The list of important women scientists, whose achievements their male colleagues counted as merit, is brought up again and again in connection with the struggle for gender equality.
It ranges from Lord Byron's daughter Ada Lovelace to the physicist Lisa Meitner and the microbiologist Esther Lederberg to the biochemist Rosalind Franklin.
Gina Thomas
Features correspondent based in London.
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It is a sign of progress in this area that the Oxford vaccinologist Sarah Gilbert, who was responsible for the development of the Astrazeneca vaccine, is decidedly not one of them.
She has been showered with appreciations in the past few months. The researcher was named Lady of the British Empire, was awarded the Princess of Asturias Prize and was photographed in an Armani trouser suit by Vogue as one of twenty-five “visionary” British women who shaped 2020. When Sarah Gilbert attended the tennis tournament at Wimbledon in June, the Center Court spectators gave a standing ovation.
Now she has the honor of being immortalized as a Barbie doll. In addition to the portrayal of the bespectacled, red-haired researcher in a white shirt and black trouser suit, the toy manufacturer Mattel, whose efforts for diversity and inclusiveness have been ridiculed in the callous use of “makeover” as “wokeover”, has five other Barbie role models modeled on Corona -Front fighters created: the Brazilian biomedical scientist Jaqueline Goes de Jesus, the New York nurse Amy O'Sullivan, the Australian doctor Kirby White, who developed reusable doctor's gowns, and the American Audery Cruz and the Canadian Chika Oriuwa, who were fighting against racism in the pandemic Discrimination started.
Sarah Gilbert hopes these dolls will alert little girls to jobs like vaccinology that they are new to and motivate them to pursue careers in science.