EUROPEAN WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS NEWSLETTER NUMBER 7 March 2000
Editors: Nadia Larsen Department of Mathematics, University of Copenhagen DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark e-mail: [email protected] Maren Riemenschneider Arbeitsgruppe 2 – Geometrie und Algebra Fachbereich Mathematik Technische Universit¨at Darmstadt D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany e-mail: [email protected]
This is the seventh EWM Newsletter, mainly to be distributed via the EWM e-mail network.
Contents: 1 Editorial 2 Information and useful e-mail addresses 3 Report on the 9th General Meeting of EWM 4 Reports on other meetings held in 1999 5 Announcements of forthcoming meetings 6 Other News 7 Questionnaires
1. EDITORIAL
Irene Sciriha, convenor
Mentoring in 2000 Means Future Women Mathematicians With apologies to US Awise
The year 2000 has been designated as the World Mathematical Year, a tribute to the importance of our subject as the backbone of a true scientific approach. It is also the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sonia Kovalevskaya, a pioneer of women mathematicians. The situation for women mathematicians has improved considerably and yet in most civilized countries the opportunities for women are too restricted. To alleviate these difficulties for members of EWM who work in isolation or who are embarking on a mathematical career, we are setting up a mentor ring. Members are urged to fill in the questionnaire that is included in this issue. It is meant to provide us with information to set up a data base that should serve as a talent bank which we can access when a member needs mathematical help. EWM can boast that it is wealthy not only in the diversity of mathematical ideas that its members are interested in but also in the way these ideas are presented depending on the geographical area where studies are taken. Through the data base we can learn which resources the members can share among themselves. It is often the case that members who hold prestigious academic or administrative positions feel an urge to guide others still in the lower rungs. It is the purpose of this exercise to create a database, which can be used
1 to support members who may need help by referring them to these members willing to share their expertise. We can also use such information to address the future policies of EWM. While this idea was met with encouraging enthusiasm there were members who expressed valid reasons for caution. An advisor has to be careful not to assume a patronizing attitude towards the advised especially after having helped the latter to overcome teething troubles. Besides a possible mentor must not be placed in a position where she finds it hard to refuse a proposal. The best policy to adopt is if a member of the standing committee deals with contacts herself and checks whether an expert is in a position to give assistance at that time before any names are suggested. In this manner, the problem of privacy regarding availability at a particular time is dealt with. I am in no way implying that to succeed a woman needs a mentor. Many among us have managed in spite of opposition. I am sure, however, that many talented women are lost by the wayside in the path of their career and fail to reach the high positions men less able than they are reach, just because they miss some trick of the trade that can easily be suggested to them. A mentor’s encouragement may provide the insight necessary to keep a mentee’s enthusiasm well kindled. A mentor may, in all good faith, not suggest the best manner of approach. By being exposed to more tips, however, a mentee can make a wiser choice than if she is left to discover the optimal path without assistance. Every member has experience in some field and can be a mentor. Benefits work both ways. The mentee is helped to make a difficult decision more easily. The mentor will be surprised that by sharing her successful secrets, she’ll think of more successful ways of improving her position. Prolific researchers experience this multiplicative effect in their research. The more they share and discuss their discoveries the more they are likely to discover new ideas. I must thank the members of the subcommittees who are doing a great deal of work for EWM. The printed proceedings of the Trieste meeting have just been published. Many members, participants and re- gional coordinators in particular have already received them and were pleasantly surprised with the attractive presentation of the book. It is planned to hold the next EWM General Meeting in 2001, in Tartu, Estonia. More information on this will be given later. Before that, we have an opportunity to meet in Barcelona at the 3ecm. A satellite activity is being held in the days preceding the congress to listen to presentations by members about their current research. A special section of the meeting is being dedicated to a number of young women mathematicians who will be giving talks about their areas of interest. It will be an opportunity for all of us to make contacts and perhaps plan our next joint paper. In April, the EU Commission is holding a meeting entitled ”Women and Science: making change hap- pen.” I am putting up a stand showing information on EWM. A Power Point presentation, highlighting the activities and interests of EWM, will be available for participants visiting the stand. The Trieste proceedings will also be exhibited. Such meetings are beneficial to EWM as potential members are attracted and new contacts are made. I wish you all a successful year and urge you to keep in touch. Irene Sciriha, [email protected]
