The “Matilda Effect” in Medical Research: Women Are Not Getting The Credit They Deserve

Written By: Maddox Cohen

In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first American woman to earn a medical degree. In 1947, history was made when a woman was first awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine. In 1990, the first female US surgeon general took office. In 2019, the Association of American Medical Colleges reported that for the first time, women had made the majority of medical school enrollments. The movement for female representation in Medicine has clearly made progressive bounds as women continue to shatter the glass ceilings of clinics, hospitals, practices, and institutions everywhere. Although remaining underrepresented in higher ranking positions and male dominated specialties, women continue to break barriers and save lives, as they become the backbone of healthcare. However, there is a sector of the medical field where women have never quite gotten the recognition and credit they deserve in comparison to their male counterparts: research.

Women conducting research in a lab

Lacking the flashy media representation attracted by clinical medicine, but filled with the professionals behind the procedures, diagnoses, drugs, and treatments, Research is the silent power that drives and shapes advancement in medicine. In 2022, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics found that there were nearly 120,000 medical research professionals employed within the country. While this is just little over 1% of the quickly growing healthcare field, the medical sciences workforce is imperative to the development of medicine to keep up with this rapidly growing nation. Still, as long as the history of science and medicine, women in research have been undercredited.  In the research field, this “credit”, or being named a contributor, is the most coveted and necessary achievement for professional growth and success. Under these circumstances, it is blatant how a lack of credit can be stiflingly detrimental. 

It doesn't take just the story of Rosalind Franklin's stolen DNA research to highlight the pattern of covert oppression happening to women in research.  In contrast to their male colleagues, the work of female scientists is underappreciated and undercredited.  This phenomenon has been so prevalent throughout history that it has been coined the term the “Matilda Effect”.  A recent study in the science journal Nature shows the numerical ramification of this pattern in the medical research field. The study focused on over 9,000 research teams from 2013 to 2014, and found that only 34.8% of named authors on these research documents were female. When taking into account that women make up just under half of the research workforce, this data clearly presents itself as a reflection of the Matilda Effect. 

The aspect of battling gender bias is naturally an off-putting factor to women currently in or prospectively entering the field of medical research. Because of this, now is the time more than ever to promote and support these women and their work in furthering medecine. Through spreading social awareness, strengthening the community of  women in science, and initiating outreach to involve young women and girls, the STEM community can put an end to the Matilda effect once and for all.

Sources:
Harbster, Jennifer, and Margaret W. Rossiter. “Margaret Rossiter and the Matilda Effect | Inside Adams.” Library of Congress Blogs, 25 March 2020, https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2020/03/matilda-effect/. Accessed 12 February 2024.

McShane, Julianne. “Study indicates female scientists get less authorship credit for work than men do - The Washington Post.” Washington Post, 22 June 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/22/women-scientists-authorship-credit-study/. Accessed 12 February 2024.

“Medical Scientists : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S.” Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/medical-scientists.htm. Accessed 12 February 2024.

“Women physicians over the centuries < Yale School of Medicine.” Yale School of Medicine, 2018, https://medicine.yale.edu/news/yale-medicine-magazine/article/women-physicians-over-the-centuries/. Accessed 12 February 2024.