Women who changed science missing from GCSE and A-level courses – new study

Cast your mind back to your secondary school science classroom: the fiery glow of Bunsen burners, scratched safety goggles that never quite fit, and a giant periodic table pinned to the wall. When you learned about the breakthroughs that shaped our world and the people who made them, whose names were attached? From Newton’s laws to Darwin’s theory of natural selection, the ones you remember are almost certainly male. That experience was not just down to individual teachers. It was and still is written into official GCSE and A-level course specifications. Because these early stages form the foundation of our science education, their omissions stick with us for life. Read more: My unsung hero of science: Harriet Taylor Mill, the radical feminist philosopher who lived in the shadow of her husband Half of the British population can’t name one woman scientist. Leaving women out of national specifications sends an implicit message about who science is really for. In our new study, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge alongside IncludeHer, a collaborative project working to improve the representation of women in school science education, we analysed over 40 science specifications: the knowledge required to pass exams. We examined the specifications for six main exam boards for Key Stage 4 (GCSEs) and Key Stage 5 (A-levels), and for Scotland’s National 5s and Highers. Our work builds on an earlier Australian study led by astrophysicist Dr Kat Ross, which uncovered a striking lack of female scientists in high school curricula. We set out to investigate whether UK specifications have similar omissions. Across 224 unique scientists referenced in UK specifications, discoveries are taught almost exclusively through concepts named after men, with only three mentioning women in total. Inge Lehmann, who discovered that the Earth has a solid inner core surrounded by a liquid outer core, is cited in A-level Geology via the “Lehmann discontinuity”. Marie Tharp at work aboard the USNS Kane, an oceanographic research and hydrographic survey ship. AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Gift of Bill Woodward, USNS Kane Collection/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY Marie Tharp, who mapped the ocean floor and identified the Mid-Atlantic Ridge rift valley, is also mentioned in A-level geology. She provided vital evidence for continental drift, despite being prohibited from boarding research vessels for years and having her ideas dismissed as “girl talk”. Finally, Rosalind Franklin is included in two biology specifications for her X-ray crystallography work revealing the double-helix structure of DNA. Her essential data was used without attribution during her lifetime. A retouched photograph of Rosalind Franklin. MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC-SA At GCSE level, when science is compulsory for all students, Franklin is the only woman mentioned. At A-level, Lehmann and Tharp appear solely in geology, a subject taken by less than 2% of science students. For centuries, social, economic, and institutional barriers limited women’s formal participation in science. Despite this, women made numerous key breakthroughs, and these are already taught to UK 14–18-year-olds. But the names of the women behind them did not make it onto the page. Why representation matters Diversity within scientific fields drives creativity and innovation, benefiting all of society. Yet women remain underrepresented. They make up only around one third of the global scientific community, with similar figures seen within the UK workforce. This disparity starts early on in schools: although science uptake is balanced at Key Stage 4, just two years later at Key Stage 5, physics, mathematics and further mathematics only see participation from girls at 24.1%, 37.3% and 26.9% respectively in 2025. This imbalance continues into university, where women make up roughly 25% of physics undergraduate students in the UK. Introducing relatable female role models into the classroom directly boosts girls’ confidence and fosters positive attitudes towards scientific careers. But because specifications dictate mandatory exam content, teachers currently have to go out of their way to add female figures on top of busy workloads. By making small, targeted changes directly to national specifications, we can make inclusion standard practice across all schools. Read more: Florence Buchanan: the pioneering physiologist whose face was lost to history We propose inserting one female scientist per subject into topics that are already compulsory, but where the woman’s name is missing. This means introducing Marie Skłodowska-Curie, who coined the term radioactivity and discovered polonium and radium, when teaching atomic structure and radioactivity, and Lise Meitner, who provided the first theoretical explanation of nuclear fission, when discussing this concept. GCSE astronomy should include Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who discovered pulsars: rotating neutron stars used as cosmic clocks. Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou. Bengt Nyman/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC-ND Biology teaching can include Dorothy Hodgkin on protein structure, the only British female Nobel laureate in science, and Tu Youyou, a Nobel laureate whose work led to the development of an antimalarial drug. In chemistry, schools can teach about Stephanie Kwolek, the inventor of Kevlar, when covering polymers. For physics, they can include Annie Jump Cannon when describing the classification of stars. And in environmental science, classes can discuss the pivotal work of Susan Solomon for understanding Antarctic ozone depletion. By making these simple additions to science specifications, we can change the message we send to the next generation. Whoever they are, every student sitting in a classroom deserves to know that the story of science belongs to them too.