News and Features
Can't Silence Genius: Celebrating Women's History Month
March 13, 2017
March is Women's History Month. Dedicated as a time to reflect on and spread awareness of women's achievements, innovative and groundbreaking female scientists — such as Chien-Shiung Wu, Frances Oldham Kelsey, and Rosalind Franklin — who had been erased by history gain the recognition and appreciation that they deserve. Their stories are celebrated as means to achieving equity goals within classrooms and the workforce.
"Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well." - President Jimmy Carter (1980)
Recognizing women—in STEM, in education, or in any form of potential—of their achievements mitigate the barriers and disparities that serve to keep women down. Women's History Month showcases what women have achieved, despite these barriers, in their successes and eradicates these barriers to ensure the next generation of girls will continue to succeed.
...was in her early 30s when her work in nuclear fission attracted the attention of the United States government during World War II. She was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project at Columbia University in New York City. At the end of the war, she remained at Columbia as a research scientist. She has been recognized as the “First Lady of Physics” and has received many honors, awards, and honorary degrees for her accomplishments.
...took a bold stance against inadequate testing and corporate pressure when she refused to approve release of thalidomide in the United States in 1960 during her first month at the Food and Drug Administration. The drug had been used as a sleeping pill and was later proven to have caused thousands of birth deformities in Germany and Great Britain.
...earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Cambridge University. She learned crystallography and X-ray diffraction, techniques that she applied to DNA fibers. One of her photographs provided key insights into DNA structure. Other scientists used it as evidence to support their DNA model and took credit for the discovery. Franklin died of ovarian cancer in 1958, at age 37.