Women Scientists

Joan Goverman’s observations (Commentary, Nov. 11) that women scientists are denied opportunities in a male-dominated profession thereby limiting their chances to win Nobel Prizes are valid but not new. The greatest woman scientist in history knew them well.

Marie Curie, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, was denied membership in the all-male French Academy of Science solely because of her sex. She never wore the Legion of Honor. An atheist, she was reviled by the Catholic Church. Polish-born she was despised as a “foreign pig.” Distrustful of the press, she was repeatedly and unfairly attacked. A French government that was lavish with money and material for almost any male scientist who asked had nothing for Marie and Pierre Curie during the four long years they toiled in a shed to produce radium from tons of pitchblende.

Motherhood held no restrictions for her. Daughter Irene, a brilliant physicist, was also a Nobelist and daughter Eve, a brilliant writer and musician, was a European treasure.

An alleged love affair with a fellow scientist provided her enemies more fuel for their assaults and when deportation threats promised to become a reality, the scientists of the world came to her aid with her second Nobel Prize for chemistry. France then realized it could harm her no more. She had won.

At the turn of the century, most male scientists in Europe had given up on the atom. All of its secrets were known. Marie Curie fervently believed it held one more secret and she opened up the Atomic Age.

Marie Curie, who should be a mentor for women scientists today, did not require one for herself. She was Madame Curie and she never let the male world forget it.

BUZZ WILLIAMS

Sherman Oaks