Sofya Kovalevsky: She Proves Girls Like Math

Russian-born Sofya Kovalevsky liked math.

Unfortunately, liking math was not a thing that her nineteenth century parents found appealing in their daughter.  They forbid her to study the subject and she had to surreptitiously work her math equations on the back of old wallpaper.

Her parents weren’t the only ones who felt math was inappropriate for the female gender.  When Sofya later applied to a university to pursue her love of numbers, she was denied admission.

Undaunted, she left Russia and went to Germany to study at the University at Heidelberg.

Before long, she was recognized as a top mathematician and was awarded a professorship in Stockholm as well as the Prix Bordin from the French Academy of Sciences.

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