Week 28: Marie Curie

“You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.”

—Marie Curie

A physicist and pioneer in the field of radioactivity, the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes and the first female professor at the University of Paris.

Below picture: First Solvay Conference (1911), Skłodowska-Curie (seated, 2nd from right) confers with Henri Poincaré. Standing, 4th from right, is Rutherford; 2nd from right, Einstein; far right, Paul Langevin.

Week Two: Audre Lorde

“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

— Audre Lorde, writer, poet, activist

Photo: Elsa Dorfman

Week One: Betty Freidan

“I never set out to write a book to change women's lives, to change history. It's like, 'Who, me?' Yes, me. I did it. And I'm not that different from other women. ... Maybe my power and glory was that I could speak my truth as a woman and it was the truth of every woman.” — Betty Freidan, The Feminine Mystique