1921
Emmy Noether
Mathematical genius
“Smart” didn’t do Emmy Noether
justice: Albert Einstein called her a
“creative mathematical genius.” The
German-born Noether altered algebra—
notably with her 1921 paper Theory of
Ideals in Ring Domains—and her proofs
about conservation of energy resolved a
quirk in Einstein’s gen-
eral theory of relativity.
Even so, as a woman,
Noether had to fight for
a professorship. When
she did get one, at the
University of Göttingen, she was paid
minimally, and in 1933, with Germany
under Nazi rule, she and other Jewish
professors were dismissed. Exiled to
the U.S., she kept teaching until her
death in 1935. Even now, the world still
learns from Noether, whose abstract
principles are fundamental to modern
particle physics. —Emily Barone1922
Xiang Jingyu
China’s revolutionary symbol
Xiang Jingyu rejected traditional gender
roles, instead committing herself to the
cause of the Chinese Communist Party.
Some records suggest Xiang became
the first director of the
Chinese Communist
Women’s Bureau in
1922, as well as the first
female member of the
CCP Central Committee,
though official party histories are unclear
on her precise role. Undeniably she was
one of the foremost revolutionaries
of her time, advocating for women’s
education rights and organizing mass
labor strikes. After her execution in
1928, she was better remembered as a
martyr than an activist, but her vision
of women’s liberation impacted those
around her—including Mao Zedong,
who later proclaimed that “women hold
up half the sky.” ÑSuyin HaynesY; NOETHER: LOWER SAXONY STATE AND UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GÖTTINGEN, COD. MS. HILBERT 754, NR. 73; XIANG: XINHUA/NEWSCOM^29