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Georgia O’Keeffe, Slightly Open Clam Shell, 1926)
Actress America Ferrera’s “Barbie” movie monologue could apply to Mileva Marić Einstein: “It is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don’t think you’re good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow, we’re always doing it wrong.”
Einstein’s first wife, Mileva Marić, was extraordinary. Let’s celebrate her 149th birthday this week on December 19th. Mileva did not make it into U.S. history books. Born in 1875 to an affluent Serbian family, Mileva attended an all-boys’ school as an adolescent where she was a mathematics and physics whiz. She began studying medicine at the University of Zurich before switching to Zurich Polytechnic. It was there she met German-born Albert Einstein. Mileva was the only female in her group of 6 students. Her grade in physics was 5.5 (equal to Albert’s), although she scored 5 in applied physics while Albert scored 1. Classmates described her as brilliant, not talkative.
Mileva’s academic career closed when she became pregnant with Einstein’s child. She returned to Serbia where their daughter was born. Baby Liserl contracted scarlet fever which left her with medical issues. It is unclear if the love child died or was placed for adoption in Serbia. Her name became a closed issue.
Letters betweenthe two physicistsexchanged between 1899-1903convey a collaboration on the theory of relativity. Mileva was methodical and organized, helping her man “channel his energy.” Albert wrote, “How happy and proud I shall be when the two of us together will have brought our work on relative motion to a victorious conclusion!” and “I need my wife. She solves for me all my mathematical problems.” He called Mileva his Doxerl (“doll” in a German dialect). Einstein’s parents opposed the relationship, citing Mileva was too intellectual, had a limp, and there were different religious and cultural backgrounds, but a marriage occurred in 1903. Over 100 years later, little has changed.
Son Hans Albert (born 1904) recalled both parents working together at the same table in the evenings. Despite Mileva’s career closing for parenting responsibilities, some scholars argue that she must be credited for helping Einstein formulate the theories presented in his papers. The marriage lasted until 1914 when Einstein separated from Mileva; he had begun a relationship with his cousin, Elsa Lowenthal, in 1912. Mileva moved out with the couple’s two sons (Eduard was born in 1910). In the divorce settlement Einstein was to give Mileva any award money he might receive from a future Nobel Prize.
Mileva once confided to her father, with cousin Sofija in the room: “… we finished an important scientific work which will make my husband known around the world.” Mileva confided in friend Helene Savić: “With all this fame, he has little time for his wife…What is there to say, with notoriety, one gets the pearl, the other the shell.”
Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz
351. How have you experienced gender inequality?
352. When will we create gender equality?
Pearls of Peace: A Family Psychologist’s Circle-of-Life Blog 