Women and Named Reactions

Title: Critical Perspective: Named Reactions Discovered and Developed by Women

Journal: Accounts of Chemical Research

Authors: Julie A. Olson and Kevin M. Shea

Affiliation: Smith College

This post is a bit different than our other posts in that it is not a direct summary of a chemical experiment. The work presented in this paper is a wonderful look at reactions that were named for women and other named reactions where a woman played a large role in the development of the reaction.

When I read through this article I was surprised to find out how few reactions are actually named for women – only one woman is unambiguously recognized while others are named after a husband/wife pair. Although the authors only found one named reaction where a woman was slighted, the small number of reactions named after women is an indication of how hard it was and still can be for women studying chemistry.

This article is a fun, fairly easy read and gives you a great insight into the history of women in chemistry and also some great chemical reactions! I definitely suggest taking a look.


Leave a Reply