"The situation at Cambridge worsened for Bateson as he began expanding his research group. Bateson was sympathetic to the women’s suffrage movement in which his mother Anna Aitkin and sisters Margaret, Anna, and Mary Bateson were prominently involved (Box 1). He welcomed women into his laboratory group. Some of the first papers from his group were coauthored by his sister Anna who also worked with Francis Darwin (botanist and son of Charles Darwin) during her studies at Cambridge. However, Sedgwick strongly disapproved of women in the academy, and this principled position cost Bateson throughout his career. Though he was employed at Cambridge for the entirety of his career, his promotion was overlooked for more than a decade. Nevertheless, his integrity remained intact and his collaborations with many female scientists including Edith Saunders, later referred to as the “mother of British plant genetics” [23], were incredibly productive (Box 2)."

https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1010379