Matilda effect

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Matilda effect describes the systematic repression and denial of the contribution of women scientists to research, whose work is often attributed to their male colleagues. The effect was postulated in 1993 by the science historian Margaret W. Rossiter . It is named after the American suffragette Matilda Joslyn Gage , who was the first to describe this phenomenon in general at the end of the 19th century. The Matilda Effect is the flip side of the Matthew Effect , which describes the self-amplified accumulation of reputation and was postulated by Robert K. Merton . At the same time, the Matilda effect illustrates the second half of the quote from the Gospel of Matthew: "... but whoever has not, what he has will also be taken away " ( Matthew 25.29  EU ; from the parable of the talents entrusted to him ) .

The Matilda effect is said to occur with a certain statistical probability and thus indicate a patriarchal history of science.

Example: Trotula

Rossiter cites various examples of this effect: Trotula , an Italian doctor from the 11th century , wrote treatises that were so important that, in the understanding of contemporaries, they could not possibly have come from a woman: a century later, copies of her texts appeared at her husband's name. In the 20th century, the historian of science Karl Sudhoff advocated the thesis that Trotula was a midwife and not a doctor. In response to Marie Curie's visit to the United States in 1921, a journalist for the New York Times wrote that there would continue to be more men than women in science because the latter lacked the ability to view facts abstractly rather than relationally.

The Matilda effect is also clearly evident in the formulation of the Matthew effect itself: In the second English-language edition (1973, German 1985) of his text on the Matthew effect , Robert K. Merton notes that he focuses so intensively on the work of his colleague and later Mrs. Harriet Zuckerman supported that the article should have appeared under both of their names.

Movie

The comedy “ Who is Mr. Cutty? “Processes this effect cinematically.

See also

literature

  • Margaret W. Rossiter: TheMatthewMatilda Effect in Science. in: Social Studies of Science. Sage Publ., London 23, 1993, pp. 325-341. ISSN  0306-3127
    • Margaret W. Rossiter: The Matilda Effect in Science. in: Theresa Wobbe (Ed.): Between the front stage and the back stage. Contributions to the change in gender relations in science from the 17th century to the present. transcript, Bielefeld 2003, pp. 191ff. ISBN 3899421183 (German, online ; PDF; 10.6 MB)
  • Robert K. Merton: Development and Change of Research Interests. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1985, ISBN 3518577107
  • Anne E. Lincoln, Stephanie Pincus, Janet Bandows Koster, Phoebe S. Leboy: The Matilda Effect in science: Awards and prizes in the US, 1990s and 2000s . In: Social Studies of Science, Volume 42, No. 2 (April 2012), pp. 307-320

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Margaret Rossiter: Women Scientists in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982, p. 127. Naomi Oreskes : Objectivity or Heroism? On the Invisibility of Women in Science. In: Osiris 11, 2nd Series, Science in the Field (1996), pp. 87-113, here: 103.