by Over the years, women have become more and more included in science and have led to many meaniful contributions. There have been many obstacles standing in their way such as lack of an ability to get an education, sexism in the workforce, and other gender norms making it harder to succeed. As far as women in science technolgy and society, they have set force goals that have pushed science to new heights including eliminating research that leads to any kind of exploitation or oppression, making science accessible to anyone who is interested, and making it a more inclusive feild of study. One of the earliest female scientists who had a massive impact on the field as a whole was Marie Curie.
Born in Warsaw, Poland on November 7th, 1867, Currie’s father was a secondary school teacher who was able to give her some scientific training beyond her general education in local schools. Her training propelled ehr to lead a students’ revolutionary organization, before continuing her studies in Paris at the Sorbonne where she was able to obtain Licenciateships in both Physics and Mathmatical Sciences. She ended up meeting her husband, Pierre Currie, there before eventually succeeding him after his death as the first female Faculty of Sciences.
Marie Currie perfromed much of her rersearch with her late husband Pierre in very challneging conditions as the labratories they used were often not the best labrotaory environments. The couple was not necessarily well off financially and had to spend a lot of time teaching in order to be able to perfrom their research. Although increrdbly difficult at times, their work lead to the isloation of polonium and radium. Not only did Marie Curie make the discovery, but she pushed the ability to use radium as a treatment to alleviate suffering during WWI. She made incredible achievements in science, but also was able to push those findings into society to help as many people as she could. Her purposeful research and behavior in her field places Currie as a role model for any future scientist.
Over her long career, Marie Currie earned numerous awards on behalf of her achievements. Some of the awards include “many honorary science, medicine and law degrees and honorary memberships of learned societies throughout the world” (Marie Currie Biographical, 2020). Other notable awards she recieved include the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903, an award she shared with her husband. The pair earned the award for their study into the spontaneous radiation in conjunction with scientist Henri Becquerel. She received another Nobel Prize, this time for chemistry, for her work studying radioactivity. Her list honors includes numerous other awards.
Although in the past and even today, women have faced struggles in their pursuit of science, they are an integral part of scientific study. As time has gone on, women have contributed more and more to science, technology and society, and will continue to do so. Some of the other famous women in science include the first female astronaut, Mae C. Jemison, and atronomist Sara Seager.
Link to research: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/marie-curie/biographical/