Ratio 0.38 on a low base, but it is the only book in the corpus that names two women scientists and prints one of their portraits. Marie Curie appears with her dates — "Marie (1867-1934) and Pierre Curie (1859-1906) conducted the most significant investigations of this" (PAGE 244) — and Lise Meitner is credited with the theoretical explanation of nuclear fission: "explained theoretically in January 1939 [by] Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Robert Frisch" (PAGE 252), with Figure 18.12 - Lise Meitner on PAGE 253. Rescored from 5 to 3 on 23 Aug 2026.
Women scientists are named four times in the whole corpus — all of them by two boards
Across eleven matriculation science volumes and roughly 530,000 words, a woman scientist is named four times, in three books, by two of the four boards. KP's Physics 10 names Marie Curie with her dates and credits Lise Meitner with the theoretical explanation of nuclear fission, printing her portrait. KP's Chemistry 9 names Madam Curie. Punjab's Physics 10 names Marie Curie once. Sindh and Balochistan name no woman scientist in any science volume, and none of the four boards names one below class 9.
This finding is a correction, and the corrected version is narrower and more interesting than the original. Across eleven matriculation science volumes and roughly 530,000 words, a woman scientist is named four times, in three books, by two of the four boards. KP's Physics 10 carries most of it: Marie Curie with her dates at p. 244, and Lise Meitner credited with the theoretical explanation of nuclear fission, with her portrait printed — the only book in the corpus naming two women scientists. KP's Chemistry 9 names Madam Curie; Punjab's Physics 10 names Marie Curie once. Against that: KP's Chemistry 10 has none across 55,101 words, and Balochistan's Physics 9 none across 69,911 — its only Curie is the Curie temperature, the constant rather than the person. Sindh and Balochistan name no woman scientist in any science volume, and no board names one below class 9.
“explained theoretically in January 1939 [by] Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Robert Frisch”Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Physics 10, scan 2021 edition — PDF p. 244
What the books say
Each entry below is the catalogue's own record for that book on that
axis, printed as it stands. Pages marked PDF p. are counted from the first page of the scanned file, which is how most of this corpus was read; pages marked printed p. are the folio printed on the paper. The two differ by however many unnumbered cover leaves a volume carries, so the label matters when you go to check.
Ratio 0.20 on a base of 0.1/1k across 61,262 words.
Ratio 0.25 on a base of 0.2/1k across 60,109 words.
What was checked and not found
A claim that one board does something and the others do not is only as good as the search that failed to find it elsewhere. These are those searches.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chemistry 10
Ratio 0.06 — 0.1 feminine tokens per 1,000 words across 55,101 words. No named woman scientist.
Ratio 0.59; no named woman scientist across 69,911 words. Balochistan's only Curie occurrence is Curie temperature, the physical constant, not the person.
Against this
KP is simultaneously the worst board in the corpus on aggregate gender conservatism (A7 4.44). The board that scores worst on women's presence and agency is the only one that credits a woman with a major discovery in her own right. Aggregate ratios cannot see this; the per-book tables can.
Limits
CORRECTION. This finding previously stated that no woman scientist is named in any matriculation science book. That was false and was withdrawn on 23 August 2026 after a reader challenged it. The project's own records already carried an unresolved disagreement on this point — the synthesis said zero, the gender lens had located one — and the wrong side was repeated instead of resolved. Care was taken in the recount to separate Marie Curie the person from the curie unit of radioactivity and the Curie temperature, which account for most occurrences of the string in the corpus.
Boards and confidence
PunjabSindhKhyber PakhtunkhwaBalochistan high confidence
Confidence reflects the evidence tier this rests on. High means native or English-medium text verified by exact string match; medium means it depends partly on Urdu-medium material read at theme grade, or on an absence. See the method.
Source
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Physics 10, scan 2021 edition — PDF p. 244; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chemistry 10, 'New Edition', scan 2021 edition; Balochistan Physics 9, NC 2022-23 pilot edition; Punjab Physics 10, 2026 edition; Sindh Physics 10, portal-listed edition
Marie Curie is at PDF p. 252 and the Lise Meitner portrait is Figure 18.12 at PDF p. 253.
Cite this finding
Textbook Evidence Project, “Women scientists are named four times in the whole corpus — all of them by two boards”. Evidence from 5 textbooks (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Punjab, Sindh). Corpus version 210 records. Retrieved from https://textbookevidence.com/findings/no-woman-scientist-matriculation/
Two citations are appropriate here, not one. The line above cites this finding. If you are quoting the textbook passage itself, cite the book — its full bibliographic record, edition and approval reference is on its own page, linked from each evidence entry above — and say that you found it here.
Challenge this finding
This is a claim about a printed book, so it is checkable, and it should be checked. If the citation is wrong, the edition is misidentified, the passage is quoted unfairly, or the finding does not survive its own evidence, that is worth reporting and it will be acted on whether or not the correction is convenient for the argument. Corrections are logged publicly in the corrections log; this applies fully to the boards themselves.