Joseph Mayer on his wife, Maria Goeppert Mayer, and her work.

Hoddeson:

Did she have the kinds of problems that lots of women certainly complain of nowadays, about being a woman in a man’s field? Did she do much complaining?

Mayer:

She didn’t complain. She wasn’t a complainer. No. She never got paid. Really.

Hoddeson:

She never got paid?

Mayer:

Oh, much later. I think Carl Hertzfeld paid her as a personal assistant something like $100 a year.

Hoddeson:

My God.

Mayer:

But I mean, I think that was probably out of his own pocket. But the university wouldn’t. When we went to Columbia after —

Hoddeson:

— did that have to do with the fact that she was married to you, or the fact that she was a woman? or both?

Mayer:

Probably both. I’m sure they had nepotism laws. They got her free, why should they? But Maria didn’t complain. I mean, after all, she’d been brought up in Germany, where it was worse for women probably at that time. At least it certainly was after Hitler. No — oh, we had an awful lot of fun. I mean, science was so much fun. That’s the main thing…