2026-02-07 06:00
publication
2026-02-07 06:00
On Monday, the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, published a list of 72 women from the world of science whose names may be engraved on the Eiffel Tower. They would thus complete the list of great representatives of science and technology who, on Eiffel's initiative, were immortalized in the tower and who were only men.
The list announced by the mayor's office includes, among others: Maria Skłodowska-Curie (as Marie Curie) and her daughter Irene Joliot-Curie.
The list includes 250 years of the history of science and, for example, Angelique du Coudray, a pioneer of midwifery from the 18th century. Other names – this is a British physical chemist Rosalind Franklin or botanist Jeanne Barrettconsidered the first woman to circumnavigate the world. Moreover – as the daily “Le Figaro” notes – most of the names are not widely known.
The list will now be presented to the French Academy of Sciences and two other scientific societies: the Academy of Technology and the Academy of Medicine. They are expected to express their views before the list is approved and work begins.
When the tower was built, its creator, Gustave Eiffel, wanted it to become a “pantheon of science” and on his initiative the names of 72 scientists, industrialists and engineers were included. They were only men, although then – at the end of the 19th century – women were also known in science. At the beginning of the 20th century, the names on the Eiffel Tower were painted over, but then in the 1980s – they were revealed.
The women's names are to be engraved in a similar way: on the first floor, also in gold letters and in exactly the same font. The mayor's office has not set a completion date for the project.
From Paris Anna Wróbel (PAP)
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