Women in Mathematics

Abstract

At various times, US citizens have attempted to increase the supply of people trained in scientific and technical subjects. Before the Civil War, the expansion of elementary schools encouraged the founding of seminaries for teachers, while the opening of engineering schools offered an alternative to apprenticeships. High schools, colleges, state universities, and research institutions grew. Demands for trained personnel both during the Second World War and again after the Soviet Union launched 'Sputnik' in 1957 led to further attempts to increase the nation's scientific 'manpower'. Since the 1970s, feminism and related Federal legislation fostered careers for women in mathematics and the sciences. By the 1980s, fears of a decline in population of native-born white men led to other ways of encouraging careers in mathematics and the sciences. This volume, specifically intended to encourage young women to enter mathematics, is a remarkably open discussion of the practices of a profession, prepared largely by participating women. It grew from a conference held in 1999 at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute at Berkeley, California, to honour the Austriantrained number theorist and algebraist Olga Tausskey Todd. To the conference papers, the editors have added a number of articles, many from the Newsletter of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM). The book is divided into five sections. The first, 'Inspiration', contains brief biographical essays, eight on twentieth-century women and eight on nineteenth-century women in mathematics. The second, 'Joining Together', describes the activities of women in professional societies, particularly the AWM, from its beginnings in 1971, and the activities of women at the International Congress of Mathematicians. It also contains brief reports on women in