2. INFORMATION AND USEFUL E-MAIL ADDRESSES
A List of Committee Members
The following is a list of members of the different organs that were elected at the general assembly of the 9th general meeting of European Women in Mathematics in Kloster Loccum, Hannover, September 1999: Standing committee : Polyna Agranovich [email protected] Christine Bessenrodt (deputy convenor) [email protected]
2 Ljudmila Bordag [email protected] Laura Fainsilber (deputy convenor) [email protected] Catherine Hobbs [email protected] Marjatta N¨a¨at¨anen marjatta.naatanen@helsinki.fi Irene Pieper-Seier [email protected] Irene Sciriha (convenor) [email protected] Betul Tanbay [email protected] Laura Tedeschini-Lalli [email protected] Tsou Sheung Tsun [email protected] Inna Yemelyanova [email protected]
International coordinators : Marie Demlov´a [email protected] central and east Laura Fainsilber [email protected] north Rosa-Maria Spitaleri [email protected] south and west Tania Vasilieva [email protected] Russia Secretary: Riitta Ulmanen riitta.ulmanen@helsinki.fi Newsletter editors : Nadia Larsen [email protected] Maren Riemenschneider [email protected] Funding committee: Catherine Hobbs (Treasurer) [email protected] Emilia Mezzetti [email protected] Hannover Proceedings: Rachel Camina [email protected] Lisbeth Fajstrup [email protected]
Th organizing committee for the meeting in 2001: Christine Bessenrodt [email protected] Marie-Fran¸coise Coste-Roy [email protected] Laura Fainsilber [email protected] Helle Hein [email protected] Tatiana Ivanova [email protected] Liki Loone [email protected] Tsou Sheung Tsun (chair) [email protected]
The EWM web-page: We are looking for someone who wishes to maintain and develop the EWM web-page http://www.math.helsinki.fi/EWM. To join the European Women in Mathematics, check the EWM web-page at http://www.math.helsinki.fi/EWM, where you can find the application form in three different formats: tex, dvi or postscript. You can find out who the coordinator in your region is by checking the list of regional coordinators. Alternatively, send an e-mail to Riitta Ulmanen, the secretary of EWM, who will give you information on how to contact your regional coordinator.
3 3. REPORT ON THE 9TH GENERAL MEETING OF EWM
August 30–September 4, 1999 in Loccum (Germany) Christine Bessenrodt, Laura Fainsilber
The meeting was attended by 50 participants from 13 European countries. It took place at the conference center Loccum, located about 50 km from Hannover. The staff members at the conference center were particularly helpful and cooperative throughout the week. The center, an Episcopalian meeting place in a rather remote setting, with rooms, meals, lecture rooms, and many different places to sit and talk in the same building, provided a very friendly and warm atmosphere, conducive to discussion. The meeting was organised thanks to the great dedication of Christine Bessenrodt, Irene Pieper-Seier, Tsou Sheung Tsun, Ina Kersten and other members of the organising committee. It was held under the auspices of the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung (DMV), and was also supported by the UNESCO, the EC and the Gesellschaft f¨ur Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik (GAMM).
Mathematical Programme There were three sessions, one on Mathematical Modelling in theoretical physics, geophysics and biology, organized by Tsou Sheung Tsun (with talks by Helen Byrne, Cecilia Jarlskog, Rosa Maria Spitaleri), one on Discrete Mathematics and its applications, organised by Christine Bessenrodt and Tsou Sheung Tsun (with talks by Maylis Delest, Ulrike Tillmann), and one on Hilbert problems, organised by Ina Kersten (with invited talks by Ruth Kellerhals, Marie-Fran¸coise Roy and an overview by Ina Kersten). The sessions were complemented by short talks delivered by participants in Loccum (Andrea Blunck, Rachel Camina, Lisbeth Fajstrup, Laura Tedeschini Lalli). We held a poster session, chaired by Polina Agranovich, where close to 30 of the participants tried to present themselves and their work so as to be understood by non-experts and develop contacts. Many of the posters were quite creative and communicative. Abstract will be included in the conference proceedings.
