's use of strong poisons and other chemicals in fields to control pests. The title of her main book, “Silent Spring,” comes from Rachel’s fear of waking up one day and not hearing birds singing. After publication, the book became a bestseller, despite threats to the author from chemical companies. Carson died of breast cancer, never having seen how important her work was in the fight to preserve the environment of our planet.

Barbara McClintock (1902-1992). This woman dedicated her life to the study of corn cytogenetics. In his research, the scientist found that genes can move between different chromosomes, that is, the genetic landscape is not as stable as previously thought. McClintock's work on jumping genes and genetic regulation in the 1940s and 1950s was so bold and innovative that no one believed it. For a long time, the scientific world refused to take McClintock's research seriously; only in 1983 did Barbara receive the long-deserved Nobel Prize. The conclusions made by the scientist formed the basis of the modern understanding of genetics. McClintock helped explain how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics and that evolution occurs in leaps rather than steps.

Ada Lovelace (Byron) (1815-1852). Computer scientists around the world consider this woman one of the founders of their world. Ada inherited her love for exact sciences from her mother. Having come out into the world, the girl met Charles Babbage, who was a professor at Cambridge and developed his own computer. However, the scientist did not have enough money to create it. But Ada, having become the wife of Lord Lovelace, enthusiastically devoted herself to science, considering this her true calling. She studied Babbage's machine, describing, in particular, algorithms for calculating the Bernoulli number on it. In fact, it was the first program that could be implemented on Babbage's machine, a huge calculator. Although the machine was never assembled during Ada’s lifetime, she went down in history as the first programmer in history.

Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910). Today, many girls graduate from medical school, although getting into it is not an easy task. But in the middle of the 19th century, such educational institutions were simply not ready to accept women into their ranks. American Elizabeth Blackwell spontaneously decided to get a medical education in the hope of becoming more independent. Unexpectedly, she was faced with multiple obstacles; it turned out to be difficult not only to enter college, but also to study there. Nevertheless, Elizabeth received her degree in 1849, becoming the first female doctor of medicine in American history. But her career stalled - there was no hospital that would want to have a female doctor in its ranks. As a result, Blackwell opened her own practice in New York, not without obstacles from her colleagues. In 1874, Elizabeth established a medical school for women in London with Sophia Jex-Blake. After leaving medicine, Blackwell devoted herself to reform movements, campaigning for prevention, sanitation, family planning, and women's rights.

Jane Goodall (born 1934). Although man considers himself the crown of nature and the highest being, there are many features that make us similar to animals. This is especially obvious when it comes to primates. Thanks to the work of primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall, humanity has taken a fresh look at chimpanzees and discovered common evolutionary roots. The scientist was able to identify complex social connections in monkey communities and their use of tools. Goodall spoke about the wide range of emotions that primates experience. A woman devoted 45 years of her life to studying the social life of chimpanzees in a national park in Tanzania. Goodall became the first researcher to give her subjects names rather than numbers. She showed that the line between humans and animals is very thin, we must learn to be kinder.

Hypatia of Alexandria (370-415). Ancient women scientists were very rare, because in those days science was considered an exclusively male activity. Hypatia received her education from her father, the mathematician and philosopher Theon of Alexandria. Thanks to him, as well as her flexible mind, Hypatia became one of the most prominent scientists of her time. The woman studied mathematics, astronomy, mechanics and philosophy. Around 400, she was even invited to lecture at the School of Alexandria. The brave and intelligent woman even participated in city politics. As a result, disagreements with the religious authorities led to Christian fanatics killing Hypatia. Today she is considered the patroness of science, who protects her from the onslaught of religion.

Maria Mitchell (1818-1889). Among famous astronomers, the name of this woman can hardly be found. But she became the first American woman to work professionally in this field. Using a telescope, Maria discovered a comet in 1847, which was officially named in her honor. For this discovery, she was even awarded a gold medal; as a result, Mitchell received this honor, the second after Caroline Herschel, the first female astronomer in history. In 1848, Mitchell became the first woman member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In her work, the scientist compiled tables of the positions of Venus; she traveled throughout Europe. Thanks to Mitchell, the nature of sunspots was explained. In 1865, Maria became a professor of astronomy. Nevertheless, despite her fame in the scientific world, she always remained in the shadow of her male colleagues. This led to women fighting for their rights, as well as for the abolition of slavery.

In the information space, the topic of female scientists is covered rather poorly, unless you are specifically interested in it. From time to time you hear something like “I don’t know the names of female scientists, except for Marie Curie and Kovalevskaya” or “it was men who created everything” (the authors of the last saying usually do not create anything).

This, of course, is a problem of lack of knowledge, and not a real lack of scientific women and the discoveries made by them.

Some educated people would say: “They are fools, you shouldn’t pay attention to them,” but it’s not some exceptional layer of the population living in barrels, but the majority of people are in such ignorance. This in itself is a problem, like any kind of ignorance, and in addition, such prejudices detract from the importance and value of women as individuals - and their self-esteem. I believe there is no point in blaming people for ignorance: in the 21st century, in order to be aware of the achievements of female scientists, it is not enough just to take an interest in them: a simple Google query will most likely return articles like “5 great women scientists” on some a meaningless “women’s” portal. To dig up something, you will have to become a regular at libraries and immerse yourself in English-language scientific works. That is, this knowledge is really inaccessible, if not elitist: there are few specialists who will read scientific texts on the topic and sit in libraries, as well as readers of their works (most often future specialists), and those who will read in foreign languages even less. It turns out that in the United States and in the West in general, works from which one can learn in detail about many women researchers and their difficulties are protected by copyright, but in our country they are the property of the academic community. Thanks to Sci-Hub and separately to the site developer Alexandra Elbakyan for access to scientific information. Not long ago in her public page she wrote that the Curie captcha was added to the Einstein captcha on the American Physical Society website, which cannot but please many humanists.

