Women have been making scientific discoveries since ancient times. Twelve women have won the Nobel Prize for science, one of the highest honors in the world. Some women scientists never married, some worked with their husbands, and others raised large families. It has been difficult for women to be successful scientists.
In the early 1800s in England, Mary Anning became one of the first women recognised for her discoveries about the ancient history of the earth. Mary and her father collected fossils in their village on the south coast of Great Britain. Fossils are parts of plants or animals that have been saved in rocks for millions of years.
When she was only twelve years old, Mary became the first person to find the almost complete skeletons of several animals that no longer existed on earth. She didn't become famous for her discoveries at that time because she often sold her fossils to get money to support her family.
In 1891, a young Polish woman named Marie Sklodowska travelled to Paris to study physics. She did so because she could not get a college education in Poland. She began working in the laboratory of a man named Pierre Curie. Marie and Pierre Curie got married and made many discoveries together. They received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1903 along with another scientist. Marie Curie became the first person to be awarded a second Nobel Prize in 1911, this time for chemistry. Marie Curie was one of the few women at the time who became famous as a scientist.