General discussions The discussion topic of the meeting was The Ideal University; two talks were given, one by Renate Tobies on “In spite of all male culture: Women in Mathematics” and one by Britta Schinzel on “Challenges for an ideal University”. These were followed by a lively discussion. One central part in the discussion was the question whether it would be good to have a women’s university (like they have existed or still exist in some countries); it became quite clear that the varied cultural backgrounds led to rather different views: In some contexts segregated education is seen as a way to offer women a space of their own which can lead to increased expression and opportunities, in others as a way to set limits for women and provide them with lower quality education. We also exchanged ideas about ways of encouraging communication on all levels, since the lack of communication in various academic contexts seems to be a hindrance in many important aspects both in research and teaching, and since events as simple as coffee hours can help in this respect. On Friday evening the EWM video “Women and Mathematics across Cultures” was shown, illustrating statistics on the participation of women in mathematics in different European countries and giving personal views across countries by four women mathematicians. On Wednesday evening, we discussed the email list and its different functions for information and discussion. We decided to keep the new structure where one can opt to receive general messages of ‘ewm-all’ without necessarily following discussion (which can take place on the ‘ewm-discuss’ sublist), and to circulate every few month a message on the usage and intents of the lists. The discussion was moderated by Nadia Kutz. On Thursday evening, we discussed age limits and the choice of pursuing mathematics as a profession. A questionnaire was developed in a effort to gather data on women and men in mathematics, comparing ages at different stages of a career. The questionnaire will now be perfected and then circulated so that the outcome can be discussed at future meetings. If some patterns emerge, this could help us in recommending changes for example in age limit policies or hiring practices. The discussion was moderated by Laura Tedeschini-Lalli.
4 The General Assembly The General assembly approved new members and confirmed the present fees (1, 20 or 50 EUR). The Standing Committee was partially renewed; Christine Bessenrodt (deputy convenor), Cathy Hobbs, Irene Sciriha, Betul Tanbay, Tsou Sheung Tsun, Inna Yemelyannova, and 6 newly elected or re-elected members: Polina Agranovich, Lyudmila Bordag, Laura Fainsilber (deputy convenor), Marjatta Naatanen, Irene Pieper- Seier, and Laura Tedeschini-Lalli, with the convenor to be determined. [Since then, Irene Sciriha has accepted to be the new convenor.] Marie Demlova, Laura Fainsilber, Rosa Maria Spitaleri and Tania Vasilieva were elected as international coordinators and suggestions for regional coordinators were made that have to be confirmed on the regional level. The planning of the next EWM meeting 2001 was discussed. The organizing committee was elected: Christine Bessenrodt, Marie-Fran¸coise Roy, Laura Fainsilber, Tsou Sheung Tsun, and they will nominate some more members once the place is decided. Ideas for places and session topics were collected. [Since then, we have decided to hold the meeting in Estonia.] For the meeting in 2003, suggestions for the place were made. Different tasks were accepted by EWM members present at the meeting. In particular, Nadia Larsen and Maren Riemenschneider will edit the Newsletter. We are looking for someone to expand the web site. The difficulty of finding funding for the work of EWM was stressed again during the discussion, and a funding committee was founded It consists of Cathy Hobbs (Treasurer), Bettina Kuerner and Emilia Mezzetti. We also discussed organizing more minisymposia for women within large conferences, ideas for interdisciplinary workshops, and the possibility of organizing a forum where women close to their PhD would give short talks on their research.
There will be proceedings of this meeting, edited by Rachel Camina and Lisbeth Fajstrup. They will include the mathematical talks presented in the different sessions, poster abstracts and a report on the discussion on the Ideal University, as well as reports on the General Assembly, on the other discussions mentioned above, and information related to EWM. More information, including the detailed programme and list of participants, can be found on the web page http://fma2.math.uni-magdeburg.de/∼bessen/ewm99.html It is also accessible via the EWM site : http://www.math.helsinki.fi/EWM/ Christine Bessenrodt, [email protected], Laura Fainsilber, [email protected]
4. REPORTS ON OTHER MEETINGS HELD in 1999
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ICIAM ’99 Hilary Ockendon
Among the many interesting presentations at the ”International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics” held in Edinburgh in July 1999 were two high quality international minisymposia given by women research mathematicians. These events were organised by Professor Joyce R McLaughlin, the Ford Foundation Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Dr. Hilary Ockendon, Acting Director of the Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics at Oxford University, and sponsored by the Association for Women in Mathematics and SIAM, with some help from EWM (European Women in Mathematics) and ECMI (European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry).
5 The first minisymposium entitled Industrial Research Successes featured senior researchers who are either employed in industry or work on industrial problems in an academic setting. Rosemary Chang (SGI, USA) discussed the difficulty of parametrising intersections of surfaces in three dimensions precisely enough for modern computer aided design. Margaret Wright (Bell Labs, USA) gave insight into the modus operandi of a practical research mathematician. Her talk described the problem of positioning radio transmitters to get effective coverage within, say, a large supermarket and illustrated how one attacks such a problem (start with a ’baby’ problem) and how one deals with customers (use ’spreadsheet’ overheads and make sure they can use the final solution on the computer). At this point the audience were all about to throw up their academic careers and make for industry, but the next two speakers made us think that academia could be fun too. Kerry Landman (Melbourne University) organised the successful annual ’Mathematics in Industry Study Groups’ in Australia for five years and regaled us with some examples of problems from the food industry. The mathematical modelling of the processing of a humble cornflake posed some interesting problems involving free boundaries, porous media, asymptotics and experiments. Surprisingly, similar mathematics came up in the next talk by Barbera van de Fliert (Twente University) who has also organised and attended Study Group meetings with industry all over the world. Her description of how to predict or eliminate defects in drying paint not only showed the extensive ’bag of tools’ required by an industrial mathematician, but also how new branches of theoretical research have been opened up by such problems.
