Collaboration and Competition:
Scientific Couples in Physics and Astronomy
Objective
Students will learn about familial collaboration, which was one of the primary ways for women to
participate in science between the 18th and 20th centuries.
Introduction
Until recently, collaboration with a male relative was a woman’s only entrée into a scientific career.
Through their spouses, brothers, and fathers, women had access to networks and equipment that
would have otherwise been out of reach. This activity explores the benefits and challenges of
familial collaborations between:
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Hertha and W. E. Ayrton
Elizabeth and William Wallace Campbell
Marie and Pierre Curie
Caroline and William Herschel
Helen and Frank Hogg
Margaret and William Huggins
Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie
Maria Winkelmann Kirch and Gottfried Kirch
Annie and Edward Walter Maunder
Instructions
Students will break into groups and read one article of their
choosing about scientific couples. Each group will answer
discussion questions and present their findings to the class.
Marie, Irene, and Pierre Curie, courtesy
AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives
In Class Time
45 minutes
Prep Time
1-2 hours
Materials
 Photocopies of articles, book chapters, and discussion questions
Required Reading
 Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey. “Marital Collaboration: An Approach to Science.” In Uneasy Careers
and Intimate Lives: Women in Science, 1787-1979, edited by Pnina Abir Am and Dorinda
Outram, 104-125. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1987.
 Pycior, Helena, Nancy Slack, and Pnina Abir-Am, ed. Creative Couples in the Sciences. New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996.
o “Dispelling the Myth of the Able Assistant: Margaret and William Huggins at Work in
the Tulse Hill Observatory” by Barbara Becker, page 98-111.
o “Patterns of Collaboration in Turn-of-the-Century Astronomy: The Campbells and
the Maunders” by Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie, pages 254-266.
o “Pierre Curie and ‘His Eminent Collaborator Mme Curie’: Complementary Partner”
by Helena Pycior, pages 39-56.
Prepared by the Center for History of Physics at AIP
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“Star Scientists in Nobelist Family: Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie” by Bernadette
Bensaude-Vincent, pages 57-71.
Schiebinger, Londa. “Maria Winkelmann at the Berlin Academy: A Turning Point for Women
in Science.” Isis 78, no. 2 (1987): 174-200.
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Discussion Questions
1. Describe nature of the scientists’ relationship. How did they meet?
2. What field of research did they pursue? How did they become interested in this work?
3. What was the distribution of work? How do we know? What questions remain?
4. What was the nature of the couple’s role in scientific networks?
5. How was the joint work recognized (i.e. through publications and awards)?
6. Did the scientific partners have different careers?
7. What challenges did they face individually and as a team?
8. What kind of sacrifices did each partner make?
9. What else would you like to know about their collaboration?
Further Reading
 Lykknes, Annette, ed. For Better or For Worse? Collaborative Couples in the Sciences. Basel:
Birkhäuser, 2012.
 Schiebinger, Londa. The Mind Has No Sex? Women in the Origins of Modern Science.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.
Prepared by the Center for History of Physics at AIP
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