22 Women Geneticists Who Should be Famous!

Have you ever heard about Nettie Stevens? Or Helen Redfield? Or Esther Lederberg and host of others? Probably not.

And why is that?

Because they are women scientists.

Very few women are mentioned and given the same status, even though the work they did was just as important, if not more so. The only female geneticist I remember being mentioned in my college genetic textbooks was Barbara McClintock.

That’s just not right.

So in 2020, the 100th anniversary of women obtaining the right to vote in the United States, I’d like to introduce you to and commemorate 22 remarkable women geneticists who are no longer with us.

In my Buddhist practice, we pay homage to all the dharma ancestors that have transmitted their realization to their successors and again, although there are many women who should have been noted, only the male teachers are named. So in our modern age, we do the best we can to acknowledge these women dharma teachers by adding,

“and we pay homage to all our women ancestors, known and unknown, whose shining practice guides us to this day”