Margaret W. Rossiter (1944 - 2025)
American historian of science at Cornell University.
In 1993, she coined the term The Matilda Effect to describe
the systematic erasure of women's achievements in science
over the centuries and the theft and attribution of
their work and discoveries to male colleagues.
She named it in honour of suffragist and abolitionist
Matilda Joslyn Gage who had sounded the alarm
about this practice more than a century earlier.
Following decades of research, her 3-volume work,
Women Scientists in America, restored women to
their rightful place in the history of science.
Her books inspired programs and policies which ensure
that today’s women in STEM are properly
credited, published, and remembered.
