Women In Mathematics Research Articles

Patterns and Symmetry: Reflections of Culture

Many contributions of diverse cultures foster a rich understanding of mathematics. Knowing how one's culture has contributed to mathematics and how these contributions enhance our cultural environment supports the acquisition of mathematical power. However, discussing culture in mathematics classrooms for a one-week celebration of women in mathematics or a one-month recognition of the contributions of African Americans is not enough. Cultural learning that recognizes race, ethnicity, gender, and social class should be woven into the fabric of mathematics lessons throughout the year. Yet many teachers have limited backgrounds in promoting culturally relevant mathematics in meaningful ways.

Testing Stereotype Threat: Does Anxiety Explain Race and Sex Differences in Achievement?

Steele's (1992, 1997) stereotype-threat theory attempts to explain underperformance of minority students in academic domains and of women in mathematics. Steele argues that situational self-relevance of negative group stereotypes in testing situations increases the anxiety these students experience and that these differential anxiety levels explain performance differences. Research shows that manipulation of stereotype threat can affect academic performance. However, there has been little research testing whether anxiety does at least partially explain the relationship between race and achievement. The goal of this study was to examine whether anxiety will explain racial differences in academic performance and gender differences in math performance in the context of a nationally representative sample of high school seniors. Partial mediation was observed, with anxiety explaining significant portions of the racial differences in academic performance. Anxiety also partially explained sex differences in math achievement, although the effect sizes were very small. These results provide general support for Steele's stereotype-threat hypothesis.

Women Mathematicians

Women Mathematicians

Women in Mathematics: The Addition of Difference

Women in Mathematics: The Addition of Difference

The Evolving Role of Women in Mathematics

Oliver Wendell Holmes proclaimed that history lends a perspective to the way in which we view ourselves and our future. Through most of the history of mathematics, women have been persona non grata. According to Wertheim (1995), the battles that women have faced to break into mathematics parallel the battles that they have faced to break into the clergy. Even today, the notion that mathematics is a masculine pursuit persists, and many can readily cite examples of people whom they know to illustrate this point.

Grace chisholm young: gender and mathematics around 1900

Abstract Grace Chisholm Young was one of several mathematicians who together represent a peak of female participation in pure mathematics around 1900. At this time, an affinity between pure mathematics and ideals of femininity made the experiences of women mathematicians different to those of women in other scientific disciplines. Mathematics and women shared a capacity to promote moral virtue, the subject did not threaten respectability by requiring ‘worldly’ knowledge, its symbolic notation provided an alternative to the deferential language believed appropriate for women, and its ‘feminised’ terminology made women feel comfortable. At the same time, the construction of mathematics as purely deductive and objective served to counter accusations that women's work provided just a feminine, partial viewpoint

Grace chisholm young: gender and mathematics around 1900

Grace Chisholm Young was one of several mathematicians who together represent a peak of female participation in pure mathematics around 1900. At this time, an affinity between pure mathematics and ideals of femininity made the experiences of women mathematicians different to those of women in other scientific disciplines. Mathematics and women shared a capacity to promote moral virtue, the subject did not threaten respectability by requiring ‘worldly’ knowledge, its symbolic notation provided an alternative to the deferential language believed appropriate for women, and its ‘feminised’ terminology made women feel comfortable. At the same time, the construction of mathematics as purely deductive and objective served to counter accusations that women's work provided just a feminine, partial viewpoint

Book Review: Women in Mathematics by Claudia Henrion

Book Review: Women in Mathematics by Claudia Henrion

The Mathematically Able as a Marked Category

Most literature on gender and mathematics is based on assumptions that the value of mathematical accomplishment is unquestionable and wholly good, and that any failures of women to achieve in mathematics are due to problems within her or the larger society, problems which should and can be resolved. This article argues that the situation is not so simple. Drawing on literatures of sociology, cultural studies, and education (among others), the article sets forth characteristics shared by 'marked categories' of persons as deviant. Drawing evidence from a wide range of sources, it is then argued that 'the mathematically able' share these characteristics and can therefore be considered as a marked category. Moreover, women in mathematics are doubly marked (as women and as mathematical), making their position doubly difficult socially. There are thus two discourses of mathematics in Western society, a discourse of power and a discourse of deviance. Drawing on the practices of other marked categories, I make a few recommendations for educators based on the analysis.

