Matilda effect

English

Etymology

Named by Margaret W. Rossiter for Matilda J. Gage and patterned after the Matthew effect.

Proper noun

the Matilda effect

1. The ignorance or minimization of the role of women in science.
   • 1993 May 1, Margaret W. Rossiter, “The Matthew Matilda Effect in Science”, in Social Studies of Science, volume 23, →DOI, pages 325–341:

     Since this systematic bias in scientific information and recognition practices fits the second half of Matthew 13:12 in the Bible, which refers to the under-recognition accorded to those who have little to start with, it is suggested that sociologists of science and knowledge can add to the 'Matthew Effect', made famous by Robert K. Merton in 1968, the "Matilda Effect", named for the American suffragist and feminist critic Matilda J. Gage of New York, who in the late nineteenth century both experienced and articulated this phenomenon.