Remarkable Women of a Remarkable Family
Education was a way of life that passed from one generation to the next in the Skłowdowska – Curie family, leading to personal accomplishments that yielded worldwide benefits. One of the family’s most accomplished and renowned members, Marie Curie, not only was a prominent groundbreaker in the 20th century scientific world; she also raised two intelligent, driven, and compassionate daughters. The eldest, Irène, shared her parents’ scientific aptitude and curiosity. Both Marie and Irène married men who respected and partnered with their wives in lab research and family life, and the work of both couples led to discoveries that set the stage for significant advances in medical and scientific spheres. The younger Curie daughter Ève became a notable journalist, biographer, and UNICEF advocate. Some of the work of these three remarkable women has been publicly recognized yet their less-celebrated humanitarian contributions to society show their willingness to apply their skills in practical ways to make the world a better place.
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Pierre and Marie Curie, ca.1903. Image credit: Smithsonian Institution from United States, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
Maria Skłowdowska was born into a noble Polish family in Warsaw in 1867, one of five children of two school administrators. Although her eldest sister Zofia and mother Bronisława passed away from illnesses during her childhood, her father, Władysław Skłodowski, ensured that his surviving children would have access to schooling in multiple subjects regardless of obstacles stemming from political and gender issues of the time. He supported their education in mathematics and sciences at home and encouraged his daughters to pursue increasingly higher levels of studies through underground schools such as the Uniwersytet Latający (Flying or Floating University), tutoring, and independent reading. In 1891, Maria followed her older sister Bronisława to France where she enrolled at the University of Paris. After earning two degrees, she began research work in the laboratory of eventual Nobel Prizewinner Gabriel Lippmann and was introduced to Pierre Curie, a French scientist and professor.
Pierre and Maria, who went by the name Marie in France, married in July 1895. Together they conducted research in a makeshift lab on the campus where Pierre taught, experimenting with various substances to determine sources of radiation. Marie Curie completed her doctorate in 1903 but was obligated to defer to her husband due to gender-based restrictions when the couple was invited to make a presentation on radioactivity at the Royal Institution in London. A similar dynamic was thwarted later that year when the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Pierre Curie, Marie Curie, and Henri Becquerel for their research with respect to radioactivity. One of the committee members noted the omission of Marie Curie as a proposed honoree and informed her husband, who then insisted on her inclusion. She thus was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in any field.
The prestigious honor and its monetary support helped spur the University of Paris to dedicate laboratory space to the Curies and enabled them to hire an assistant. But tragically, Pierre died in an accident in April 1906, leaving Marie alone to raise their two daughters and continue their scientific research. She succeeded her husband as the chair of the physics department at the University and subsequently led the Radium Institute (now the Institut Curie), a partnership between the University of Paris and the Pasteur Institute. Marie Curie made history in 1911 when she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the identification of the elements polonium and radium and the isolation of radium, building from work that she and Pierre had begun together. This award made Marie Curie the first and only person to date to achieve this distinction in two scientific disciplines.
Irène and Marie Curie, 1925. Image credit: [1], CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, Marie and Pierre Curie instilled a devotion to intellectual inquiry in their children. Irène, born in 1897, showed an early aptitude for the sciences, which her mother fostered by teaming up with fellow academics to create a cooperative school for their children. She enrolled at the Sorbonne after completing her secondary studies but left during the Great War to assist her mother in operating mobile radiography units near battlefields. Marie’s leadership in procuring equipment and diffusing operational knowledge helped military physicians treat the wounded and resulted in her appointment as the director of the Red Cross Radiology Service. Despite her young age, Irène learned to use and repair radiography equipment and traveled on her own among sites in France and Belgium to share her expertise with medical units.
Irène resumed her university studies after the war and worked at the Radium Institute while pursuing her Doctorate of Science, which she earned from the Sorbonne in 1925. She married her co-worker Frédéric Joliot in 1926 and, just as her parents had done, they jointly conducted research as intellectual equals. Their work led to the discovery of induced radioactivity, an achievement recognized by granting both Joliot-Curies the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Irène, a staunch feminist, persisted in repeatedly applying to (and being rejected by) the French Académie des sciences to bring attention to gender discrimination. She continued her research, served as the commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission, helped establish the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, was an active peace advocate, and raised two children, Hélène and Pierre, who both have become accomplished scientists.
Ève Curie in 1936. Image credit: Valentine (Photographers), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ève Curie took an entirely different professional path from her parents and sister. She traveled with and took care of her mother Marie and gave piano recitals during her young adulthood based in Paris. Ève launched her writing career after Marie’s death in 1934 by producing a biography of her mother entitled Madame Curie,, which became a bestseller in several countries and received the 1937 National Book Award for Nonfiction in the United States. She also turned to journalism, reviewing the arts for several publications and being appointed to the French Information Commission as World War II broke out. Having left France for relative safety in Great Britain and joined the Free French Forces, Ève traveled internationally as an essayist and war correspondent. A collection of her writings, Journey Among Warriors, was published in 1943 and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for Correspondence the following year.
She was no less active after the war, first returning to journalism in Paris while working within the French government and then with the Secretary General of NATO. Ève married an American diplomat, Henry Richardson Labouisse, in 1954, and went on to support and represent the activities of UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund) alongside him when he was named as its Executive Director in 1965. For over a decade, the couple visited numerous sites around the world where UNICEF provided emergency relief and efforts to alleviate poor living conditions. On behalf of the organization, Labouisse accepted the 1965 Nobel Peace Prize, adding to the extended Curie family collection.
Marie, Irène, and Ève Curie each led remarkable, multifaceted lives to their fullest, challenged but undeterred by the loss of Pierre, two world wars on their home soil, discrimination, and illness caused by exposure to radioactivity. Each woman demonstrated that intelligence, bravery, persistence, and creativity were not characteristics unique to men. With five Nobel Prizes among them, the Curie family is the only one to produce a mother-daughter and father-daughter pair among Nobel winners. Their research has contributed to countless advances in the fields of medicine and science and their collective example of academic excellence, mutual support and respect between women and men, intellectual curiosity, and contributing to the public good burnishes their lasting legacy.
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