1843: Ada Lovelace
Considered the first computer programmer in history for her algorithm. Her work was long seen as mere notes on her collaborator's machine, Babbage.
They made the discovery. Men got the glory. Here are some of the women victims of the Matilda Effect.
1912: Henrietta Swan Leavitt
She discovered the period-luminosity law of Cepheids, the key to measuring the universe. Her superior published her work and Edwin Hubble used her law to build his own fame.
1938: Lise Meitner
She was the first to understand and name nuclear fission. Her colleague, Otto Hahn, published their results omitting her name and received the Nobel Prize in chemistry alone.
1953: Rosalind Franklin
She produced Photo 51, the crucial image that proved the double helix structure of DNA. Watson and Crick used her photo without her permission and received the Nobel Prize.
1958: Marthe Gautier
She discovered the extra chromosome responsible for Down Syndrome. Her colleague, Jérôme Lejeune, announced the discovery in the United States claiming full credit for it.
1978: Candace Pert
As a graduate student, she played a major role in discovering the opiate receptor. Her thesis advisor, Solomon Snyder, received the prestigious Lasker Award for this discovery, but Candace Pert's name was omitted.