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I’d like to talk to you about the genetic scissors that Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna developed. But I don’t understand enough about this innovative tool with which the genetic material of animals and plants can be changed, and for which its inventors received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this week.
Most people are like me. However, the news attracted attention: for the first time, two women were honored together and without male co-winners. The two winners can also toast this historic success with the equivalent of around 1.03 million Swiss francs in prizes.
The Nobel Prize has been awarded for 120 years. But of the 931 winners between 1901 and 2019, only 54 were women. This year there are already four, in addition to the French Charpentier and the American Doudna, the astronomer Andrea Ghez (physics) and the poet Louise Glück (literature) are honored – the economy is still pending. So far, there have only been more than five laureates in 2009.
Emmanuelle Charpentier hopes that her award “sends a positive message” to young women. Jennifer Doudna believes it is “great, especially for younger women, to see that women’s work can be recognized as much as men’s.”
But it is not enough for women to catch up slowly. The renowned award is not diverse enough in many areas. Most of the winners come from four countries: the United States, Great Britain, Germany and France. The fact that not only women are missing, but also blacks (16 awards) or Asians (12) shows the blind spot of science around the world. Lack of representation of social diversity has been shown to lead to gaps in research.
The Nobel Prize clarifies basic structural problems. For a black woman, who is ten years old today, to be honored in 48 years (the average age of scientific award winners is 58), the proper course must be set today. The girl has to go to the right schools, take an interest in natural science subjects, study tomorrow at the renowned university, where the most prestigious research groups work, and be published and cited as often as her white chickens.
Back to the genetic scissors: if Charpentier and Doudna make it possible to rewrite the code of life, we should all work to ensure that this also works for equal opportunities. For example, getting women and people with a migration background excited about natural sciences and massively promoting research in developing countries.
