Auntie Lara

90.9fm KRCL by day -- Auntie Lara as much as possible.

[Mr PitBull Stories @MrPitbull07]

She kept finding women in laboratory photographs from the 1800s. Then she read the published papers—and every single woman had vanished. Someone had erased them from history.
Yale University, 1969.
Margaret Rossiter was a graduate student studying the history of science. She was one of very few women in her program.
Every Friday afternoon, students and faculty gathered for beers and informal conversation. One week, Margaret asked a simple question: "Were there ever any women scientists?"
The faculty answered firmly: No.
Someone mentioned Marie Curie. The group dismissed it—her husband Pierre really deserved the credit.
Margaret didn't argue. But she also didn't believe them.
So she started looking.
She found a reference book called "American Men of Science"—essentially a Who's Who of scientific achievement. Despite the title, she was shocked to discover it contained entries about women. Botanists trained at Wellesley. Geologists from Vermont.
There were names. There were credentials. There were careers.
The professors had been wrong.
But Margaret's discovery was just the beginning. Because as she dug deeper into archives across the country, she found something far more disturbing.
Photograph after photograph showed women standing at laboratory benches, working with equipment, listed on research teams.
But when she read the published papers, the award citations, the official histories—those same women had disappeared. Their names were missing. Their contributions erased.
It wasn't random. It was systematic.
Women who designed experiments watched male colleagues publish results without giving them credit. Women whose discoveries were assigned to supervisors. Women listed in acknowledgments instead of as authors. Women passed over for awards that went to male collaborators who contributed far less.
Margaret realized she was witnessing a pattern that stretched across centuries.
Women had always been present in science. The record had simply pushed them aside.
She needed a name for what she was documenting.
In the early 1990s, she found it in the work of Matilda Joslyn Gage—a 19th-century suffragist who had written about this exact phenomenon in 1870.
In 1993, Margaret published a paper formally naming it: The Matilda Effect.
The term captured something that had been hidden in plain sight for generations. Once you knew the term, you saw it everywhere.
Her dissertation became a lifelong mission.
For more than 30 years, Margaret researched and wrote her landmark three-volume series: Women Scientists in America. She examined letters, institutional policies, individual careers. She gathered undeniable evidence that women in science had been consistently under-credited and structurally excluded.
Her work faced resistance. Many dismissed women's history as political rather than academic. Others insisted she was exaggerating.
Margaret didn't argue emotionally. She presented data. Documented cases. Patterns repeated across decades and institutions.
Eventually, the evidence became undeniable.
Her research helped restore recognition to scientists who had been erased:
Rosalind Franklin, whose X-ray work revealed DNA's structure—credit went to Watson and Crick.
Lise Meitner, who explained nuclear fission—omitted from the Nobel Prize.
Nettie Stevens, who discovered sex chromosomes—received little credit.
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, who discovered stars are made of hydrogen—initially dismissed.
And countless others whose names had nearly vanished.
Margaret changed the narrative. Science was no longer just the story of solitary male geniuses. It became a story of collaboration that included women who had been written out.
The Matilda Effect became standard terminology. Scholars used it to examine how credit is assigned, how authors are listed, who receives awards, who gets left out.

[Auntie Lara @larajones7]

@kathybiele @CityWeekly Most excellent!!

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

Favianna Rodriguez, contemporary US poster designer and activist of Afro-Peruvian heritage, #womensart #PosterAndBannerWeek

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own #WomensArt #WomensHistoryMonth
Portrait by her sister Vanessa Bell

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

The hand embroidered banners of the UK women's suffrage movement designed and embroidered in communal workshops #WomensArt
#WomensHistoryMonth #PosterAndBannerWeek

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

"We have to create an art for liberation and for life. .."
-Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012)
US artist
#InternationalWomensDay

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

"I want to be THE painter of my country"
- Tarsila do Amaral (1886-1973) Brazilan Artist
#InternationalWomensDay

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

" I believe there are many who forget all the tragedy women face in Afghanistan, that is why I use my paintings as a mean to remind the people"
- Shamsia Hassani
Afghan Artist #InternationalWomensDay

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

"Men liked to put me down as the best woman painter... I'm one of the best painters"
- Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986)
US artist
#InternationalWomensDay

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

"My illustrious lordship, I'll show you what a woman can do."
-Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653)
Italian artist
#InternationalWomensDay

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

'I wanted to start a revolution, using art to build the sort of society I myself envisioned' Yayoi Kusama #InternationalWomensDay

[Auntie Lara @larajones7]

@aibytekat I’d like to hear more of this interview. Can you drop the link?

[Murray Hill Guy @MurrayHillGuy1]

https://t.co/LSKz4hpJoC

[Auntie Lara @larajones7]

@sciencegirl Turtle head

[Auntie Lara @larajones7]

@NASAKennedy Utah

[Auntie Lara @larajones7]

@thesigmamindset Routine

[Auntie Lara @larajones7]

@EnriqueLimon Delicious!

[Auntie Lara @larajones7]

I’m not sure what to say that won’t get me in trouble, so I’m just glad there’s a ruling.

[Robert Gehrke @RobertGehrke]

BREAKING: Judge Dianna Gibson has GRANTED the plaintiffs motion for summary judgment. Directed the Legislature to redraw the congressional maps to comply with the Better Boundaries initiative.

[Auntie Lara @larajones7]

Happy Marriage Equality Day! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

Progress in this country never comes easy or quick. For every few hard-earned steps forward, we might stumble a couple steps back. But sometimes, the slow, steady effort of generations is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt.

That's exactly what happened in a remarkable sprint of history ten years ago this week.

[Auntie Lara @larajones7]

@Sarahhuniverse @archeohistories What kind of pens and paper are you using? I want to try, too!