Declining gender differences from FIMS to TIMSS

This paper examines the findings of the three IEA studies (FIMS, SIMS and TIMSS) on the variation among countries of gender differences in mathematics achievement, and places them in the context of the increasing presence of women in mathematics and the overall decrease in gender differences in mathematics achievement over the period examined, from 1964 to 1995.

The lives and contributions of women mathematicians and educators

Concentrating on twentieth century women in mathematics is a particular strength of this biographical dictionary which adds substantially to what is known about women's contributions to mathematics. There are entries for 59 women, the vast majority of whom are still alive and working. Most are mathematicians in the traditional sense. The editors have also chosen to include several key researchers in the field of gender and mathematics education. The stories of six well-known female mathematicians who lived and worked in ancient times (e.g., Hypatia of Alexandria), the eighteenth century (e.g., Sophie Germain), and the nineteenth century (e.g., Ada Lovelace), have also been included in the collection. I would have preferred not to have seen these entries. For me, they detracted from the emphasis on the contributions of women of this century. The editors could have divided the book into two sections. This would have highlighted the following point made in the introduction:

Biographies of women mathematicians

Biographies of women mathematicians

Women in Mathematics: The Addition of Difference

...a wonderful addition to any mathematics teacher's professional bookshelf. -The Mathematics Teacher The individual biographies themselves make for enthralling, often inspiring, reading...this volume should be compelling reading for women mathematics students and professionals. A fine addition to the literature on women in science...Highly recommended. -Choice ...it makes an important contribution to scholarship on the interrelations of gender, mathematics, and culture in the U.S. in the second half of the twentieth century. -Notices of the AMS Who is the audience for this book? Certainly women who are interested in studying mathematics and women already in mathematics who have become discouraged will find much to interest and help them. Faculty who teach such women would put it to good use. But it would be a loss to relegate the book to a shelf for occasional reference to an interested student or beginning mathematician. Everyone in the mathematics community in which each of Henrion's subjects struggled so hard to find a place could benefit by a thoughtful reading. -Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) News Mathematics is often described as the purest of the sciences, the least tainted by subjective or cultural influences. Theoretically, the only requirement for a life of mathematics is mathematical ability. And yet we see very few women mathematicians. Why? Based upon a series of ten intensive interviews with prominent women mathematicians throughout the United States, this book investigates the role of gender in the complex relationship between mathematician, the mathematical community, and mathematics itself.

Notable women in mathematics: a biographical dictionary

Introduction Maria Agnesi Andrea Bertozzi Lenore Blum Sylvia Bozeman Marjorie Lee Browne Leone Burton Fan Chung Ingrid Daubeschies Emilie du Chatelet Etta Falconer Joan Feigenbaum Elizabeth Fennema Herta Taussig Freitag Sophie Germain Evelyn Boyd Granville Mary Gray Gloria Hewitt Grace Hopper Rhonda Hughes Joan Hutchinson Hypatia Nancy Kopell Sofya Kovalevskaya Christine Ladd-Franklin Anneli Lax Gilah Leder Emma Lehmer Ada Lovelace Vivian Malone-Mayes Dusa McDuff Marie-Louise Michelsohn Cathleen Morawetz Emmy Noether Karen Parshall Bernadette Perrin-Riou Harriet Pollatsek Cheryl Praeger Mina Rees Ida Rhodes Julia Robinson Judith Roitman Mary Ellen Rudin Mary Beth Ruskai Cora Sadosky Alice Schafer Doris Schattschneider Charlotte Agnas Scott Marjorie Senechal Lesley Sibner Mary Somerville Pauline Sperry Alicia Boole Stott Olga Taussky-Todd Jean Taylor Chuu-Lian Terng Karen Uhlenbeck Marion Walter Sylvia Wiegand Grace Chisholm Young Appendix I: Mathematicians by Date of Birth Appendix II: Countries of Employment Index

A multiple-groups analysis of predictors of higher level career aspirations among women in mathematics, science, and engineering majors.

