Beyond traditional math
Emmy Noether is regarded as history’s greatest mathematician of 20th century. She demonstrated the math to understand Einstein’s theory of relativity. She pioneered abstract algebra which itself became a new field of study.
She was born in German-Jewish Family in late 19th Century, in a world designed to rejected people like her.
Girls were not allowed attend the college preparatory schools so she went to general finishing school.
Universities barred women admission so she kept auditing classes at universities for 2 years and took the exam that would permit her to be a doctoral student in mathematics. She transferred to Erlangen in 1904 when the university finally let women enroll.
She was unable to get job even with doctorate since sexist regulations academia didn’t allow women to work, undaunted she worked unpaid for years doing research and assisting her father in teaching.
I do not see that the sex of the candidate is an argument against her admission as a Privatdozent. After all, the Senate is not a bathhouse. Objecting to sex discrimination being the reason for rejection of Emmy Noether’s application to join the faculty at the University of Gottingen. — David Hilbert
After world war I, Felix Klein and David Hilbert sought Emmy Noether’s expertise to help them in defining Einstein’s theory of relativity at the University of Gottingen. University was all men and most didn’t want her and she had to join as in unpaid lecturer (despite Hilbert’s effort to get her paid position). She relentlessly built a reputation for herself in research and teaching and after 3 years started getting a small salary.
Her teaching reputation gained her a small following of student known as Noether’s boys, these were the students who would travel from as far as Russia to train under her. Under her teaching method many went on to become great mathematicians themselves.
When Hitler gained control over Germany, Noether travelled to US to escape. Despite being uprooted from her homeland she found solace in teaching at Bryn Mawr College, where for first time she had women colleagues and women students whom she could inspire. She continued to teach there until her death.
She changed science through her work despite all odds against her. Her perception and expertise were so unique that they allowed her to see beyond what traditional mathematicians in algebra could see. Her work was so powerful that it itself became a new field of study.
Reference:
https://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/noether.html