Since school, we remember a set of male names, and when pronouncing the word “”, most people have the faces of Einstein, Mendeleev and Landau in their heads - women are, as it were, squeezed out of this pantheon. By the way, here's a good test: Google ". The average person sees, at best, a dozen names of female scientists “from Hypatia to Curie” and, of course, perceives them as an exception among a number of men. Many people seriously think that women have lower intelligence and are less capable of mental work. For those who learn about the many female scientists already at a conscious age, this discovery comes as a shock and awareness of their potential. Many feminists, after their “excavations,” make female scientists their idols simply from the fact that they are outstanding female scientists: it turns out there are many of them, and this comes into dissonance with everything that was taught before - this is how a kind of gender patriotism arises.

For some, new knowledge turns into an awareness of missed opportunities, because when everyone keeps repeating that your place is in the kitchen and your job in life is to please the eye - you involuntarily begin to believe this and strongly doubt your abilities. How can one resist such brainwashing when even the rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Viktor Sadovnichy, at the initiation of first-year students of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, said that the purpose of female mechanical and mathematical students is to become the wives of mathematicians. Well, Harvard President Lawrence Summers said in 2005 that the reason there are fewer women in science lies in their genetic characteristics (after such a statement from a person of such authority, the assumption that equality has been achieved in the West seems naive). However, the difference is that in the US, complaints about the Harvard President's chauvinistic attitude towards women went beyond social networks.

The biggest problems here are the lack of knowledge, the lack of desire to weave the history of women into the universal fabric of history; and gender stereotypes according to which men are more prone to intellectual pursuits. The last installation can even work as a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is interesting that teenagers who will be raised according to masculine socialization will themselves, over time, begin to show traits of a mechanical and mathematical mindset, just like teenagers with androgynous and feminine socialization - humanitarian, social and creative.

At the moment, the success of women in science - with a huge number of talented female scientists - is perceived as an exception, a kind of anomaly. And the reasons for this lie in a combination of lack of knowledge with cultural attitudes and gender ideas in society.

Matilda effect

Stereotypes are thought patterns that are used in cases of lack of knowledge and an acute attack of brain laziness. American historian Margaret Rossiter described one such stereotype about female scientists in 1993 and called it the Matilda Effect. The Matilda effect is the systematic denial of women's contributions to science, the devaluation of their work, and the attribution of women's work to male colleagues. The Matilda Effect is closely related to the Matthew Effect, which was postulated by sociologist Robert Merton. The Matthew effect is associated with cumulative advantage: for example, well-known scientists receive more credibility than an unknown researcher, even if their work is similar or if they have worked together.

While preparing for a postdoctoral study of twentieth-century American science, Margaret Rossiter dug through the reference work American Men of Science and came across five hundred biographies of women scientists. This number amazed her, and she decided to write a paper on women scientists in the United States before 1920, which she later published in the scientific journal AmSci (the work had previously been rejected by Science and SciAm). Despite all the obstacles to education and science, Rossiter’s scientific interest could not fit into one volume (just as a list of women scientists in no civilized country could fit into one volume). Rossiter's works and other scientific articles by Western scientists in the vast majority of cases are paid, works in Russian gather dust in libraries and are studied only by narrow specialists.

The Matilda effect can be seen in many cases throughout human history.

While in the USSR women had many opportunities to become engineers, in the US the likelihood of a woman getting a job other than a secretary or a Playboy bunny was virtually zero. Blacks were even less likely to get a good job: it was a time of segregation, and most good schools and higher education institutions were “white,” not to mention prestigious jobs where blacks were generally not welcome.

Presidents Lyndon Johnson and John Kennedy made the space program a vehicle for social change through a civic movement, using federal equal employment laws to create jobs for African Americans at NASA and NASA contractors—and thousands more engineering jobs in the Deep South. to reduce poverty. This is the story of how space exploration and the flight to the moon became part of the peaceful struggle against segregation and for equality.

Before John Glenn circled the Earth three times and Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, NASA had a group of female mathematicians, yet another “human computer”, who used pencils, paper and formulas to calculate the flight of these same rockets and astronauts into space. . Not so long ago they made a film about them “Hidden figures”. It is not worth considering these three women as the main and practically the only reasons for the suborbital flight and flight to the Moon, as some feminists may mistakenly do. In general, personification - the explanation of all processes by the actions of one or several people, the habit of giving all the laurels to one or several people - is destructive, is not objective and distorts the vision of the picture not only in politics, but also in science. Usually, discoveries and achievements are the result of the work of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of talented and hardworking people. And it’s not a matter of gender, skin color or financial condition. In this case, the important thing is that not only men contributed to space exploration, but also women. And not just whites. Many people really don’t know this because this topic was really hushed up and hidden. Justice is good: children

One of the reasons for the large number of talented scientists among men may be the so-called “larger distribution of intelligence among males.” According to him, men are more often either very smart or very stupid. Men who cry out that there are almost no female scientists and that everything was invented by men, and that women’s place in the kitchen is usually just the latter. Since they will most likely never invent anything, it makes sense for them to seek their superiority in male identity in order to somehow form an illusory high image of themselves and maintain self-esteem. Women are more likely to be in the middle on the intelligence scale.

But all these tests for differences in spatial connections and logic can be independent and reliable only under conditions of the same upbringing.