78 4. WOMEN MATHEMATICIANSfather's blessing on her career.) In addition, most women who have had both chil-
dren and a career have had to invest more time in the children than men have done.
This extra responsibility and a host of other societal expectations requiring time
and effort on the part of women have made it more difficult for women to con-
centrate on their careers with the same single-mindedness that has characterized
the most outstanding male mathematicians. In at least one case, that of Grace
Chisholm Young (1868-1944), marriage meant a rather complete submersion of her
talents for a time, with her husband (William H. Young, 1863-1942) getting all the
credit for papers that were a joint effort. Such unequal partnerships, which seem
terribly unfair a century later, were probably not common, but other such cases
are known.^4
Lack of role models. It cannot be a coincidence that many of the women "pioneers"
in mathematics were the daughters of mathematicians or engineers. The absence
of prominent women in these fields during the early days meant that many young
girls thinking about their futures did not consider a career in technical areas. Most
of the exceptions were in contact with mathematics and science from an early age
because of the work their fathers did. The women who did choose such careers
could get little advice from their male mentors as to how to deal with the special
problems faced by a woman wishing a career in science. For example, Cathleen
Morawetz, who was mentioned in Chapter 3, noticing how few job opportunities
there were for women with doctorates in mathematics, nearly decided to choose
a career in industry after getting her master's degree. It was her mentor Cecilia
Krieger (1894-1974, later Cecilia Krieger Dunaij) who encouraged her to go to New
York University. Such role models and encouragement were naturally present in
greater degree at women's colleges.
Inappropriate teaching methods. The usefulness of women's colleges in helping
women to develop their talents and ultimately overcome society's low expectations
cannot be overemphasized. That girls, at least those being raised in traditional
ways, needed to be taught differently from boys, is very clear from the following
description of a geometry lesson given by Prince Bolkonskii to his daughter, Princess
Mar'ya, in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.
Leaning on the table, the prince pushed forward a notebook full of
geometrical diagrams.
"Now, young lady," the old man began, bending over the note-
book close to his daughter and putting one hand on the arm of the
chair in which the princess was sitting, so that she felt herself com-
pletely surrounded by her father's pungent old-man and tobacco
scent, so long familiar to her. "Now, young lady, these triangles
are similar. Notice the angle abc..."
The princess looked nervously at her father's sparkling eyes
close by; blushes rose to her cheeks, and it was apparent that she
didn't understand anything and was so frightened that fear was
preventing her from understanding any of her father's subsequent
reasoning, no matter how clear it was. Whether it was the fault
(^4) It is now well documented that Einstein's first wife made significant contributions to his 1905
paper on special relativity and deserved to be listed as a co-author. Although she never received
the Nobel Prize in her own name, she did get Einstein's prize money under the terms of their
divorce settlement.