Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science! The 11th February 2025 marks the tenth anniversary of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, but what is this day all about?
In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly declared the 11th February “International Day of Women and Girls in Science”; a day to raise awareness and promote equal access for women and girls in science and a day of celebration of the many successful women studying and working in science (1,2).
Despite progress in increasing the representation of women and girls in science, there remains a significant gender gap in the number of women in scientific disciplines around the world (1,3,4). Women only account for around one third of scientific researchers worldwide, with female representation decreasing in higher career stages, such as tenured positions (1,3,4,5). Additionally, women are credited less than men, their contributions are less likely to be recognised and they are often given smaller research grants than their male counterparts (3,6). This International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we would like to recognise some inspirational women in science, past and present, to raise awareness of the gender disparities that still exist in science today and to suggest some solutions for decreasing gender bias and inequity in science.
We are sure you will have heard of some of the trailblazing female scientists of our past: Marie Curie and her pioneering work on radioactivity, Rosalind Franklin and her contributions to the discovery of the DNA double helix, and Rita Levi-Montalcini and her discovery of nerve growth factor. However, as we are Women in Neuroscience UK, for this International Day of Women and Girls in Science we wanted to highlight some of the amazing women in neuroscience whose names often go largely unmentioned. We would like to acknowledge that there are so many incredible women in (neuro)science that we cannot possibly highlight them all, but we have chosen to focus on a few female neuroscientists who we find inspiring!
Inspirational Women in Neuroscience – Past
Maria Mikhaĭlovna Manàsseina: (1841–1903) (7)
Maria was one of the first women to graduate from a medical degree in Russia. She conducted ground-breaking work in the field of sleep deprivation. Her work inspired much of the subsequent research into sleep, and her book, “Sleep as one Third of Human life: its physiology, pathology, hygiene, and psychology” has been translated into English, French, German and Italian. Maria challenged the idea that sleep was the absence of brain activity and instead proposed that the brain was in a different state of activity.
Prior to her work on sleep, Maria studied alcohol fermentation and confirmed the “chemical” hypothesis of fermentation. These findings were later replicated by Eduard Buchner who, despite being aware of Maria’s work, did not cite her findings or credit her. Buchner won the Nobel Prize for this discovery, while Maria received no recognition. Unfortunately, this was not an uncommon occurrence for women in science in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Laura Forster (1858–1917) (8,9)
Laura was a pioneering doctor, surgeon, nurse and researcher who challenged societal norms and expectations by pursuing careers typically seen, at that time, to be “for men”. Her work spanned multiple fields and she published papers on muscle spindle fibres, ovarian diseases, tuberculosis and spinal nerve fibres. Laura worked as one of only two women in Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s laboratory.
In 1912 when the Balkan War began, Laura volunteered as a nurse; although she was certified, and had practiced, as a general practitioner, women were not allowed to serve as physicians. When the First World War was declared, Laura became the first female Australian doctor to serve in the wartime medical effort.
Cécile Vogt (1875–1962) (10,11)
Cécile was the first woman to be nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine, and across her lifetime received an incredible 13 Nobel Prize nominations. Despite this, Cécile was never awarded the Nobel Prize, and to this day women are overlooked for academic prizes and recognition.
Cécile began medical school at age 18, despite only 6% of medical doctorates being awarded to women at that time. She continued to push boundaries and societal expectations, working in a laboratory in Berlin, despite most of the medical faculty being opposed to women studying. For much of her career, Cécile worked with no salary, simply because she was female.
Cécile, who worked with her husband Oskar Vogt, contributed heavily to the field of neuroanatomy. They identified that the motor and sensory cortices were functionally distinct areas of the cortex, provided insights into the organisation of the thalamus and the basal ganglia, and identified structural differences in the striatum in disorders like Huntington’s disease. In the 1920s, Cécile stated publicly that nothing in her research supported a difference between the brains of men and women.
Despite the immense difficulties of making it as a woman in science in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, what these women, and many others, achieved was remarkable. These incredible female neuroscientists paved the way for future women to succeed in science. We would like to highlight some inspiring women who work in neuroscience today, and who have had incredible achievements. Again, we cannot possibly highlight all the extraordinary women that work in (neuro)science but have chosen to feature a few women we find inspiring.
Inspirational Women in Neuroscience – Present
May-Britt Moser (12)
May-Britt pioneered research into the neural basis of spatial orientation and memory. She won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2014, alongside Edvard Moser and John O’Keefe, for their discovery of place and grid cells. These cells allow us to orient ourselves in space, with place cells forming a map of our location and grid cells providing a coordinate system for positioning ourselves and pathfinding. May-Britt currently works as a Professor at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
“I think in terms of excellence in science, not gender.”
Virginia Man-Yee Lee (13)
Virginia is a world-renowned neuroscientist who has contributed significantly to the research of frontotemporal dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. Virginia has been cited over 200,000 times and published over 1,000 papers. In addition to her incredible contributions to understanding neurodegenerative diseases, Virginia is an incredible mentor and inspiration to the next generation of female scientists.
“As a woman, I didn’t have mentorship. More importantly, I didn’t know how good I was.”
