The Mathilde Krim Effect as a Way to Overcome the Matilda Effect

Gender bias affects all areas of society and sustains inequality throughout the world. In 2015, UNESCO declared the International Day of Women and Girls on Science to acknowledge the gender gaps that insidiously persist in the scientific community. ¹ Poor career progression and the “glass ceiling” for representation of senior women leaders in science, medicine, and global health are well documented. ² This year at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) and for the first time in the long history of this conference, there was a plenary session on women in research, which addressed why “science is better when women are represented.” ³ The session faced the gender gap issue and presented data from the Association of American Colleges of Medicine, which reported that women hired as full professors have only increased from 14% to 22% in the past decade. ⁴ No better news are coming from the European Union, as the proportion of female full professors in science and engineering careers has barely raised from 11% to 13%. ⁵ These statistics clearly emphasize that in science, current actions to overcome gender inequality are not moving fast enough.

As scientists, we ought to be confronted by these facts and react. In recent years, prestigious journals started to encourage studies specifically looking into new solutions for this old problem. ² There are at least three strong assets that allow us to lead a transformative change toward a more balanced representation of women across all scientific disciplines and career steps. First, we are a community familiarized with critical thinking and data analysis, what should help us realize that the gender gap in science still persists despite our own will to combat it. Second, the focus of our work is to look for innovative solutions to solve difficult problems, so we have the perfect training to confront this challenge. Finally, we have all the methodologies required to evaluate the efficacy of the measurements deployed to tackle this problem, allowing us to identify which solutions are the most effective to reduce the gender gap. In turn, initiatives steered by the scientific community could pave the way to implement effective measurements in other disciplines, leading to an authentic scientific-driven societal change.

But, why are we still facing this gender inequality today? There are no simple answers to explain this situation, as multiple and additive factors might contribute to women becoming increasingly under-represented compared with men while progressing through their career path. One factor that is often overlooked is the Matilda effect, a bias first described in 1870 that highlights the denial of the contributions and discoveries made by women scientists, whose work is often attributed to their male colleagues. ^6,7 Such bias is illustrated by eminent figures such as Rosalind Franklin, whose critical X-ray crystallography experiments were key to discover the structure of DNA, while most of the credit at her times was conferred to her male peers Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins. Different actions might be needed to address the Matilda effect, and current initiatives on Wikipedia to track down photos of female scientists and other minority groups ⁸ could be key to credit their scientific achievements and shed light into the influence of these workforces.

Recognizing the work of great women that led our way and committed their careers to transform society may offer the gender-positive role models required to speed up the movement toward gender equity in science. Quoting Michel Sidibé, the Executive Director of UNAIDS: “When women lead, change happens.” ⁹ An extraordinary example of that leadership is the one set by Dr. Mathilde Krim, who recently passed away leaving behind an incredible legacy dedicated to the fight against the HIV epidemic. ¹⁰ Dr. Krim held a doctorate in biology from the University of Geneva and conducted postdoctoral research at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, where she was part of the team that first developed a cytogenetic prenatal test for sex discernment. She was later faculty at the Cornell Medical College and then moved to the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where she was head of the Interferon Lab. She was also Professor at Columbia University.

From the very beginning of the HIV epidemic, Dr. Mathilde Krim committed herself to fight against HIV and was a Founding Chairman of the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR). We ought to remember her leading role as an advocate to raise awareness of AIDS among the general public and her continuous efforts to promote HIV/AIDS research. Moreover, as a way to overcome the Matilda effect and begin to acknowledge the contributions of outstanding women scientists, I propose embracing the Mathilde Krim effect, and commemorate how the will of a woman can have such a profound impact on the fight against HIV and AIDS.

In 2008, amfAR established the Mathilde Krim Fellowships to support the nascent careers of promising young HIV/AIDS researchers. In 2013, I was selected as one of the recipients of this fellowship, allowing me to pursue novel scientific challenges and consolidate my line of research at times when budgets suffer from drastic cuts. Most importantly, the fellowship boosted my independent scientific path, where I now serve as a mentor for PhD students who expand the workforce to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

I truly believe that research has the power to transform society and overcome some of the biggest challenges humankind faces. Basic research holds the potential to end with HIV and to finally find a cure for millions of people who are infected around the world, but along the way, the scientific community has to act as one to achieve gender equity.

The inspiring life and the legacy of Dr. Mathilde Krim beautifully illustrate why we cannot afford a continued loss of women in science.