Last week I saw a show on PBS about Einstein’s wife, Mileva. She was a great scientist in her own right but she ended up pregnant with Einstein’s baby out of wedlock. She later married him and babies kept arriving effectively stopping her career.
In at least 12 hand written letters Einstein acknowledged Milevas work when he wrote about “our little theory on the relative motion.”
Both names were sited on the original manuscripts submitted for publication in 1905. They showed a copy of it in the Russian Archives.
The original 1905 manuscript was lost and during WW2 the secretary who typed a new one tried to get him to do an exact copy of the original but he wouldn’t. He re-wrote an “improved” version that didn’t include Mileva.
In 1921 the Nobel prize money went directly to Mileva. He changed the money a few times to cover it up but not well enough.
There is a history of side lining women’s great accomplishments in Science. Do you know of any more interesting stories of women who were never given the credit they deserved? I would love to hear more.
In at least 12 hand written letters Einstein acknowledged Milevas work when he wrote about “our little theory on the relative motion.”
Both names were sited on the original manuscripts submitted for publication in 1905. They showed a copy of it in the Russian Archives.
The original 1905 manuscript was lost and during WW2 the secretary who typed a new one tried to get him to do an exact copy of the original but he wouldn’t. He re-wrote an “improved” version that didn’t include Mileva.
In 1921 the Nobel prize money went directly to Mileva. He changed the money a few times to cover it up but not well enough.
There is a history of side lining women’s great accomplishments in Science. Do you know of any more interesting stories of women who were never given the credit they deserved? I would love to hear more.
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Sacramento
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Re: Mileva Einstein and others forgotten
Wed, November 12, 2003 - 11:34 AMI agree. I think pretty much any woman that we might discuss here probably has not gotten due credit. That would the the rule rather than the exception. And I love talking about it.
In response to your story above, there is a book called "Einstein's Daughter". This book was interesting more for the story of Mileva (and how Einsteing treated women) than being particularly revealing about his daughter. dailybeacon.utk.edu/issues/v....24n.html
Another woman that crossed paths with Einstein and gets little to no credit is Emily Noether. www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/...ether.htm
This section only mentions in passing work she did on Einstein's theories. I have read elsewhere that she played a more seminal role. She has always been a herione of mine in my struggle with wanting to be better at math.
Hypatia is another good one. www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~hist...a.html
I too would love to hear more stories about great women in science.
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Re: Mileva Einstein and others forgotten
Wed, November 12, 2003 - 11:45 AMI think my favorite stories about women in science involve the ones who are still around. Barbara Grosz and Margo Seltzer are examples. They're currently computer science professors at Harvard, and both widely acknowledged within CS to be leaders in their particular sub-disciplines -- AI and operating systems, respectively.
Prof. Grosz has had tenure for years, and was recently named to a deanship, and Prof. Seltzer was recently granted tenure at Harvard -- a really, really hard thing to do, esp. for women! -- even after having two kids. The coolest thing about these two women is that they're really approachable, and really supportive of other smart people, and especially of women.
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Re: Mileva Einstein and others forgotten
Wed, November 12, 2003 - 2:05 PMrosalind franklin, discovered dna but never was credited for it. she's only recently getting the recognition she deserves. -
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Re: Mileva Einstein and others forgotten
Wed, November 12, 2003 - 5:06 PMYeah I saw a dramatized version of this story on PBS or Discovery or something. Its bad enough when women don't get the credit they deserve. It makes me *really* mad when its basically just stolen. -
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Re: Mileva Einstein and others forgotten
Thu, November 13, 2003 - 2:08 PMand what's sad about franklin is she died while still 'unknown.'
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Re: Mileva Einstein and others forgotten
Mon, November 17, 2003 - 3:35 PMHahahaha...I've just gone back to school to finish my degree and last weekend I took a class EXACTLY fitting the nature of your question: Women in Science. My professor would be thrilled to know there are folks out there curious about women scientists in history.
Here are my faves from the pages and pages of notes i took (sorry the dates are all aproximately- i didnt take that good of notes):
astronomy, mathematics, cosmology
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theono (pythagorus' wife)
aglaonike (could predict eclipses)
sophia braha (1400's? dane, who with brother worked with kepler)
maria winkelmann kirch (1600's? discovered comet and wrote about aurora borealis)
caroline herschel (discovered 8 comets)
mariah mitchel(cool astronomer,got medal,taught @vasser 1900ish)
annie jo canon (famous, whiz @ classifying stars 1900ish)
caroline shoemaker-alive,modern era (discovered many comets)
archeology
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margeret murray (brilliant and determined)
mary leakey (brilliant, no degree, worked with husband lewis)
sophia schleimann (1800's, her and husband excatated Troy)
mrs agnes smith leweis and mergeret dunlop gibson (twin sisters, in 1892 travel to arabian desert)
harriet boyd hawes (went to greece,found 3500 year old stuff)
dr. jeannine davs kimball-modern era (got phd @ berkeley, discovered ancient warrior women)
dr aslihan yener-modern (from turkey, studies assyrian tablets)
botony-earth science
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hildegaard of bingham (german, natural historian, and herbalist)
maria murrien (1600's went to s.america, studied labeled engraved many species)
anna comstock(1920ish began naturestudy for teachers, publisher)
rachel carson (orginally worked for us gov., before writing many books including 'a sense of wonder' and 'silent spring'
little tidbits:
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voltaire had a mistress who was a mathmetician
emily roebling built brooklyn bridge with her husband
trotula of salerna was a famous physician in the day
book called 'short changing girls, short changing america'
marie curie was polish, maiden name was sledovska
(i was in poland travelling, and i never saw any statues or plaques celebrating her as a pole, hmmm.)
mileva einstein-maric or in texts sometimes know as mileva marity is of course famous for her probable accomplishments.
my favorite woman scientist among the bunch was lise meitner, austrian physicist who discovered nuclear fission (but did not receive nobel prize, go figure)
this class showed me the tip of the iceburg of just how many women in science there truly have been.....hope this info was interesting.
cheers!
