Marya Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (Marie Curie) Introduction Marya was born on November 7th, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland, the youngest of five children to well-known teachers, Bronisława Boguska, and Władysław Skłodowski. She grew up in a time that her Polish heritage was suppressed and outlawed under the then Russian seizure. At the time of her birth, three countries divided Poland: Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Polish art, folk songs, culture, even science, was forbidden. Her father had been a professor at Warsaw University of mathematics and physics until the January Uprising, when the Russian government restricted Polish professors from teaching the sciences. He brought his equipment home, and in secret, taught his four daughters and son the…show more content… However, when her male counterparts were leaving for local university, she, could not because she was woman. Shortly after graduating, Marya suffered a fall, what doctors today would say was due to depression, and her father insisted she take a year off to live in the country. It was the only carefree time she would ever have, and she enjoyed it immensely. There they “danced until dawn” and she forgot her troubles. When she returned to Warsaw, her passion for learning reignited, and she began attending the illegal Flying University along with her sister Bronya. The Flying University, or sometimes called The Floating University, was named so because its classes never had a permanent meeting place to avoid the inquisitive eye of the Russian officials. Though it was a great place to Marya to begin her higher education, she knew that the curriculum there was nothing compared to the major European universities that admitted women. This led to her sister and her making a pact when Marya was 17: Marya would work as a governess to support Bronya while she was in medical school in Paris. Then, as soon as Bronya could, she would help support Marya and her education ventures in
