O legado científico de Marie Curie: Desafios e perspectivas da mulher na ciência

Abstract

The objective of this work was to recover the legacy that Marie Curie raised in her scientific and personal life, seeking to highlight the greatest difficulties and perspectives faced by women in the period when they were based, to be part of the sciences in a masculine universe. We do not intend to construct a biography of the scientist, we try to analyze her legacy more vehemently so as to lead us to understand how, despite the difficulties, Marie Curie went beyond socially established limits and became a reference in research with radioactive elements. For this, we chose to approach our problematic through a qualitative research with a historiographic approach, because we understand that, in this way, we will have greater possibilities to understand the emphasis of our objectives and to have a more meaningful answer to what we propose as problematic. We sought to surround ourselves with the most relevant sources of research for the subject, from some originals to secondary sources of good quality and to be faithful to the events of the life of this scientist who lived from 1867 to 1934 (the period we took as a basis for our analysis). We propose a work loyal to the documents researched, without romanticizing or policing the obtained data evidencing a Marie Curie who was not a born genius, nor did she have super abilities that made her the differential in what she intended to accomplish. It is not based on being different with respect to knowing that Marie comes to stand out in the scientific world. She faced the same, or even more, difficulties that any woman faced in this period to be part of the masculinized universe of the sciences. However, we believe that Marie Curie was a woman who took advantage of the opportunities that have arisen in her life, and was able to deal with the difficulties in a way that every obstacle that arises she has turned into the potentiality to achieve its objectives.