A guideline in the 12-year national natural science curriculum to promote gender equality states that the full names of female scientists’ be used in textbooks, even though they are better known by their husband’s surname, the Ministry of Education said yesterday.
The ministry’s curriculum review committee on Sunday approved a set of guidelines for the curriculum, including one that states: “In portrayals of major scientific discoveries, there should be provision of such information as gender, ethnicity or other background relevant to the scientists who have contributed to the findings.”
This was interpreted by some reporters to mean that French-Polish scientist Marie Curie, a two-time Nobel Prize winner, to cite one example, would have to be referred to in textbooks as Maria Sklodowska-Curie.
Reporters misunderstood the new guidelines, K-12 Education Administration Deputy Head Tai Shu-fen (戴淑芬) said.
The guidelines will become the principles the National Academy for Educational Research uses when it reviews textbooks, but whether the contents of the books are in compliance with the guidelines, including how to refer to a female scientist, is a decision that would be made by the academy, she said.
When the proposed guideline was discussed at the meeting, a suggestion was made that Curie’s name be changed to her maiden name, Tai said.
However, there is no mention in the guidelines of how Curie’s name, or those of other female scientists should be designated, Tai said.
Born in Warsaw, Maria Salomea Sklodowska, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and the chemistry prize in 1911, took her husband’s last name upon their marriage and the French spelling of her first name, gaining fame as Marie Curie.
She is currently referred to as Madame Curie in Taiwanese textbooks.
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