Brenda Milner (14)
Brenda is considered to be a founder of clinical neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience. She has made major contributions to our understanding of memory, language and linking brain structure to brain function. Brenda worked with the famous patient “HM” and discovered that our brains do not have one singular memory system, but multiple systems. Notably, Brenda is still researching today, aged 106.
“If you’re in the wrong career, don’t hesitate to change. I could be a mediocre math teacher in high school today."
We hope that sharing the successes of these trailblazing women in neuroscience inspires you to pursue whatever career path you wish to follow. We are grateful that the opportunities for women in science are improving and have progressed since the times of Maria, Laura and Cécile. However, we still have a long way to go. WiNUK aims to inspire, connect and advocate for gender equity in neuroscience and we stand against gender-based biases and discrimination, which unfortunately still remain in science.
What gender inequity and gender biases are there in science?
Women are underrepresented in tenured positions, in the top research institutes and in scientific agencies, such as the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the European Research Council (1,3). This has a plethora of effects: less women in higher positions means there are less female role models, less female mentorship and less females in recruitment and hiring, all of which perpetuates the cycle. Additionally, women are underrepresented as first and last authors in publishing, relative to the proportion of female scientists and there are gender differences in citation numbers (3). In scientific funding, women typically gain fewer grants and smaller amounts of funding than men, particularly at later career stages (3). Another major gender inequity is family planning and childcare; pregnancy, childbirth, nursing and childcare take time, as well as mental and physical resources, and women are disproportionately affected (3).
(See our blog on the sex and gender disparities in neuroscience here!)
What can you do?
While the majority of gender biases in science need addressing at an institutional and societal level, individuals can make a difference and improve gender equity in science. We should be educating ourselves, and others, on issues of gender inequity, we should be challenging gender stereotypes and biases in our everyday lives, and we should be supporting our female friends and colleagues in science. At WiNUK, we are trying to do our part to improve gender inequity in science, which is why we hosted our first WiNUK Awards Event last year to honour unsung heroes in neuroscience, aiming to improve student and staff experiences through mentorship, elevate public understanding through science communication, advance sex/gender gap research in neurological health, and champion diversity in STEM workplaces. We hope that you will join us this International Day of Women and Girls in Science to promote our cause and inspire, connect and advocate for women and girls in (neuro)science!
“More women in science means better science” Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General (2)
References
https://www.un.org/en/observances/women-and-girls-in-science-day
https://www.sciencecentres.org.uk/news/international-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science/
Llorens, A., Tzovara, A., Bellier, L., Bhaya-Grossman, I., Bidet-Caulet, A., Chang, W. K., Cross, Z. R., Dominguez-Faus, R., Flinker, A., Fonken, Y., Gorenstein, M. A., Holdgraf, C., Hoy, C. W., Ivanova, M. V., Jimenez, R. T., Jun, S., Kam, J. W. Y., Kidd, C., Marcelle, E., Marciano, D., Martin, S., Myers, N.E., Ojala, K., Perry, A., Pinheiro-Chagas, P., Rie`s, S.K., Saez, I., Skelin, I., Slama, K., Staveland, B., Bassett, D.S., Buffalo, E.A., Fairhall, A.L., Kopell, N.J., Kray, L.J., Lin, J.J., Nobre, A.C., Riley, D., Solbakk, A-K., Wallis, J.D., Wang, X-J., Yuval-Greenberg, S., Kastner, S., Knight, R.T., & Dronkers, N. F. (2021). Gender bias in academia: A lifetime problem that needs solutions. Neuron, 109(13), 2047–2074. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.NEURON.2021.06.002
Ross, M. B., Glennon, B. M., Murciano-Goroff, R., Berkes, E. G., Weinberg, B. A., & Lane, J. I. (2022). Women are credited less in science than men. Nature, 608(7921), 135–145. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04966-w
Favero, M., Mele, S. and Metitieri, T. (2017). Profile of Maria Mikhailovna Manasseina. In WiNEu, European Women in Neuroscience, Untold stories: the Women Pioneers of Neuroscience in Europe. Retrieved from https://wineurope.eu/manasseina-2/
Nombela, C., Giné, E., Sanz, C., Martínez, C. and de Castro, F. (2020). Laura Forster and Manuela Serra at the Cajal School. In WiNEu, European Women in Neuroscience, Untold stories: the Women Pioneers of Neuroscience in Europe. Retrieved from https://wineurope.eu/forster-serra-cajal-school/
https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/laura-elizabeth-forster
Akkermans, R. (2018). Cécile Vogt. The Lancet Neurology, 17(10), 846. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(18)30002-4
Favero, M., Mele, S. and Metitieri, T. (2017). Profile of Cécile Mugnier Vogt. In WiNEu, European Women in Neuroscience, Untold stories: the Women Pioneers of Neuroscience in Europe. Retrieved from https://wineurope.eu/vogt-2/
https://www.nobelprize.org/womenwhochangedscience/stories/may-britt-moser
https://www.mcgill.ca/neuro/about/brenda-milner
This article was written by Rachel Grasmeder Allen and edited by Rebecca Pope, with graphics produced by Lilly Green. If you enjoyed this article, be the first to be notified about new posts by signing up to become a WiNUK member (top right of this page)! Interested in writing for WiNUK yourself? Contact us through the blog page and the editors will be in touch.