After a lunch break, we reconvened to listen to four talks by young women researchers—all within ten years of completion of their doctorate. These speakers were chosen from an open competition which attracted a very high quality field, and travel grants to attend the meeting were awarded to the successful candidates. Three Americans and one European were selected. Lisette de Pillis (Harvey Mudd College, USA) described how to design therapy for cancer treatment. After initiating us in the medical background, she showed how to derive a population-dynamics type of model and use a ’bang-bang’ control to devise the best strategy. Andrea Bertozzi (Duke University, USA) showed how a gravity driven thin film flow with surface tension and a thermal gradient leads to unexpected results like shocks travelling both forwards and backwards. Yanni Zeng (University of Alabama, USA) proved some existence and uniqueness results for some relaxing gas flows that have remained unstudied for decades. Corinne Cerf (Universiti Libre of Brussels) explained how chirality is of vital importance in some chemical constituents. She showed how to determine the chirality of a knot leading to the crucial idea of the nul- lification writhe, and was then able to use results from knot theory to find the chirality of some chemical compounds. Both these sessions proved deservedly popular. I believe this was because these minisymposia offered accessible talks on a wide range of applied topics and proved a welcome relief from the more usual intensely- focused minisymposia. This was a showcase offering real encouragement to young women thinking of careers in Mathematics in Industry. Hilary Ockendon
The EWM contributed to Dr. Cerf’s expenses in attending the conference.
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British Women in Mathematics Workshop 1999 Catherine Hobbs
The fourth British Women in Mathematics Workshop was held in Edinburgh, UK, 16-17th September 1999. The venue was the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences in Edinburgh, which is based in
6 the beautiful former home of James Clark Maxwell. It is a very pleasant venue for a small workshop such as this and we were very pleased to have been invited to use the ICMS for our meeting. The meeting was also sponsored by the London Mathematical Society. The meeting took place over two days, and there were about 20 participants, from research students to professors of mathematics. The talks ranged over a wide variety of topics, from medical statistics to complex dynamics via modelling the construction of LEGO toys. It was very interesting to have the opportunity to listen to talks on such different topics. In the evening of the first day we also had a non-mathematical talk and discussion, focusing on some research done at the University of Cambridge on why fewer women than men gain top degrees at that university. The two-day format gave participants a chance to get to know each other and many said how much they had enjoyed the meeting. We hope to continue the BWM workshops, with the next meeting probably being held in London in 2000/2001. Catherine Hobbs, [email protected]
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Sofia Kovalevskaya’s 150th birthday, January 15, 2000 Laura Fainsilber
Sofia Kovalevskaya was an adoptive member of the Swedish mathematical community: The last few years of her life, she was a professor in Stockholm, in fact the first woman in the world to hold the title of professor of mathematics. For the first time on her 150th birthday, she was honored in Sweden and celebrated in two festive events. On Friday the 14th, the Swedish Mathematical Society held its winter meeting which consisted of talks about her and about her mathematics, for a general public of mathematicians. Catherine Bandle (Switzerland) ”Male dominance in mathematics in the past and today”, gave a general presentation on the history of women’s education and on the geography of women active in mathematical research; Jaqueline Detraz (France) ”Sofia Kovalevskaya and the parisian mathematicians”, painted a vivid picture of the math- ematical community in Paris, where a handful of brilliant characters (Hermite, Picard, Poincar´e, Jordan, Darboux), some with family ties to each other, held on to key positions and arranged competitions; Roger Cooke (USA) ”The mathematics of Sofia Kovalevskaya”, including historical consideration, especially on her time in Germany under Weierstrass, can be found at http://www.emba.uvm.edu/˜cooke/sonya.html; Olga Ladyzhenskaya (Russia) ”On the dynamics of viscous fluids” spoke also of the Russian mathematicians re- action to Sofia Kovalevskaya and of the fight she lost for a position at the Academy of Sciences; Gerd Grubb (Denmark) ”PDE methods in geometric analysis” unveiled some mysteries of the Fourier transform. It was interesting to hear about mathematicians around Sofia Kovalevskaya in the different countries where she was active (Russia, Germany, France and Sweden), and about their attitudes towards her. In her homeland and places where she was part of the community, she received strong support...to find work elsewhere. Only Mittag-Leffler could get a position for her, in a place where she was a complete outsider. Hiring a woman professor was a tremendous challenge to the establishment, including in Sweden where it became the subject of a hot debate, with August Strindberg in vehement opposition. On Saturday, Sofia Kovalevskaya’s tomb in Stockholm’s Northern cemetary (Norra begravningsplatsen, section 21A, #88:4771) received quite a few visitors. In the afternoon, the general public was invited to the University’s main auditorium (where Nobel prize laureates often present their work) to hear about ”Sofia Kovalevskaya–Mathematician–Woman–Writer : Mathematics’ meeting with litterature and women’s meeting with mathematics” The event was organized by Mikael Passare who holds the professorship founded for Kovalevskaya at Stockholm University. It was announced in Dagens Nyheter, one of the main newspapers, in both an add and an article about Sofia Kovalevskaya in the commemorations section ”Names and News”. As a result, the audience very varied, reflecting Sofia Kovalevskaya’s different attachments. Some members of Stockholm’s Russian community were present, some people interested in women’s issues, some interested in mathematics. All in all an unusually wide public for a mathematical event.
