ISSN 3028-8940 JULY-DECEMBER 2025;2(2):6-9 LETTER TO THE EDITOR https://doi.org/10.36097/rgcs.v2i2.3182 6 San Gregorio de Portoviejo University | Ecuador Matilda effect: challenges to the visibility and recognition of women in Health Sciences Efecto Matilda: retos para la visibilidad y reconocimiento de las mujeres en las Ciencias de la Salud Daliannis Rodríguez* Universidad UTE, Campus Manabí, Montecristi, Ecuador. *Corresponding author Reception: 30-04-2025 Acceptance: 12-06-2025 Publication: 31-07-2025 Cite as: Rodríguez, D. (2025). Matilda effect: challenges to the visibility and recognition of women in Health Sciences. Revista Gregoriana de Ciencias de la Salud, 2(2), 6-9. https://doi.org/10.36097/rgcs.v2i2.3182 © Author(s) 2025 Dear Editor: Despite the increase in female participation in training programs and scientific publications, women continue to face structural barriers in accessing funding, securing leadership positions, obtaining lead authorship, and receiving academic recognition. Within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 5 on gender equality, it is necessary to highlight the Matilda Effect—a term coined by historian Margaret Rossiter in 1993— which describes how women's scientific contributions have historically been ignored, attributed to men, or minimized within official scientific discourses (Rossiter, 1993). Although progress toward gender equity is undeniable, this phenomenon persists, albeit in subtle ways, especially in fields such as the Health Sciences, where women represent a large proportion of the human talent in training but remain underrepresented in decision-making positions and the recognition of their scientific contributions. An emblematic example is that of Rosalind Franklin, whose work was essential in elucidating the structure of DNA. Her X-ray diffraction images allowed Watson and Crick to model the double helix, but her contribution was not recognized with the 1962 Nobel Prize (Osman, 2003). In the field of public health, Alice Ball, an African American chemist, developed the first effective treatment for leprosy at the beginning of the 20th century (Núñez et al., 2022); however, her formula was attributed to a male colleague for decades.

Revista Gregoriana de Ciencias de la Salud. Bi-annual peer-reviewed publication. ISSN 3028-8940 / July-December 2025;2(2):6-9 San Gregorio de Portoviejo University | Ecuador 7 More recently, Katalin Karikó, a Hungarian biochemist, was marginalized for years by her colleagues and funding agencies due to her insistence on messenger RNA research, a line of research that ultimately led to the development of the COVID-19 vaccines, for which she received the Nobel Prize in 2023 (Bansal, 2023). In Latin America, there are also multiple silenced cases. Argentine physician Cecilia Grierson, the first woman to earn a medical degree in her country (1889), faced numerous obstacles in practicing her profession, and her legacy has been vastly underappreciated. A bibliometric analysis (1920-2023) identified that women participated in ~18,600 of 57,056 publications (≈22%) in Ecuador. Over the last five years, female participation in the national total reached 67.8%; however, it was only 7.8% in STEM fields, indicating a growing commitment, albeit primarily focused on the Humanities, public health, COVID-19, and education (Herrera-Franco et al., 2025). In surgery, a study of 105 Ecuadorian female surgeons revealed that men hold 66.7% of leadership positions; 55.2% reported sexual harassment, and 48.6% reported discrimination (Sarmiento et al., 2021). Furthermore, gender norms impact decisions regarding specialization and career paths (Bedoya-Vaca et al., 2016). This bias represents an individual injustice; it also impoverishes scientific knowledge by limiting the diversity of perspectives, approaches, and topics. Various studies have shown that diverse scientific teams, in terms of gender, race, or culture, tend to produce more rigorous, innovative, and ethical science. However, women remain less likely to receive funding, hold tenure, be cited, or receive awards, even when they have equal or greater merit. In this context, we believe that scientific journals—such as the Gregorian Journal of Health Sciences—play a transformative role in the system. Editorial policies that promote equity—such as gender parity on editorial boards and reviewers, promotion of research with a gender perspective, active visibility of female authors in special sections, interviews, or thematic dossiers, and blind peer review to avoid conscious or unconscious bias—are necessary steps toward more ethical and inclusive science. Furthermore, we propose incorporating the monitoring of gender indicators in authorship, funding, and citation as part of editorial quality standards.

Matilda effect: challenges to the visibility and recognition of women in Health Sciences Rodríguez 8 San Gregorio de Portoviejo University | Ecuador We invite the academic community to recognize and question the practices that perpetuate the Matilda Effect in our institutions. Only in this way can we move toward scientific production that reflects the plurality of voices that shape it. Sincerely, Daliannis Rodríguez CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The author declares that she has no conflicts of interest. REFERENCES Bansal A. (2023). From rejection to the Nobel Prize: Karikó and Weissman's pioneering work on mRNA vaccines, and the need for diversity and inclusion in translational immunology. Frontiers in Immunology, 14, 1306025. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1306025 Bedoya-Vaca, R., Derose, K. P., & Romero-Sandoval, N. (2016). Gender and physician specialization and practice settings in Ecuador: a qualitative study. BMC Health Services Research, 16, 662. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-016-1917-1 Binda, M. C., Silveira, R., & Krämer, C. (2010). Cecilia Grierson, la primera médica argentina. Revista Argentina de Radiología, 74(4), 361-365. https://www.scielo.org.ar/pdf/rar/v74n4/v74n4a03.pdf Herrera-Franco https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2024.100413 Núñez, J., Pablos, F. d., & Ramos, A. (2022). Pioneering Black African American Women Chemists and Pharmacists. Foundations, 2(3), 624-638. https://doi.org/10.3390/foundations2030043 Osman, L. (2003). Rosalind Franklin and the Double Helix. Physics Today, 56(3), 42-48. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1570771 Rossiter, M. W. (1993). The Matthew Matilda Effect in Science. Social Studies of Science, 23(2), 325-341. https://doi.org/10.1177/030631293023002004 Sarmiento, D., Himmler, A., Cabrera, C., Olmedo, S., Biondi, A., & Di Saverio, S. (2021). Gender disparities in Ecuador: a survey study of the under-representation of women in surgery. Updates in Surgery, 73, 2009-2015. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13304-020-00964-7

Revista Gregoriana de Ciencias de la Salud. Bi-annual peer-reviewed publication. ISSN 3028-8940 / July-December 2025;2(2):6-9 San Gregorio de Portoviejo University | Ecuador 9 Disclaimer / Editor's Note: All publications' statements, opinions, and data are solely those of the individual authors and contributors, not Revista Gregoriana de Ciencias de la Salud or the editors. Revista Gregoriana de Ciencias de la Salud and/or the editors disclaim all responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions, or products referred to in the content.