New York Times, Tuesday, March 8, 2022

It was a pleasure to honor the female Nobelists in this puzzle on International Women's Day: poet and playwright NELLY SACHS, biochemist and pharmacologist GERTRUDE ELION, physicist DONNA STRICKLAND, peace activist BETTY WILLIAMS and physicist and chemist MARIE CURIE.

I would like to have packed more diversity into this puzzle with entries such as novelist Toni Morrison, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, Guatemalan human rights activist and feminist Rigoberta Menchu, Yemeni journalist, politician, and human rights activist, Tawakkol Karman and Australian-American biological researcher Elizabeth Blackburn.

However, it was difficult to work five different female Nobelists of five different countries from each of the five original Nobel categories into a Tuesday level grid.

Unfortunately, part of the difficulty is the small number of female laureates. Since their inception in 1901, just 58 women have been awarded a Nobel Prize, 6.2% of the 943 total unique individuals bestowed with this honor. (Diversity is a problem as well with only 17 male or female black Nobelists, 1.8 % of the total.)

The dearth of female Nobelists is due in part to deserving women whose work has been overlooked. Rachel Carson is an example. Other women such as physicist Lise Meitner, physicist Chien-Shiung Wu, chemist Rosalind Franklin, microbiologist Esther Lederberg, and astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnel have had their work used to win the Nobel for their male colleagues. Additional reasons for the scarcity of female laureates include specious stereotypes and the STEM ceiling with its structural and institutional barriers (gender pay gap, work-life balance issues, harassment, lack of networking opportunities, and implicit biases such as the Matilda effect).

Who better to work with on this puzzle than someone who has fit five female names into a 15x grid before — Sally Hoelscher. Sally and I started this endeavor together, creating a 21x grid featuring female firsts. Tracy Bennett responded, saying the editorial team liked our idea but wanted a 15x grid to run on the actual International Women's Day. We initially declined, having put a lot of thought and work into our 21x grid and having other projects in the works. (That 21x grid is in the Crosswords Club March packet.) However, I hated to pass up this opportunity and asked Sally if she'd reconsider. She didn't have time in her busy schedule but said she looked forward to working on my NYT puzzle on March 8. Thanks for that vote of confidence, Sally!

I tried to avoid additional names in the fill but wasn't sorry to see ADELE and IDA B. Wells make an appearance in the puzzle. I provided alternate clues for INA [Food Network's "Barefoot Contessa" Garten] and IMA [American philanthropist Hogg, aka "The First Lady of Texas"].

May this global holiday motivate us to work towards Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.