Women Mathematicians: Why So Few?

The great field of mathematics stretches back in history some 8 millennia to the age of primitive man, who learned to count to ten on his fingers. This led to the development of the decimal scale, the numeric scale of base ten (Hooper 4). Mathematics has grown greatly since those primitive times, in the present day there are literally thousands of laws, theorems, and equations which govern the use of ten simple symbols representing the ten base numbers. The field of mathematics is ever changing, and therefor, there is a great demand for mathematicians to keep improving our skills in utilizing the numeric system. Many great people, both past and present, have made great contributions to the field. Among the most famous are Archimedes, Euclid, Ptolemy, and Pythagoras, all of which are men. This seems to be a common trend in mathematics, for almost all classical mathematicians were male.

The twentieth century has been a century of change for women and their rights. They have been successful in gaining the right to vote, equal opportunity in the workplace, and many other freedoms. So why then is the field of mathematics still so sexually separated? Can it be that women just aren’t as well endowed in the area of mathematical thinking so that they just can’t compare to the male mathematical geniuses? This theory has been proven totally false on many occasions. A study by Jane M. Armstrong in 1978 showed that 13-year-old females actually performed slightly better than males on tests of mathematical computation, spatial visualization, and performance in algebra (Chipman 8). An analysis by Project TALENT in 1960 showed that males in 9^th grade are slightly more mathematically inclined, but the standard deviation of the percentages was .07 (Chipman 8). Basically, women are just as competent as men in the field of mathematics. Therefor, one can conclude that the problem lies in the society of today and the general public’s view of the field. Due to the fact that in most primitive cultures men were superior to women, women were not given the chance to study mathematics (Chipman vii). This is why almost all great classical mathematical thinkers are male. Despite the many advances that women have made in the past years, the general public still views mathematics as a field for men (Perl 1).

In 1971, the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) was founded. This was the first noticeable step by women to try to integrate the field of mathematics (Nolan 3). This organization strove to give women mathematicians a voice with which to let the world know that they really existed. The AWM does many studies to try to understand just why

women are not active in mathematics (Nolan 3). IN 1973 Julia Sherman and Elizabeth Fennema, both mathematical educators, studied girls in mathematics courses in both elementary and high school settings. They found that the crucial years of a woman’s mathematical future is in her 3^rd or 4^th year of high school, when she is often counciled out of mathematics by parents and teachers because they felt that the girl has no future in the field (Nolan 3). These results were supported by the Wise, Steel, and MacDonald analysis which found that "sex differences in average math achievement increased most sharply after the tenth grade, when mathematics courses usually become elective" (Chipman 9). To combat this unwanted trend, the AWM began summer study programs for women interested in mathematics. This solution gave the girl a feeling of belonging, a feeling which she may not have felt in her regular high school mathematics classes which were almost definitely male dominated.

The creation of these summer programs helped females interested in mathematics in other ways too. Deborah Nolan states on page 4 of her book Women in Mathematics that "Mathematics is a social and communal endeavor, mathematicians enjoy meeting with each other in their field to work, talk, and play together. Many budding male mathematicians enjoy having friends in high school and college with whom they can jointly work on math problems." Women interested in mathematics, on the other hand, find themselves isolated sometimes (Nolan 4). Dusa McDuff, probably the 20^th century’s greatest female mathematician, experienced this isolation constantly throughout her life. Her problem, as was the problem for most females in mathematics, was how to become a mathematician (Love 1). She is quoted as saying "My life as a young mathematician was much harder than it needed to be because I was so isolated. I had no role models, and my first attempts at inventing a Lifestyle were not very successful" (Love 1). This is where the duality of the AWM summer programs improved the success of women dramatically. The programs provided budding women mathematicians with a place to fit in, meet other girls interested in mathematics, and to progress into mature mathematicians.

The field of mathematics is definitely not just a field of study for men. It has been proven that women are just as mathematically intellectual as men are. The problem which creates such a male-dominated field lies in the past, where men were seen as the only humans fit to study mathematics. Women have worked very diligently to reverse this idea which has been implemented in our society. Such organizations as the AWM fight to make the field of mathematics better suited for both sexes, not just for men. Although the AWM has been successful over the last three decades, the field is far from totally integrated. Statistics show, though, that while male interest in mathematics is constant, female interest is steadily rising. This tends to show that some time in the near future, the AWM’s goals will be finally achieved.

Table 1: What Has Been Important to Your Success in Mathematics So Far?

Table 2: How Often do You Question Your Ability to Succeed in Mathematics?

(Nolan)

Works Cited