Event:EiffelWomen
Did you know that the names of 72 men of science were inscribed onto the Eiffel Tower when it was built? But despite the structure acquiring the nickname la Dame de Fer (The Iron Lady), not a single woman of science was included on the list...not even Sophie Germain, whose earlier mathematical research into the elasticity of metals played a key role in the engineering calculations needed for the metal structure.
In 2025, the then mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, named a commission of experts to look at a project to add the names of women in STEM onto the Eiffel Tower. The response was positive and l'Association Femmes & Sciences was tasked with preparing a list of 72 women scientists to be commemorated. The proposed names were revealed in January 2026 and are awaiting approval by the mayor, the Académie des Sciences, the Académie des Technologies and the Académie nationale de médecine.[1][2]
At the time of the announcement, 23 of the named women didn't have an English language Wikipedia page, and some of the existing pages left something to be desired...
There is now a page for each woman in both French and English but there are still improvements needed, images to source and translations to be made into other languages. A number of English language pages are needed for some of their places of education and employment, as well as for other notable female colleagues. Not to mention linking the women to their male colleagues, their name pages, professional pages etc and getting them into the correct categories.
The Eiffel Women project is timed to end with WikiMania in Paris in July this year - the 72 names won't be on the Eiffel Tower quite yet, but we can make sure that they are on wiki and looking good!
72 women proposed for the Eiffel Tower
[edit]- Denise Albe-Fessard
- Yvette Amice
- Jeanne Baret
- Denise Barthomeuf
- Madeleine Brès
- Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat
- Simonne Caillère
- Yvette Cauchois
- Edmée Chandon
- Marthe Condat
- Anita Conti,
- Eugénie Cotton
- Radhia Cousot
- Odile Croissant
- Marie Curie
- Augusta Déjérine
- Henriette Delamarre
- Georgette Délibrias
- Nathalie Demassieux
- Rose Dieng
- Angélique du Coudray
- Louise du Pierry
- Henriette Mathieu-Faraggi
- Jacqueline Ferrand
- Jacqueline Ficini
- Rosalind Franklin
- Marthe Gautier
- Sophie Germain
- Jeanne Guiot
- Geneviève Guitel
- Sébastienne Guyot
- Claudine Hermann
- Andrée Hoppilliard
- Marie-Louise Dubreil-Jacotin
- Irène Joliot-Curie
- Geneviève Jourdain
- Dorothéa Klumpke
- Lydie Koch-Miramond
- Colette Kreder
- Nicole Laroche
- Cornélie Lebon-de Brambilla
- Yolande Le Calvez
- Paulette Libermann
- Marianne Grunberg-Manago
- Nicole Mangin
- Cécile Morette
- Édith Mourier
- Ethel Moustacchi
- Suzanne Noël
- Yvonne Odic
- Isabelle Olivieri
- Marie-Louise Paris
- Marguerite Perey
- Claudine Picardet
- Alberte Pullman
- Pauline Ramart
- Lucie Randoin
- Alice Recoque
- Michelle Schatzman
- Anne-Marcelle Schrameck
- Marie-Hélène Schwartz
- Josiane Serre
- Alice Sollier
- Hélène Sparrow
- Bianca Tchoubar
- Marie-Antoinette Tonnelat
- Thérèse Tréfouël
- Agnès Ullmann
- Arlette Vassy
- Suzanne Veil
- Jeanne Villepreux
- Toshiko Yuasa
How to prepare
[edit]- Create a Wikipedia account – you need one to register for this event!
- Sign up at the Dashboard https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Wikimedia_UK/Eiffel_Women_Campaign_2026_(May_to_July_2026) Go to the Articles tab, then click Available Articles to see the list and what their ratings currently are. You can assign yourself articles from the list if you want to.
- Pick a topic you want to work on - improving one or more of the pages of the 72 women in the list above or take a look at the ever growing GoogleDoc to link the Eiffel Tower 72 to their places of work or education, their colleagues, friends, family and name pages. Some of the places the women trained at don't have pages in English if you fancy a go at a translation.
- Translation into other languages is also an option.
References
[edit]- ^ "Eiffel Tower: a list of 72 women scientists will soon be inscribed on the Parisian monument". www.sortiraparis.com. Retrieved 2026-02-05.
- ^ "Eiffel Tower to honor 72 women scientists for posterity". 2026-01-26. Retrieved 2026-02-05.
