Science and technology must be gender neutral

Hundred and fifty years after Marie Curie, women are still fighting old prejudices

In 1903, she became the first woman ever to win the Nobel Prize. In 1906, she became the first woman professor at Sorbonne University in Paris. In 1911, she became the first person (not woman, person) to ever win two Nobel Prizes in a lifetime. Marie Curie, who was born on November 7, 150 years ago, was a rare successful woman in an overwhelmingly male world of scientific research at a time when it was unheard of for women to be in positions of authority that they hadn’t been born into. Her 150th birth anniversary is as good a reason as any to look at how far women in science have come since.

More than a century after Marie Curie broke that glass ceiling, the number of women in STEM fields continues to belie the number of years that have passed. Consider this: Since Curie’s physics Nobel in 1903, only one other woman has ever won the physics Prize and three, the chemistry Prize. A survey found that while 46% of undergraduate students in STEM fields are women, not many continue to work in the field; 41% of women quit their role after a decade, as compared to 17% of men; and 81% of women in STEM fields in India perceived a gender bias in performance evaluation.

It is not just blatant misogyny and sexual harassment which works against women. The deep-seated bias that women simply cannot “do” science keeps them from even breaking into the networks that are so essential for rising in research. Having been slotted into the arts, social work, and teaching bracket that is seen as appropriate for the gentler sex, it isn’t easy for women to break free. It is the job of universities, governments, and society at large to ensure that hiring practices in organisations are free from the insidious sexism that keeps women from achieving their full potential. Or we are face the danger of squandering the legacy of one of the greatest scientists to ever walk the earth.