“Remember my words, Mileva, when you withdraw into the deadening cycle of home. You and I are not so different except in the choices we’ve made. And remind yourself that a new choice is always possible.”
Marie Curie is such a legendary figure and often the only female historical scientist most of us can name, so when I learned that she and Mileva actually knew each other quite well, I could not resist making the comparison between them. After all, they were alike in so many ways. Both eastern European women with a passion for science, they faced similar challenges, in terms of their genders and their backgrounds, and still rose up to claim a western European university education in the sciences. The primary difference between them, other than the gap in their ages and specialties, was the sort of husbands they’d chosen. In highlighting this, I wanted to emphasize how much of a historical woman’s life was dependent on the support, encouragement, and expectations of her husband, even for brilliant, ambitious women like Mileva and Marie. And I also wanted to suggest the bright, promising future Mileva might have had—one we might have benefited from immensely—if she’d never married or chosen a very different partner.
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