There are plenty of women in science whose contributions have either been ignored or overlooked in favour of their male counterparts, so much so that the phenomenon even has a name: The Matilda Effect.

In recent years, we’ve started hearing more about the women whose work has proved essential in our lives, from Katherine Johnson, the NASA mathematician who helped calculated the exit trajectories of astronauts in the space race, to Mae Jemison, a NASA astronaut who was the first African American woman to travel into space.

Pioneering nurse whose work led to first test tube baby was snubbed, new papers reveal