7 The program was as diverse as the audience. Several artworks, including an aquarell portrait of Sofia Kovalevskaya, were presented by Professor Bj¨ork. The curator of the Sofia Kovalevskaya museum in Pali- bino, Russia showed slides of the house where Sofia Kovalevskaya grew up. It is under restauration and is becoming a museum on Sofia Kovalevskaya. The founders of a new primary school in the Stockholm area, the Sofia Kovalevskaya school, presented their activities, which place a special emphasis on Russian and on Mathematics, including creative aspects that are lacking in the general Swedish schools. Agneta Pleijel, well-known for writing the script for the movie ”The mountain on the back of the moon” about Sofia Kovalevskaya, gave a lecture entitled ”What is it like to understand?” She explained some of the questions she had wanted to explore in the movie. She recalled growing up trying to make sense of the opposition between an analytical representation of the world, exemplified by her father who was a mathematician, and a more holistic approach exemplified by her mother. When do we understand what’s going on? Is it when we know the rules and the laws of physics? What about feelings? Do we understand them? She tried to approach these question in her portrayal of Sofia Kovalevskaya as a mathematician and as a woman. The movie was shown in the auditorium in the evening. Roger Cooke gave an attractive presentation of ”The life of Sofia Kovalevskaya”. A short educational film was shown which illustrates rotational motions of rigid bodies. Last but not least, a round table discussion with Ragni Piene, Kathryn Hess, Gerd Brandell and myself entitled : Women can! Following in Kovalevsky’s footsteps, and encouraging girls and women to love mathematics. We had planned out the general structure of our intervention by email before the meeting. On Friday, we met at Kathryn’s, discussed our experiences and different viewpoints and decided what we wanted to emphasize and who would take up each aspect. We did a first round presenting ourselves briefly : Kathryn studied in the US, works in Switzerland and is now in Stockholm with a visiting professorship for women. Ragni has studied in the US and in France and is a professor at the University of Oslo; she is the only woman mathematician who has ever held a tenured position in her department. Gerd is a lecturer in Lule˚a, in the north of Sweden. She has long been active organizing conferences for a network of Women in Mathematics in Sweden, which includes many teachers from grade school to university. I come from France and the US and have worked in G¨oteborg as an assistant professor since 1997. We then gave very personal presentations. Kathryn described some crucial steps that led her to become a mathematician. As a child, she participated in a special mathematical summer school for girls where she later taught. She emphasized the role of supportive parents and of one woman instructor who got so involved as to steer her away from physics and into math. Ragni told of differences in attitudes and experiences in the US – in particular at MIT – and in Norway and France. It seems paradoxical that in a country like Norway, with a long tradition for women’s rights and an equal participation of women on the political scene, there are so few women e.g. in mathematics (less than 7% among the university staff). For her, however, it was natural to like and to study mathematics - due to the influence of her mathematician father. I presented an example of what being a woman mathematician might be about by describing application of integer quadratic forms to gas kinetics which I am currently working on. It comes from a computational model for the Boltzmann equation and requires knowledge of points on a sphere which have integer coordi- nates. Gerd described the statistics of women mathematicians at universities in Sweden. A recent government program to hire women professors and researchers in fields where they are underrepresented has resulted in the first nomination of a women mathematics professor since Sofia Kovalevskaya, as well as one in statistics and one in applied mathematics. A summer school for female research students in mathematics was held a couple of years ago. The school was a success and we hope another one will soon take place. There are still very few women in the pipeline, even among PhD students. The situation is improving, especially in applied areas such as statistics, but the process is very slow. As for encouraging girls to appreciate mathematics, a recurring theme was that we need to make it more interesting, not necessarily easier or more related to ”daily life”. Complex and challenging activities are the ones that can be attractive. A radio journalist attended the event, interviewed Kathryn and Gerd after the presentation, and pre-
