Filling the voids left by the system
Where archives are missing - because the patriarchal system did not see fit to keep women's work - fiction takes over. It does not need "proof" to explore an interiority.
It can give a voice, doubts, and humanity to women who were just a footnote in a man's notebook. The novel fills the voids.
"Literature does not rewrite history, it completes it. It restores its humanity and justice."
From stereotyped assistant to protagonist
For decades, the woman scientist in fiction was a stereotype: the devoted assistant of the male genius, or the bitter spinster.
Today, works like Lessons in Chemistry or The Imprint (on Rosalind Franklin) place them at the center. They become the subjects of their own story, actively fighting against the sexism of their environment, and no longer the objects of a man's narrative.
An act of narrative justice
By making these women heroines, literature educates. It forces the reader to identify with their fight against prejudice and the theft of their work. It is an act of justice that makes their name visible and famous again, inspiring a new generation to question the official narrative.