5 brilliant women whose glory was appropriated by men
Glory for some time bypassed these talented women by the side, in order to return to them again late and pay tribute to them. Although there was no guilt on their part: just husbands and colleagues deftly took advantage of the situation and stole the fruits of labor.
The American artist, who became famous in the last century with paintings" with big eyes", painted in oil, was initially unknown to anyone. But her husband Walter was popular — a real estate agent who quickly saw through the benefits of his wife's talent.
Flaunting the fact that he once studied art in In Paris, Walter Keen was presented everywhere as an innovative artist. In fact, he was incompetent and knew only one thing: to successfully sell his wife's paintings and earn millions of dollars on this. Margaret almost never left her studio, creating original, original canvases.
There was not even enough time to raise a daughter. The greedy and narcissistic Walter was afraid of the moment when everyone would find out that the author of all the canvases was actually his wife. And the audience was really sure that he was a "genius of his time" and caught something subtle, elusive in art, accessible only to the author of paintings. Due to a biased attitude to "ladies '" art, Margaret was forced to sell her creations under her husband's name.
But one day Kin decided to come out of the shadows, because by this time the greedy husband no longer saw boundaries, believed in his own genius and demanded that his wife work even more. From that moment on, especially when he learned that Margaret wanted to leave him and restore justice, he turned her life into a series of humiliations and insults.
Walter now kept her and her daughter locked up so that the world would not know about the monstrous deception. And only the court, held in 1986, put an end to the i. The jury arranged a creative competition: in an hour it was necessary to draw a figure "with big eyes". Margaret coped brilliantly with her task, and Walter could not even make a stroke.
They say that a shoulder injury does not allow him to create something "brilliant". The court, convinced that he was a fraudster, awarded him to compensate for the damage caused to Margaret in the amount of $ 4 million. But by that time, Walter had already squandered all the money. He, of course, tried to challenge the authorship of the paintings from his wife. But who would believe a man with the stigma of an art thief?
One of the most talented and scandalous French writers — Sidonie Colette, whose first novel "Claudine at School" caused a storm of delight and admiration in society, will also become a victim of shameless deception on the part of her husband. Henri Gauthier, a provincial journalist, womanizer and writer who lacks stars from the sky, has published four books by Sidonie under his pseudonym.
While in the throes of creativity, without leaving the house, Colette worked on works full of subtle, love lyrics, her husband, sparing no effort, filled his pockets with francs from successful sales. By that time, the name of Claudine, the heroine of Sidonie Colette's novel, had already begun to be called cakes, ice cream, perfume, hats. And everyone was looking forward to new books.
However, Gaultier's scam was soon revealed, and the appearance of a young beauty Sidonie at a social event made a real sensation among the noble guests. And as a result, someone else's fame, which for some time caressed Henri Gaultier, went with a sigh of relief to the true talent that Sidonie Collet possessed. For the French, she still remains the greatest woman of the last century.
Sidonie successfully performed on the theater stage, wrote the libretto for the opera-ballet "Magic and the Child", tried herself in journalism (and not without success!). During the First World War, Sidonie Collette worked as a war correspondent, helping the wounded in the infirmary. A classic of French literature, president of the Goncourt Academy, a knight of the Legion of Honor - she went down in the history of world literature as an original writer with her inimitable style.
She entered the world of science from the back door. In the literal sense of the word: studying with the famous scientist Max Planck assumed that he read his lectures only to men. Therefore, Lisa Meitner did not have the right to enter the university building through the front doors.
And before that, in 1906, Lisa defended in She completed her doctoral dissertation and cherished the hope of working in Paris next to the famous Marie Curie. But for unknown reasons, she refused. Acquaintance with the chemist Otto Hahn, a student of Planck, marked the beginning of a long-term scientific cooperation, which was crowned with brilliant discoveries. Three years later, Lisa Meitner writes two articles about beta radiation, putting her on a par with world-famous physicists.
Then she goes to the Department of Radiochemistry. The joint work with Otto Hahn was marked by a great success: the discovery of nuclear fission was a step forward. However, only Otto received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Although this circumstance did not affect the fact that the scientific world recognized Lisa as one of the most gifted women of the last century and in her honor a new element in the periodic table was named meitnerium.
Esther Lederberg was probably so passionate about science that she did not expect a trick from her husband, also a prominent scientist. The titanic work of the couple in a hitherto new field-bacterial genetics-ended with a real revolutionary discovery. As a result of many years of research, the mechanism of gene transfer in bacteria to each other was discovered.
It should be noted that in scientific research, Esther was sometimes ahead of her husband, Joshua Lederberg. However, in 1958, it was he who received the Nobel Prize. It is difficult to say what guided the scientist at the time of awarding the prestigious award (small male pride or a desire not to give glory to anyone), but he did not say a word about his wife, who worked side by side with him on a great discovery.
Joshua seemed to have forgotten about her, continuing to rest on his laurels. Of course, the ugly situation affected the relationship of the spouses, they soon broke up. And with all the efforts of Joshua Lederberg to erase the merits of his ex-wife from the memory of scientists, her name will remain in the history of world science. By the way, Esther proved with her talent after the divorce that she was worthy of the highest award. She successfully continued her scientific research on the topic of bacterial genetics.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell made a real revolution in astrophysics: she was the first to notice the unusual movement of celestial bodies, which were later called pulsars. Passionate about science, fanatically devoted to it, Jocelyn had no idea that her discovery would be used by fellow scientists Anthony Hewitz and Martin Ryle in seven years. They won the Nobel Prize in Physics, and Jocelyn's name was not even mentioned.
And it took half a century before justice prevailed. Jocelyn Bell Burnell was awarded a special prize in the field of fundamental physics. And she received a solid reward for her efforts — $ 3 million. By the way, the above-mentioned prize has been awarded only three times in the history of science.
Jocelyn spent all the money on scholarships for women and representatives of ethnic minorities. She explained her noble act by the fact that sometimes it is difficult for them to show their talents to the full, constantly facing financial difficulties and the envy of venerable colleagues.