8 pared two reports for the public radio station : one for a science program on and one for ”Freja”, a program on women’s issues. The Norwegian radio also had a half hour program about Sofia Kovalevskaya, where Ragni participated. Both Swedish programs were very well done and took up a whole range of arguments that had come up in the discussion. While attitudes in Sweden are very actively egalitarian in many aspects of daily life and politics, it is ”obvious” to most that mathematics is a masculine subject. It is especially striking for a general public in Sweden, such as radio listeners, to hear that this is not necessarily the case in other countries that are usually known for macho attitudes. Within western Europe, there is a clear North/South difference, with a line between Latin countries (especially Spain, Portugal and Italy) where mathematics is a subject for all and Anglo-Germanic countries where it seems segregated. Beyond salary differences and possible status differences for academics, many factors may play a role, of which a few were mentionned, such as the influence of catholic schools and convents in the education of girls and the lack of such institutions in protestant countries, the classification of mathematics as a subject of general intellectual interest or its restriction to being a tool for engineering, the image and schooling of teachers, either as spe- cialists of the subject who choose the teaching profession, or primarily as educators who acquire just enough knowledge of the field to teach it. In the evening, at the Mittag-Leffler institute on the outskirts of Stockholm, a bronze casting of a bust of Sofia Kovalevskaya was ceremoniously inaugurated. It stands in front of the institute, facing the door. Legend has it that Sofia Kovalevskaya came to see Mittag-Leffler’s house in construction but never stepped into the building. This cold January evening, we did not hesitate to go inside and partake in a beautiful dinner. To conclude, I must admit that I had been quite skeptical during the preparation of our presentation: there was no way to know who the audience would be or even whether there would be an audience, the program seemed rather vague and our intervention marginal for a celebration of Sofia Kovalevskaya , we didn’t have the time necessary to show the EWM video, it seemed impossible to have the mixture of mathematics and discussion characteristic of EWM. In hindsight, I think this event was extremely successful and have heard much positive feedback from colleagues. I am ready to participate in other occasions and would encourage others to organize similar meetings. Between the event itself, the newspaper presentation and the radio reports, we reached out to a diverse public which we don’t usually have access to. Moreover, the combination of interventions during the whole afternoon and within our panel reflected many facets of what it means to be a woman mathematician. I think there are very few occasions where so much complexity can be represented. Finally and selfishly, I enjoyed listening to the program, presenting our part, and getting to know Kathryn, Ragni and Gerd better. Laura Fainsilber, [email protected]
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”Fifth Forum of Young Mathematicians” Institut Henri Poincar´e, Paris, January 21-22, 2000.
The ”Fifth Forum of Young Mathematicians” (”Cinqui`eme Forum des Jeunes Math´ematiciennes”) was held at the Institut Henri Poincar´ein Paris, France, on Friday and Saturday, January 21–22, 2000. This annual meeting is an excellent occasion for scientific exchange and gives young researchers the opportunity to present their work in a stimulating environment. This year, it was part of the French program for the WMY2000 Project (World Mathematical Year 2000), also sponsored by UNESCO. The forum always consists of a scientific part, which gives an overview of the current state of mathe- matical research, and a historical-sociological part, which is intended to stimulate debates on current issues of women in the scientific community. This year, the scientific talks were given by twelve young mathemati- cians and six established mathematicians from all over France and Europe. The first debate was introduced by historians Delphine Gardey and Michelle Perrot, and followed the talk ”Historical approach to relations between women, science and technology” by Delphine Gardey. The second debate, ”Parity in the scientific
9 community”, was introduced by Claudine Hermann (Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique and member of E.T.A.N.) who reported on her activities at the European Community. The forum program is available at the web-site: http://www.desargues.univ-lyon1.fr/home/fem/agjan00.html Christine Charretton, [email protected]
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Fourth conference on Women and mathematics in Sweden Barbro Grevholm, University of Kristianstad, Sweden
The network Women and mathematics in Sweden is now going into its second decade of work. The fourth conference on the theme Women and mathematics took place in Uppsala in April 1999 and hosted over 200 participants from all over Sweden and from Denmark, Norway and Finland. Local organisers were people in the mathematics department of Uppsala with Christer Kiselman as chair of the administrative committee and Gerd Brandell as coordinator of the program committee. It is the first time a male professor of mathematics took on an important role in the organisation of our work. It should be pointed out here that the same man should be honoured for the fact that Sweden since 1997 has a female professor of mathematics, Burglind Juhl-Jrike (the first since 1890 when Sonia Kowalevsky died). Christer Kiselman took the initiative to get a so called Tham-chair in Uppsala. A Tham-chair is named after the Swedish minister Tham who decided that Sweden should have 33 new chairs for women only in different subjects. This caused a terrible discussion in the media for almost a year and it was said that the quality of research in Sweden would be lower because of these chairs. But the minister insisted on carrying out the decision and now there is no debate about it any more. The conference in Uppsala was a success thanks to the local organisers who did superb work and thanks to the program committee who composed a rich and rewarding program.
