No longer just men, the names of 72 women who have made history will finally be engraved on the Eiffel Tower

136 years have passed since the installation of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, 136 years in which under the frieze on the first floor the names of 72 illustrious citizens, including scientists, mathematicians and engineers, stand out undisturbed on all four sides. From Foucault to Fresnel, from Cauchy to Belgrand, all men, in golden letters.

It took almost a century and a half for someone to realize that no, it is not possible that there is not even a woman who does not deserve a mention on the facade of one of the indisputably most famous and visited monuments in the world.

From this assumption the initiative promoted by the mayor of the city has (finally) taken hold Villas, Anne Hidalgo, from the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE) and from the “Femmes & Sciences” association, to correct this authentic “historical omission”.

The names of the women on the Eiffel Tower

Last March 25, the City of Paris, the Société d’exploitation de la tour Eiffel (SETE) and the Femmes & Sciences association created a scientific committee ad hoc composed of representatives of the State, renowned scientists, heritage experts, historians of the Eiffel Tower, representatives of the technical services, administrative authorities and committed associations, to reflect on the criteria to be used to select the names of women scientists and on the technical possibilities of inscribing their names on the Eiffel Tower”in strict respect of the heritage”.

72 names of female scientists will be decided and engraved in gold letters 60 centimeters high and 5 centimeters thick, in a style identical to that used for the scientists’ frieze which is currently on the monument.

The list of names is expected to be revealed next December and will include names of “illustrious experts who lived between 1789 and the present day, now deceased” And “whose work is considered by their peers to be founding and decisive“.

Selected women must have worked in the fields of science and technology, engineering and mathematics.

Because even today these are the fields that are very rarely feminized. 10% of women in the theoretical physics section of the CNRS. We really need to convince young women that they have their place in science and that science needs them. This gesture will have an international scope. It’s great for all the little girls who could one day be the women scientists of tomorrow.

Sources: France Info / CDN Paris