The Hidden Contributions of Mileva Einstein

In today’s world, the name “Einstein” is automatically associated with intelligence as a homage to his major theories and contributions to science, such as special and general relativity, photoelectric effect, Brownian effect, contribution towards gravitational waves - which have all been very useful for the development of modern physics. In all these publications, it was initially assumed that Einstein had been the sole person responsible for these works due to the lack of any other contributor’s names present in his works. Before this article, I too had assumed the same perspective. However, this article brings to light the contribution of Einstein’s partner Mileva Marić Einstein. The two had been working together since their time in college at the Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, when they would study together - with Mileva often guiding Albert’s studies as he preferred to not attend the lectures and study together. Despite Mileva scoring similar and slightly higher grades than Albert, her professor gave her a failing grade on the oral exam (and an almost perfect score to the other four members of her class), resulting in her being unable to attain her degree. Despite this, she and Albert jointly worked on their work in physics after college, with there being numerous pieces of evidence to support this theory. For example, in Albert’s letter to Mileva, he often referred to his efforts as “our work” rather than “my work. Furthermore, their own child has commented numerous times that the two would work on physics problems together in the evenings. In addition, Albert crafted his divorce agreement such that Mileva would get all the reward money if he ever did earn a Nobel Prize. Unfortunately, the two did divorce after a series of unfortunate incidents in their marriage and Albert ended up indicating his son as the sole heir of the Nobel Prize earnings, although it was supposed to Mileva’s money. The articl further mentions that MIleva had chosen to allow Albert to omit her name from the list of contributors. Although it seems unreasonable in today’s perspective, it was a highly justified decision during the early 20th century. According to another source, women were “allowed” to obtain a higher education during this time period, but this willingness decreased significantly as they attempted to obtain high-level careers. Based on this information, it is possible that Mileva might have done what she did so that their works would be able to reach a higher level of credibility and acceptance from the scientific community. This article made me realize the importance of recognition - without it, you are essentially forgotten in the face of the world. Although there are some today that understand and have written about her contributions, most people are still unaware of her efforts. I also realize that there are most likely many other cases similar to Milerva during the early 1900s - with men often taking the public credit for work that women had put significant effort towards.