As well her scientific achievements, Lise Meitner is remembered for her struggle in the face of adverse social, cultural & historical conditions. It seems fitting that, like her childhood heroes Florence Nightingale and Marie Curie, she is regarded as a feminist icon for her efforts and achievements.

As one might imagine, it was highly difficult for a woman to fit in to the socially conservative, closed world of high level science. In her university days, she was perhaps the only woman in a lecture theatre of 100 men. Some professors were embracing, others begrudging and many were openly hostile to women in their classes.

At her first job in Berlin (at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in 1907), she was obliged to work in a converted carpentry studio in the basement, because the laboratory supervisor could not bear to see a woman work in the all male laboratory. On another occasion, the editors of an encyclopaedia wished to consult with Professor Meitner about an article about radioactivity. They were far less enthusiastic when Professor Meitner turned out to be a woman.

Lise Meitner, although completely unreligious, was Jewish by descent, which made her life even more difficult in Nazi Berlin. Although she was an Austrian, and thus protected from Nazi law, after Anschluss (union) with Austria, her foreign passport no longer protected her.

The German government did not issue her with legal documents after her Austrian passport became invalid, and thus when she was forced to flee the country, it was an illegal act (one might doubt the legality of Nazi law, though)

At the same time, the cream of Germany's intellect was also fleeing, and had been doing so since the Nazi rise to power in 1933. Many places which had once been welcoming were now reluctant to accept any more German emigrés. It was perhaps only through the hard work of Niels Bohr (in Denmark) that Meitner was able to find refuge in Sweden, where she spent the rest of her working life.

Because of the precarious nature of her place in Sweden, and the German treatment of Jews, her name was unable to be put on any of the papers she wrote or co-authored during the war. Again, Niels Bohr was instrumental in setting the record straight after the war. However, Otto Hahn, Meitner's great collaborator, took to believing that Meitner's contribution to their work was minimal.

Although she was duly acknowledged and rewarded in the post-war years, receiving the 1966 Fermi award from the USA, the Max Planck Medal and the Leibnitz medal, Hahn never truly acknowledged the full extent of her involvement in their work.