This study investigated a model of predictors of higher level career aspirations among 2 groups of women: students in mathematics, physical science, and engineering majors and students in biological science majors. On the basis of social-cognitive theory, it was hypothesized that ability, self-efficacy, positivity of role model influence, and role conflict would influence the higher level career aspirations of these women. Data obtained from a mail survey of 546 students revealed that the hypothesized model provided a good overall fit to the data. In contrast to the women in math, physical science, and engineering majors, the relationships between ability and self-efficacy and between positivity of role-model influence and self-efficacy were significantly lower in magnitude for women in the biological sciences group. These findings suggest ideas for interventions designed to increase the number of women aspiring to top positions within nontraditional careers.

Biographies of women mathematicians

Biographies of women mathematicians

Women in Mathematics: Scaling the Heights

Part I. ON WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS: 1. Women in mathematics: scaling the heights and beyond Leonore Blum 2. Excellence in mathematics Deborah Tepper Haimo 3. Preparing undergraduate women for graduate school and beyond Carol Wood 4. A View of mathematics from an undegraduate perspective Ani Adhikari and Deborah Nolan Part II. COURSE DESIGNS: 5. Probability and stochastic processes Ani Adhikari and Deborah Nolan 6. Hyperplane arrangements Helene Barcelo 7. Algebra by a number theorist Antonia Bluher 8. A seminar on linear optimization Lynne M. Butler 9. What are numbers? Svetlana Katok 10. Algebraic coding theory Vera Pless 11. Quadratic reciprocity and continued fractions Lynne Walling Part III. MODEL PROGRAMmeS: 12. Developing women in mathematics the Spelman-Bryn Mawr mathematics programmes Sylvia T. Bozeman and Rhonda J. Hughes 13. The University of Michigan REU programme in mathematics Daniel M. Burns Jr and Donald J. Lewis 14. The Mills College Summer Mathematics Institute Ani Adhikari, Steven Givant, and Deborah Nolan 15. Summer programme for women in mathematics Murli M. Gupta and Daniel H. Ullman 16. Carleton and St. Olaf colleges' summer mathematics programme Deanna Haunsperger and Stephen Kennedy 17. The Mount Holyoke summer research institute Margaret Robinson 16. The Director's summer programme at the NSA cryptologic mathematics for exceptional undergraduate mathematicians Victoria L. Yates.

Women in mathematics: scaling the heights

Women in mathematics: scaling the heights

Women in mathematics: the addition of difference

Women in mathematics: the addition of difference

Yueh-Gin Gung and Dr. Charles Y. Hu Award for Distinguished Service to Alice Turner Schafer

algebra (group theory) and women in mathematics. As early as her high school years Alice exhibited a love for mathematics and an interest in teaching as a career. As a mathematics educator she championed the full participation of women in mathematics. She has been a strong role model for many women, and has worked to establish support groups for women in mathematics, to eliminate barriers women face in their study of mathematics and participation in the mathematics community, and to provide opportunity and encouragement for women in mathematics. She was one of the central figures in the early days of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM), through which she has helped to change the place of women in American mathematics. Yet her service goes far beyond her work on behalf of women. Alice Turner is a native of Virginia, where she spent her school years, earning a B.A. in mathematics from the University of Richmond. Lacking the financial means to attend graduate school, she taught secondary school mathematics for three years and then entered the University of Chicago, where she earned an M.S. and a Ph.D. Her dissertation in projective differential geometry was supervised by B. P. Lane and her published research in this area appeared in the Duke Mathematical Journal and in the American Journal of Mathematics. At the University of Chicago Alice met Richard Schafer, who was seeking a Ph.D. in mathematics. They were married as they completed their degrees. Their union has been blessed with two sons and three grandchildren. The Schafers' marriage was an early example of the two-body problem and the commuter marriage. Alice's first postgraduate position was at Connecticut College followed by one at The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. She then held positions at the University of Michigan, Douglass College, Swarthmore College, Drexel Institute of Technology, and the University of Connecticut before