Page "Sophie Germain" Paragraph 5

Germain's parents did not at all approve of her sudden fascination with mathematics, which was then thought inappropriate for a woman.

When night came, they would deny her warm clothes and a fire for her bedroom to try to keep her from studying, but after they left she would take out candles, wrap herself in quilts and do mathematics.

As UC Irvine's Women's Studies professor Lynn Osen describes, when her parents found Sophie “ asleep at her desk in the morning, the ink frozen in the ink horn and her slate covered with calculations ,” they realized that their daughter was serious and relented.

After some time, her mother even secretly supported her.