I refer to “Why are there more men than women in the STEM field” (Science page, Jan. 26). The history of science is a history of the women’s contributions being overlooked. Nobel Prizes in general have a gender problem. Superlatives like “brilliant” and “genius” are used more for men. Marie Curie did break the glass ceiling by winning two Nobel Prizes, but that did not lead to greater recognition for other women scientists. Rosalind Franklin’s X-ray crystallography data led to the discovery of the Double Helix but Francis Crick and James Watson won the Nobel. Lise Meitner, along with Otto Hahn and Otto Robert Frisch, was behind the discovery of nuclear fission of uranium and was nominated for the Nobel many times but it was Hahn who got the award. In the field of medicine, a review by the Harvard Business Review found that though women constituted 34% of U.S. physicians, only 18% were hospital CEOs were women.
H.N. Ramakrishna,
Bengaluru
