Pioneering chemist Rosalind Franklin is the only woman to be named in the GCSE science curriculum, new research has found.
According to academics at the University of Cambridge, Franklin, widely regarded as the woman who discovered the structure of DNA, is the only scientist among 86 named on the syllabus to be female.
Born into a Jewish family in Notting Hill, her work in X-ray crystallography was instrumental in understanding the double-helical structure of DNA.
Yet researchers found that her name only appeared in one Key Stage 4 specification, highlighting what researchers described as a historical imbalance in how scientific discoveries are taught.
Franklin produced the famous DNA image known as Photograph 51, which was named in Cambridge OCR GCSE Biology and Scottish Higher Biology specifications.
Her research helped scientists Francis Crick and James Watson establish that DNA had a double-helix structure.
Watson, Crick and Franklin’s colleague Maurice Wilkins received the 1962 Nobel Prize for this discovery; Franklin had died four years earlier.
Meanwhile, at Key Stage 5, covering A-levels and equivalent qualifications, just three women appeared among 181 scientists.
The research also found that several major scientific breakthroughs included in school specifications had been made by women, but their contributions were not explicitly acknowledged.
The paper published in the British Educational Research Journal explained: “Our findings confirm that the UK science specifications reflect this historical imbalance: although women made significant contributions to major scientific breakthroughs, this fact is rarely acknowledged.”
The authors recommended that Franklin should be included in all biology specifications where DNA structure is taught and called for greater recognition of other female scientists, including Marie Curie and Lisa Meitner.
Curie and her husband, Pierre, discovered radium and polonium and coined the term radiology, while Meintner contributed to the discovery of nuclear fission.
At A-level and equivalent stages, the other two women named in the specification were American Geologist Marie Tharp, known for mapping the Atlantic Ocean floor, and Danish Seismologist Inge Lehnmannm, who discovered the Earth’s inner core.
The researchers said improving the representation of female scientists could help encourage more girls to continue studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics beyond GCSE.
They also identified a disparity between girls’ performance in GCSE Level and their participation in certain subjects at A-Level, particularly physics and maths.
They argued that greater exposure to women scientists could help challenge the perception that science is predominantly a male field.
A spokeswoman for the Joint Council for Qualifications, which represents several UK exam boards, said: “Exam boards recognise that there is a clear need for greater representation in science qualifications, and this is an area they will be focusing on as these qualifications are reformed.”
Qualifications Scotland said its Curriculum Improvement Cycle offered “an opportunity to consider gender representation within our future qualifications and assessments”.
The Department for Education in England said it was “committed to improving the school curriculum over the coming years” and would ensure “every girl can see where their learning can take them”.
The Scottish Government said it was committed to closing the gender gap in STEM and would carefully consider the findings of the research.
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