The Matilda Effect

This chapter suggests that the most important factors that diminished Esther Lederberg’s scientific career and legacy were her gender and marriage. The fact that her famous collaborator was also her husband doubled the chances that her own scientific achievements were overshadowed. The chapter goes on to explain how the so-called Matthew and Matilda Effects altered the history of science right at birth of genetics as a distinct branch of biology. As an example of the Matilda Effect, the chapter presents Nettie Stevens whose discovery of the XY sex-determining chromosomes in 1905 and establishment of the two patterns of sex chromosomes in various beetles, flies, and bugs was credited to Edmund Wilson, a better-known scientist. In an example of the Matthew Effect, Thomas Hunt Morgan, the most famous geneticist of the early twentieth century, eventually received most of the credit for discovering sex chromosomes. Finally, the careers and legacies of three other Matildas who worked in the early days of microbial genetics—Martha Chase, Laura Garnjobst, and Daisy Dussoix—are presented.