Sofia Kovalevskaya

Born Sofia Vasilyevna Korvin-Krukovskaya, Kovalevskaya’s brilliance was evident from a young age, reportedly using her father's old calculus lecture notes as wallpaper in her nursery. While this might suggest a preternatural connection to mathematics, it mostly suggests a rather avant-garde interior decorator.

Her path to higher education was fraught, as women were barred from universities in Russia. So, naturally, she entered into a "fictitious marriage" to gain the freedom to study abroad. A mere formality, of course, that allowed her to pursue a Ph.D. in Germany, becoming quite good at math and avoiding, presumably, any actual marital duties.

Kovalevskaya eventually landed a professorship in Sweden, where she continued to excel, proving a woman could not only understand numbers but could also manipulate them with greater finesse than the male academics who initially scoffed at her. Her contributions to mathematical analysis and partial differential equations are still recognized today, proving that sometimes, the best revenge is simply being really, really smart.