By State Rep. Emily Kinkead

Despite being scientific pioneers throughout human history, women’s contributions to science continue to be hidden, misattributed to men, dismissed as unimportant, or prevented from ever occurring in the first place by denial of opportunities and discouragement of brilliant minds based merely on the sex of the person with the idea. During this Women’s History Month, I want to shine a light on women scientists whose discoveries have helped revolutionize our world.

Born right here in Allegheny County in 1907, Rachel Carson’s dedication to studying how poisons interact with our natural world led to her discovering the catastrophic effects that dichloro-diphenyl- trichloroethane (DDT), a once industry- standard pesticide, was having on our environment and human health. As just the second woman to ever work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Carson and her ideas faced an incredible amount of sexist criticism; many of her male contemporaries held her up as an example of why women should stay out of science. However, as history bears out, Carson was completely correct in her conclusions around DDT, and it was subsequently banned. Carson’s body of work has since been attributed to sparking the modern environmental movement, triggering landmark legislation such as the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, and her legacy sends a powerful message that there is always a place for women to work in science and other fields dominated by men. Her contributions were so significant that the headquarters of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is named in her honor. But this level of recognition for a woman scientist is, sadly, exceptionally rare.

Rosalind Franklin, a British chemist in the mid twentieth century, remains one of the world’s most critically underrated scientists. Her exceptional talents in x-ray crystallography confirmed the double-helix structure of DNA, laying the foundation for the future of organic chemistry and its many fruits that we enjoy today. Tragically, she passed away in 1958 at the young age of 37. When her male colleagues were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their work on the structure of DNA, Franklin, who captured the first x-ray image of the DNA structure in 1952, received zero credit. Ironically, if her colleague James Watson hadn’t written a disgustingly sexist and completely inaccurate caricature of her personality in his 1968 memoir, her contributions to the DNA discovery may have never come to light. Watson’s book angered many who knew Franklin and caused leaders in the field to reevaluate her role in the research. While she has now been credited, her story remains largely unknown and there has been no correction to include her as an awardee of the Nobel Prize that was earned based on her work. Franklin made other important discoveries with her work investigating the chemical relationships between carbon and coal. Her research proved to be essential in the production of gas masks that were distributed to all British citizens during World War II. And Franklin is far from being the only woman scientist to conduct lifesaving research.

When Marie Curie wanted to study at a university in 1891, she had to leave her home country of Poland because no Polish universities would admit women. Traveling to Paris, she studied at Sorbonne University, where she met and eventually married an already-distinguished physicist named Pierre Curie. Together, they ground up and boiled uranium to create radium, discovering the world’s first radioactive element. As we know today, radium is a necessary ingredient for modern cancer treatment and has helped save countless lives across the globe. Curie was perhaps the most groundbreaking woman pioneer in the field of science, becoming the first woman in France to receive a doctoral science degree, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize (also the first woman to win two Nobel prizes), and the first Nobel laureate whose child also would win a Nobel Prize.

While she spent most of her life in Europe, Curie did travel to southwestern Pennsylvania at one point! In fact, she was just a stone’s throw away from Pittsburgh when she visited Canonsburg’s Standard Chemical Company plant, the only company producing radium on North America’s east coast in 1921.

Given the adversity these brilliant women faced, it’s no shock that names like Einstein, Newton, or Darwin are typically floated in discussions around remarkable scientists, rather than Carson, Franklin, or Curie. How many more discoveries will never occur because women and young girls don’t feel welcome in science? It’s a very discouraging reality that only one-third of existing STEM research positions are held by women, and it’s one that is absolutely worth fighting to change.

I introduced H.R. 295 in the PA House to officially recognize Feb. 11 as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science in our state. Encouraging more diverse viewpoints in science opens up more avenues for innovation. And we won’t be able to do that without celebrating women scientists whose achievements have been historically undermined and ignored. As a woman who earned a B.S. in Biology, I’m proud to be a voice in our state legislature that is supporting more opportunities for women in science and beyond.

This resolution is just one of the ways I’m fighting to create a more fair, diverse, and equitable society here in Pennsylvania. If you ever want to learn more about the work my team and I are doing to help you, your family, and your friends, don’t hesitate to contact my office by emailing RepKinkead@pahouse.net, calling (412) 321-5523, or stopping by to see at 658 Lincoln Ave. in Bellevue.