Miriam Freda Becker (later Miriam Mazur, March 30, 1909 – March 5, 2000) was an American mathematician whose career became a test case for unionization and academic tenure in the City University of New York system in the 1930s.
Becker was the middle of three children of an immigrant family; her mother came from Russia and her father, an insurance salesman, from Austria.
In 1937, the college decided not to renew her tutor position, replacing her with Annita Tuller.
This dismissal became the subject of a legal battle between the Teachers Union of New York and the Board of Higher Education of New York City, with the Teachers Union contending that a 1935 law for high school teachers (under which someone who had been teaching for three years could only be fired for cause) should also apply to City University faculty, and the Board of Higher Education instead preferring a more standard academic tenure review process that did not become automatic after such a short time.
In 1940 she married biochemist Abraham Mazur, and soon after she stopped teaching to raise her two children.