In the fall of 1946, a South African girl aspiring to pursue a career as a scientist wrote to Einstein. She ended the letter with an imploring self-conscious note: “I hope you will not think any less of me for being a girl.”

To that, Einstein responded with words of assuring wisdom that resonate to this day: “I do not mind that you are a girl, but the main thing is that you yourself do not mind. There is no reason for it.”

Right until the 20th century, in fact, even today in the 21st century, many young women who dream of pursuing a career in science go through the same self-doubt. However, there have been women, who used this perceived adversity as a fertile soil to grow in—to stand tall and proud and set an example. There have been phenomenal women who have dealt with adversity with perseverance to blossom into rare and beautiful flowers.

Recently, I got my hands on a book named Remarkable Mathematicians by Joan James. Judging by the cover, I expected the book to be all about the lives and struggles of mathematicians along with the nature of the subject itself. The book, however, had much more to offer than just that.

The book portrayed something so simple. Something that everyone in the society knows about but, because it is so deeply rooted, it is something we tend to overlook.

So what was it that I discovered? Among so many mathematicians

listed in the book, only three were women. Was it because mathematics is a men’s playground, or was there more to it?

Certainly, a subject sometimes compared with the work of God would not discriminate between genders. What, then, caused such a difference? I didn’t have to ponder long as the answer was present in that book itself. One just had to go through the life of those three women mathematicians. If the career of a male mathematician revolved mostly around mathematical theories, the life of female mathematicians mostly revolved around fighting against the conservative nature of society. All three mathematicians chronicled in the book had to struggle to fulfil their dreams. As a lover of mathematics,

I understood that the work these mathematicians left behind clearly continues to have a lasting impact on the subject. But that beautiful influence became a lasting inspiration for me once I learned about their life and their struggles, which they faced just out of the fact that they were women.

While the book remained particularly focused on the field of mathematics, the same holds true for many other disciplines as well. If we compare the situation then to the one now, we realise many things have changed and professions have evolved for the better. But regardless, there still are women out there whose dreams are constantly being put down—particularly in Nepal, where shades of outdated patriarchal beliefs still continue to limit the opportunities afforded to women. It is high time that we move in step with the progresses that have been made and facilitate equal opportunities for all. Inspiration lasts forever, let us now pledge to shatter all glass ceilings, wherever they may be, so that it resonates on to eternity.

Maharjan is an undergraduate student at Kathmandu University