Rosalind Franklin and the issue of inadequate female recognition in the past

By: Yumna Zaheed

Rosalind Elsie Franklin was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. She is now known to have played an instrumental role in identifying the helical shape of the DNA molecule, using x-ray crystallography.

The photograph she produced helped unravel the mystery of DNA, yet she was not credited for her extremely significant discovery. Instead, her work was stolen and used by Watson and Crick who then realized that DNA was made up of two chains of nucleotide pairs that encode the genetic information for all living things.

Franklin was robbed of recognition throughout her career.

Despite her data being the foundation of Watson and Crick’s work, she was not credited for her work. Franklin did not get to share a Nobel prize, since she died of ovarian cancer four years earlier.

The highly concerning incident portrays, that in the past centuries, women’s discoveries or inventions in science were not highly regarded, in comparison to men. Many discoveries women made were assigned to male colleagues and had been written out of textbooks.

She remains an inspiration to many women scientists on her work on the structure of DNA is critical to modern molecular biology and genomics research. Without Rosalind Franklin's groundbreaking work, it may have taken another decade before the double helix structure of DNA had been fully realized.

Citations:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/130519-women-scientists-overlooked-dna-history-science

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin