Women’s struggle for equality in STEM: From Rosalind Franklin to present

Today is Rosalind Franklin’s birthday, a pioneering woman in the STEM field whose contributions were not only snubbed but outright stolen.

Despite playing a critical role in the discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, she was never awarded a Nobel Prize. The men who took credit for her work—James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins—received the prestigious prize, and Franklin’s contributions were largely ignored.

The unjust treatment of women in the hard sciences continues to fuel the harmful stereotype that women are ‘not made for science’.

The same excuses used in science were also prevalent in medicine once. Today, women overwhelmingly dominate the medical field, from Cuba to Pakistan. However, many women in Pakistan are still expected to leave their careers to care for children, unlike their male counterparts.

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In the United States, for instance, over 32 to 40 per cent of women doctors leave the field to prioritise family life. This is a clear denial of their right to pursue a career and achieve greatness, even in countries as advanced as the US. Women often are forced to ‘choose’ between career progression and families.

In the 1960s, women were not even allowed to become astronauts in NASA. Famous examples include Jerri Cobb, who wanted to become an astronaut but was rejected by the famed US space agency. There was a cohort of about 13 women who passed the physical and psychological demands of spaceflight – called the First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs) – but NASA never officially accepted them.

The first woman from the US who would go on to fly to space was Sally Ride – in 1983!

It would be the USSR that would help women breakthrough in series of traditionally male fields – from military to space. Likely due to rejection of conservative social and religious norms by the socialist government, women in the USSR broke series of barriers that even the most progressive Western nations still grapple with.

The USSR was the first to allow women astronauts, with Valentina Tereshkova becoming the first woman to fly in space in 1963. Today, the ration of women to men astronaut is still huge. Recent figures show that women make up anywhere from 11 per cent to 20 per cent of astronauts globally.

Women also played a key role in the early days of computing. In the 1960s and 1970s, women made up a significant portion of programmers, but as tech became more lucrative and ‘prestigious’, the narrative shifted; women were pushed out. This mirrors arguments used to justify discrimination in medicine during the 19^th century: that women weren’t “cut out” for certain intellectual fields.

Today, many women in the field still face sexism, with claims that women are “bad at maths” and should not pursue programming or technical careers.

In countries like Pakistan, many young girls who excel in mathematics are forced into medical careers due to parental expectations. Despite millions of rupees going to public medical colleges, many of these women who graduated are not allowed to practice medicine once married.

Instead, they are expected to perform the traditional role of a “doctor’s wife” or “doctor bahu”, which is often reduced to household duties rather than career achievements.

In the United States, women have also been forced back into the workplace under harsh conditions. With the rise of contract work and the erosion of workers’ rights, women—especially those who are post-partum—are expected to return to work quickly after childhood.

They must often work with little or no benefits, which has made it even harder for women to balance work and family life.

In the IT sector in the US and other Western countries, women continue to face a gender pay gap, often being paid less (10 to 30 per cent) for the same work, title, and responsibilities as their male counterparts.

Women in STEM fields also continue to face sexism in the workplace – expected to perform tasks such as making coffee or cleaning the office, even though their male colleagues use those same spaces. These attitudes are a reflection of a deeper gender bias that persists in many professional environments.

In the natural sciences, the ratio of Nobel Prizes awarded to women in incredibly low. Since 1901, only 3 women have won the Nobel Prize in Physics, and only 12 women have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

The disparities are stark. When women scientists do achieve success, their personal lives or familial responsibilities are brought up in a way that wouldn’t be the case for male laureates.

The work of women scientists, especially when they break barriers, is often minimised to their roles as mothers or caregivers, rather than being celebrated purely for their scientific breakthroughs.

Women continue to struggle with discrimination, harassment, and outdated gender expectations that limit their opportunities to thrive and lead

When women are in leadership positions, particularly in STEM, they often face enormous criticism – especially from extreme misogynistic movements like the “Red Pill” or the ‘manosphere’ crowd, which objectifies women and undermines their achievements. 

Dr Katie Bouman, the computer scientist who led the team that captured the first-ever image of a black hole, faced online harassment and derogatory remarks from these groups. Her male colleague had to defend her against online trolls undermining her work despite her leading the effort.

Similarly, when the gender pay gap became a mainstream topic, many men in the same communities blamed women for their own struggles, rather than acknowledging the systemic issues that drive the wage gap.

Women were blamed for ‘choosing’ degrees like Women’s Studies, which some of the men from these communities dismissed as “useless”, despite the fact that these women are simply trying to carve spaces for themselves in a male-dominated world.

Some even argued that the gender pay gap was a myth, despite ample evidence of its existence. The vitriol is so strong and widespread online that even young girls and women reiterated it despite evidence to the contrary.

The science community itself has been no stranger to misogyny. Take Tim Hunt, a Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, who claimed that women should not be allowed in science labs because their ‘beauty’ would distract men.

While his comments were widely mocked and condemned, they are part of a larger trend that bubbled to a fever pitch in the 2010s of rising anti-women sentiment, especially among certain right-wing or conservative groups.

The rhetoric has only intensified with the rise of misogynistic, right-wing ideologies, and it’s concerning that many of the men behind these ‘movements’ are from Gen Z, the next generation.

A disturbing trend, particularly among the supporters of US President Donald Trump, is the labelling of any woman or minority hired in STEM or high-level positions as a “diversity hire”, despite their credentials.

Trump removed Admiral Linda Fagan, the first women to lead a US military branch, from her position at the US Coast Guard in 2021. Despite being fully qualified for her job, she was seen by the Trump supporters as a ‘diversity hire’.

While Rosalind Franklin’s contributions to the discovery of  DNA are now celebrated, and there are efforts like Rosalind Franklin Day (held on her birthday, July 25), to honour her legacy, the road ahead is still long.

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The rise of Red Pill and other misogynistic ‘movements’ in the West, particularly among extreme right-wing conservatives, threatens to undo the progress made for women in science and leadership.

The belief that all sexism has been eradicated just because women are financially independent in modern society is a fallacy. In reality, many women, even in the developed world, face significant barriers to success in fields like IT, medicine, and STEM at large.