Challenging speech by Elizabeth Fennema The main speaker was Elizabeth Fennema. She gave a historical overview of research in the area of gender and mathematics. She also showed us some recent results that she published with Tom Carpenter in Educational Researcher number 5, volume 27 in 1998. I quote from their conclusions In summary, we found no gender differences in solving number fact, addition/subtraction, or non-routine problems throughout the three years of the study. Each year, however, there were strong and consistent gender differences in the strategies used to solve problems, with girls tending to use more concrete strategies like modeling and counting and boys tending to use more abstract strategies that reflected conceptual understanding. At the end of the third grade, the girls used more standard algoritms than the boys. On the problems that required flexibility in extending one’s procedures, boys were more successful than the girls. The ability to solve the extension problems in the third grade appears to be related to the use of invented algoritms in earlier grades, as both girls and boys who had used invented algoritms early were better able to solve the extension problems than those who had not. This study attracted a lot of interest from the conference participants. Elizabeth had to take part in many discussions about it during the days in Uppsala.
Could it be the same in Sweden? This study is a rather small one when it comes to the number of children involved and Elizabeth pointed out the need for more research. My wish is that someone in Sweden would carry out a replication study here because I think that there might be differences between the results from the USA and from Sweden. In contrast to the USA, Sweden has for many years shown no difference in the results in mathematics between girls and boys. So even if girls and boys in USA solve problems in different ways it might not be the case in Sweden.
10 It would also be interesting to try to find out what the consequences of using different methods might be. Could this fact be linked to the girls losing interest in mathematics in later years? Here are a lot of hot questions to investigate. Elizabeth’s contribution to the conference was highly appreciated.
Many interesting speakers Laura Fainsilber from Gothenburg was another plenary speaker. She talked about EWM and the work in this organisation, She is chair of EWM and wanted us to experience the type of activities EWM organises and to recognise the way being a woman’s association has encouraged the members to innovate and develop a different style of mathematical talks. She indicated that the formats EWM has developed , in particular the mixture of mathematics and other activities, can help inspire actions aimed at raising interest in mathematics for teachers and for girls and younger women. She also talked about her own research in mathematics in a very vivid and challenging way. The vice chancellor of University of Uppsala Ulla Riis spoke about different reasons for needing to work with Women and mathematics. She pointed out five special reasons 1) the recruitment goal, 2) the general education goal, 3) the quality goal, 4) the justice goal and 5) the power goal. She ended with some reflections about how to get the men to share the power with more women. This was well received by the listeners even though there were more men in the audience than in any of the three conferences before. There were male presenters in the parallel sessions too, among others Hkan Lennerstad, who spoke about the use of dialogues in teaching. He is interested in research about the use of dialogues in teaching and learning and if you have any good references to give him, please contact me. Hkan and his colleague Eva Pettersson performed a dialogue about how to prove that square root of 2 is not a rational number.
A project from Finland Eivor Bj¨orkqvist from Vasa in Finland presented a development project with gender perspectives from her school (Bj¨orkqvist, 1999). The aim of the project is that the pupils improve their knowledge in math- ematics and gain more positive attitudes to the subject in order to get more pupils to carry on with their studies in the subject. The group of teachers in her school has very carefully discussed what they needed to learn before they start, what they want to do and what areas to develop. They have looked for ways of working in mathematics which suit both girls and boys, tried to develop problem-solving and projects, tried to develop assessment methods, created mathematics as a possible extra choice subject in year 7 and developed co-operation with other schools. Eivor’s clear and careful documentation of the project inspired her listeners to try to start something similar in their own classes.
