Her parents were the first married couple to win a Nobel Prize. She and her husband were the second.
Irène Joliot-Curie was born in Paris in 1897 to Marie and Pierre Curie. Her father passed away in an accident when Irène was nine years old. Marie raised Irène and her sister from then.
While Marie achieved much success in her work, she didn't push her daughter into a life of science. In the words of Irène on career advice that her mother offered: "One must do some work seriously and must be independent and not merely amuse oneself in life…but never that science was the only career worth following."
But science and education, in general, were very much a part of Irène's upbringing. Her mother and other prominent French scholars created a learning cooperative for their children. Each child rotated, learning from the expertise of the scholars. Irène was not even ten years old when she left public school to learn from her mother's peers. By her early teens, Marie made sure Irène was studying daily, even during summer breaks.
Irène grew into an assertive woman, unafraid to speak her mind, direct, and well-informed. She was passionate about sports, politics, but most of all, about science. And just like her parents, Irène became a scientist. She would dedicate her research life to the study of radioactivity. For which she and her husband would win the Nobel Prize in 1935.
After winning the prize, Irène took an active role in politics, becoming Undersecretary of State for Scientific Research in France in 1936. And after the Nazis invaded and occupied France, Irène took part in the resistance along with her husband.
Over her latter years of life post the war, Irène dedicated herself to fighting for women's rights. In 1956, she passed away from acute leukemia.
Sources:
Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists. United States, CRC Press, 2008.
“Irène Joliot-Curie.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irène_Joliot-Curie
McBride, Mary Margaret. A Long Way from Missouri. United States, Putnam, 1959.
Science Museum Group Wellcome Collection, https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/L0001759.html (no changes made) / Wikimedia Commons