Each year on 11 February, we celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science, a moment to recognise the achievements of women in Science and to reflect on the work still needed to make science and engineering truly inclusive for everyone.
Across the STEM Community and here at STEM Learning, we recently asked colleagues and members which women in science have inspired them most. The responses weren’t just lists of famous names, they were stories of persistence, quiet brilliance, and, in many cases, of contributions that weren’t fully recognised at the time. What quickly became clear is something many of us already know from our own classrooms: talent has never been the issue, opportunity and visibility have.
Long before we talked about widening participation or role models, there were women doing exceptional work in laboratories, workshops and studies across the country. Some changed the course of entire disciplines. Others changed the system itself.
Over a century ago, the founding members of the Women's Engineering Society were doing both. Formed in 1919, just after the First World War, the Society wasn’t simply a professional network. It was a response to women being pushed out of engineering roles they had already proved they could do. Its members organised, advocated and campaigned to protect women’s jobs and create lasting pathways into engineering. Their work laid foundations that many of us benefit from today. It’s a reminder that representation in STEM hasn’t happened by accident, it has been built, often through collective action.
That same determination runs through many of the scientists our community highlighted.
If you’ve ever drawn a benzene ring on the board or taught about molecular structure, you’ve felt the influence of Kathleen Lonsdale. A pioneer of X-ray crystallography, Lonsdale helped prove the structure of the benzene ring and made major contributions to materials science. She later became one of the first women elected Fellow of the Royal Society, a landmark achievement at the time. Her work still underpins much of what we teach in chemistry and physics today, even if students rarely hear her name alongside the diagrams.
A few years later, Rosalind Franklin’s meticulous experimental work would help unlock one of the most important discoveries in modern biology. Her X-ray diffraction image, now widely known as Photo 51, provided the critical evidence for the double helix structure of DNA. Without it, the story of molecular genetics looks very different. Today, many educators make a point of sharing Franklin’s contribution, not only to explain the science, but to open important conversations about collaboration, credit and fairness in research. The same crystallographic techniques appear again in the work of Dorothy Hodgkin, whose discoveries had a direct and lasting impact on human health. By determining the structures of penicillin, vitamin B12 and insulin, Hodgkin helped transform medicine and improve millions of lives worldwide. Her achievements earned her the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. There’s also a story, shared by one colleague of a scientist who once bet she wouldn’t solve the structure of penicillin and claimed he’d quit science if she did. She solved it. He didn’t. It’s a small anecdote, perhaps, but one that captures the quiet resilience so often required of women in science.
And not every pioneer worked with test tubes or microscopes. Centuries earlier, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne was challenging expectations in a very different way. Writing in the 17th century, Cavendish blended science, philosophy and politics at a time when women were rarely included in intellectual life. Her imaginative work, often considered one of the earliest examples of science fiction, showed that curiosity and speculative thinking are just as much a part of science as experimentation. She claimed a space in scientific debate simply by insisting she had a right to be there.
Reading these stories together, one idea stands out. As our CEO Severine Trouillet recently highlighted, the Matilda effect, named after suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage, describes the pattern of women’s achievements being overlooked or credited to others. Once you recognise it, you begin to see how often it appears across history.
Which is exactly why visibility matters… When we share these stories with learners, we’re not just filling gaps in a timeline. We’re helping young people see who belongs in STEM. We’re showing that science has always been shaped by a wider range of voices than the textbooks sometimes suggest.
If you’d like to explore this theme further with your classes or colleagues, we’ve curated a collection of classroom resources and activities here:
https://www.stem.org.uk/resources/library/collection/507494/international-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science-11th-february
As ever, we’d love to hear how you’re marking the day in your setting. These conversations, and the stories behind them, are what help make our community stronger, because when more learners can see themselves reflected in science, everyone benefits.
Primary STEM discussion: https://community.stem.org.uk/discussion/community-hivemind-help-international-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science-1#bm226fd67f-2010-49e8-8e0b-365bab270132
Secondary Science discussion: https://community.stem.org.uk/discussion/community-hivemind-help-international-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science#bm3872900e-a790-4dba-aabd-ff2c081eb425