When recalling my grade school science days, all I remember are half-hearted experiments and tests that I always failed. We learned about influential scientists, but did we ever stop and wonder why all those scientists were white men?
If we stop and take a look at the history of science it's a field overwhelmingly dominated by men. In our grade school science classes, we learn about the achievements of male scientists, the theories of male scientists, and the underlying societal message that men are scientists. We don't learn about people like Rosalyn Yalow.
On May 30th, 2011 Rosalyn Yalow died at 89-years-old.
Yalow, who was only the second woman to win the Nobel Prize in medicine, was no stranger to the sexism and oppression that would litter her path to success in the field of science.
As the New York Times reports: "Dr. Yalow told interviewers that she had known from the time she was 8 years old that she wanted to be a scientist in an era when women were all but prohibited from science careers."
Yalow was rejected from several colleges because of her status as a Jewish woman. She eventually went to an all women's college in New York where she was the first woman to major in physics.
Rosalyn Yalow serves as an example of women that deserve recognition for their work. There are women scientists who have done revolutionary work throughout history and yet they are never highlighted in the science education we receive as children, and many times even as adults in college.
It's important to highlight these women so that more and more young girls will be inspired by their stories and will have the confidence and encouragement they need to enter the field of science and further diversify the scientist.
Thank you, Rosalyn Yalow, for your work in medicine and for your perseverance in the face of sexism and oppression. You are an inspiration.
