Comments for:

Re "Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie"

Submitter: Beverly E. Barton | bartonbe@umdnj.edu

UMDNJ- New Jersey Medical School

Published May 5, 2005

As one of those many women who were inspired by Marie Curie's accomplishments, I'd like to speculate if I may, on question raised by Dr.Calame.
That Marie Curie was able to become a successful scientist while raising two daughters is perhaps in no small measure due to the fact that Pierre's father lived with them for some time, and was a care-giver to their children.
Afterward, governesses took care of Irene and Eve while Marie and Pierre, then Marie alone, worked in the lab. Certainly the availability of suitable child-care arrangements played no small part in freeing Marie to work the hours she did to purify radium and polonium, and identify radon, from depleted pitchblende. The European middle-class of her time would have had charwomen or other household help for cleaning, and possibly a cook as well. The availability of domestic labor in today's US or Europe is no longer a reality for budding Marie Curies.