“Had she been a man, she would have been honored with the other distinctions which tradition and prejudice still persist in denying to one of the proscribed sex, no matter how great her merit or how signal her achievements.” (Mozans 229) "...none of this would be happening if Madame Curie were a man." (Goldsmith 175) |
"One must not try to make woman the equal of man." "All the eminent woman scientists have achieved their best work when collaborating with a male colleague." "Science is useless to women." |
Women and men were not equal in the early 1900s. One example of this is that there was a popular book called "The Physiological Feeble-Mindedness of Women" (Goldsmith 49). Women were seen as the weaker sex and men were dominant. Most people were against women doing anything else other than stay home and take care of children. This caused the media to have mixed reactions to Marie Curie's work and life. She also would have won many more awards than she did, but the tradition of only men winning awards prevented this. There was also a lot of controversy surrounding the awards she did win. She could have easily gotten into the French Academy of Sciences if she were a man. Also, women were not seen as leaders or independent scientists and were believed to need a man in order to be successful.
Sources for this tab:
-Goldsmith 49, 162, 170, 175
-Mozans 229
-AP Images
-Goldsmith 49, 162, 170, 175
-Mozans 229
-AP Images