Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Four women whose pioneering contributions to science have been largely overlooked
- Centre de Recherche en Biologie Cellulaire de Montpellier (CRBM), Université de Montpellier, CNRS, France
- Association Femmes & Sciences, France
- Unité de Biologie Moléculaire, Cellulaire et du Développement (MCD, UMR 5077), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI, FR 3743), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, France
Figures
Figure 1
Ethel Browne Harvey.
Born in Baltimore on 14 December 1885, Ethel Browne Harvey was an embryologist who specialised in cell division. She obtained her PhD from Columbia University in 1913, and subsequently had positions at Princeton and Cornell, the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, and the Anton Dohrn Zoological Station in Naples. She discovered what is now known as the Spemann-Mangold organiser 15 years before Hans Spemann and Hilde Pröscholdt Mangold published their work on this topic, but she was overlooked when Spemann was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1935.
Photograph courtesy of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), CC-BY 4.0.
Figure 2
Hilde Pröscholdt Mangold.
Born in Gotha, Germany on 20 October 1898, Hilde Pröscholdt Mangold was an embryologist specialising in embryonic inductions. She obtained received her PhD from the University of Freiburg in 1923 for her work on the specification of cell identity during gastrulation. Her supervisor, Hans Spemann, subsequently received the Nobel Prize for this work. Her life and career were cut short when she died in a tragic accident in 1924. She was only 26 years old.
© 2026, Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/Alamy. This image is taken from Alamy. It is not covered by the CC-BY 4.0 license and further reproduction of this photograph would need permission from the copyright holder.
Figure 3
Ida Henrietta Hyde.
Born in Davenport, Iowa, on 8 September 1857, Ida Henrietta Hyde specialised in neurophysiology and cellular electrophysiology. She received her PhD from the University of Heidelberg, and held positions at the University of Kansas, the Anton Dohrn Zoological Station in Naples, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Bern. She was also a tireless advocate for women in science, founding fellowships and associations to support female researchers throughout her career.
Figure 4
Marthe Gautier.
Born in Montenils, France on 10 September 1925, Marthe Gautier trained as a paediatrician, and began research into Down syndrome in 1956. With no funding or facilities, she built a cytogenetics lab from scratch at the Hôpital Trousseau in Paris, and developed the techniques that later enabled her to reveal the presence of 47 chromosomes in children with Down syndrome. However, most of the credit for this work went to Jérôme Lejeune, one of her co-authors on the paper reporting this discovery. Marthe Gautier finally received recognition for her discovery in 2014. She died in 2022.
Copyright Undetermined. Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders and obtain permission to reproduce this image. It is not available under a CC-BY license and further reproduction is inadvisable due to the absence of confirmed rights.
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Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Four women whose pioneering contributions to science have been largely overlooked
eLife 15:e110644.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.110644
