International Womens Day Blog Series (2 of 4)
In the build-up to International Women’s Day on the 8th of March, I’ll be writing a short blog series regarding some of the famous and not-so-famous women of the world; women who have triumphed in the face of adversity and overcome challenges both worldly and personal. In this second instalment, we’ll be learning about the most famous woman in science…
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Marie Curie was born Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, Poland on the 7th of November 1867. The daughter of two teachers, Marie excelled in school during her early years and her love for science blossomed when her grandfather had to move his lab equipment back to his home. But it wouldn’t be long till Curie found hardships on her way to success; her mother died when she was ten years old due to tuberculosis, her sister died three years prior to typhus. Curie had been religious up until that point, but joined her father in atheism following the death of her mother. Marie would finish school with the highest qualifications, but was unable to join a regular institute of higher education due to her gender, and so had to join a ‘flying university’, an underground educational system for Polish youths to learn in a more traditionally Polish manner, particularly encouraging patriotism at a time when the country was under the rule of the Russian Empire and most importantly, allowed for female students. During her later years at the university she would start her practical scientific training, until she could eventually gather the funds to move to France in 1891.
Marie Curie enrolled at the University of Paris, studying physics, chemistry, and mathematics all the while living very meagrely, suffering cold winters and occasionally fainting from hunger. She would be awarded a degree in physics by 1893, and a second degree the following year. Over the next 10 years, there would be a plethora of milestones for Curie, starting with meeting Pierre Curie, her future husband and scientific partner, discovering polonium and radium, publishing 32 scientific papers, coined the term ‘radioactivity’ and went on to prove how much more complicated it was initially thought to be. All this culminated in the two being awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903, and another in chemistry in 1911. She is the only woman to be awarded two Nobel Prizes in different categories to this day; but even in between these lofty achievements, difficulties marred Curie’s life. Her husband was struck down and killed by a horse drawn carriage in 1906, she was regularly vilified by the right-wing press in France, particularly when she won French science awards, normally reserved for French nationals, and due to the nature of her work, she was constantly exposed to radiation – there were no safety measures at the time – which would inflict her with chronic illnesses, ultimately causing her death in 1934.
Marie Curie is one of the greatest examples of a woman overcoming obstacles to go on and achieve great things. The odds were severely stacked against her throughout her life and tested her to her limits, but not only did she pass with flying colours, she did so whilst raising two children, Irène Joliot-Curie and Ève Curie Labouisse, the former going on to jointly win a Nobel Prize with her husband, and the latter writing a best-selling biography of her mother. A lasting-legacy indeed.
Vandu Language Services will be supporting Eastbourne Borough Council and Creative Force to hold an event to celebrate International Women’s Day on the 8th of March in Eastbourne. Please check our twitter page for more information @VanduLanguage or email marketing@vlslanguages.com