Other presenters: a brief report Catherine Gillo from the department of mathematics in Uppsala spoke about Sunday mathematics - is it needed? With Sunday mathematics she means the part of mathematics that most fascinated herself, the aesthetic part of the subject, mathematics for its own sake. The only female mathematics professor in Sweden talked about Approximation by polynomials. Lars- Erik Persson from Lulea Technical University told us about Women and mathematics - some personal experiences. He is among other things supervising several female research students in mathematics. Else- Mari Staberg continued her series of lectures from the three former conferences with quotations from girls in upper secondary school about their situation in mathematics and science teaching and learning. Josefin Bodell spoke about Mathematics and money and Tine Wedege from Denmark gave her talk on Mathematics in a woman’s life. It was a study of mathematics in her own mother’s life seen in the light of situated cognition and legitimate peripheral participation. Gunnel Roman reported a study on Female learning in Royal Technical University, which was very challenging. Svein Sj¨oberg from Norway gave a talk with the title Brave New Science- a new face of science. Lisbeth Lindberg and her colleague from South Africa told us about gender perspectives from their co-operative work there.
11 Active working groups Ten different working groups were in action over two days and these allowed the opportunity for everyone to participate in discussion. The working groups are a tradition in these conferences and their work is always documented in the proceedings from the conference. This will be the case again this time. A number of interesting exhibitions were shown. Books and other teaching materials produced by members of the network were exhibited.
Mathematicians as actors on the stage There was a huge surprise for the participants on the first night when, after dinner, a theatre show was introduced. The actors were a group of mathematicians from Stockholm and Uppsala and they performed a play written by themselves about Pierre Fermat. In a series of scenes the problem of Fermat touched different historical situations. The actors allowed full rein to their imagination in interpreting their roles. Gudrun Brattstr¨om played the role of Emmy Noether. This play was tremendously appreciated by the audience.
A twelve point program for the network Women and Mathematics I had the honour to give the final plenary speech and tried to sum up our experiences over ten years of work in Women and mathematics. I ended by presenting a twelve point programme for the next ten years of the network. Maybe in ten years we have come so far that the network is no longer necessary? Can we, will we, dare we?
References Bj¨orkqvist, E. (1999). L¨ararsamarbete f¨or utveckling. N¨amnaren, 3, 26, p 18-23.
5. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF FORTHCOMING MEETINGS
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Ringvorlesung Summer 2000 “Career development of Women in Mathematics—in comparison with Men’s Careers” University of Kaiserslautern, Germany
In the summer term 2000, there will be a series of lectures (called “Ringvorlesung”) at the Univer- sity of Kaiserslautern, Germany. The title is: “Career development of Women in Mathematics— in comparison with Men’s Careers”. This program is part of the interdisciplinary project “Women in Mathematics” supported by the German Volkswagen Foundation and organised by the Universities of Kaiserslautern and Erlangen-N¨urnberg. Mathematicians, social psychologists and researchers in history of mathematics cooperate in this project. This Ringvorlesung is a contribution to the “WORLD MATHEMAT- ICAL YEAR 2000”. We put emphasis on careers of outstanding female mathematicians. The lectures are based on detailed historical and present-day data. The main issues are: influences on careers, differences in international com- parison, school kids’ impression of mathematics and the development of students’ impression of mathematics. The lectures will be in German.
12 Program April 10, 2000: (two lectures) Helmut Neunzert, Institut f¨ur Techno- und Wirtschaftsmathematik, Universit¨at Kaiserslautern: Zehn Jahre Sofja-Kowaleskaja-Gastprofessur an der Universit¨at Kaiserslautern (Ten years with the Sofja-Kowaleskaja-Guest professorhip at the University of Kaiserslautern) Reinhard B¨olling, Fachbereich Mathematik, Universit¨at Potsdam: Sofja Kowalewskaja - Zum 150. Geburtstag der ersten Mathematik-Professorin (Sofja Kowalewskaja—the 150’th anniversary of the first female professor of mathematics) May, 8, 2000: Renate Tobies, Institut f¨ur Techno- und Wirtschaftsmathematik, Universit¨at Kaiserslautern: Von Emmy Noether bis Iris Runge. Fr¨uhe Berufskarrieren in der Mathematik. Vergleichende Analyse von Frauen und M¨annern. (From Emmy Noether to Iris Runge. Early Careers in Mathematics. Comparative Analyses of Women and Men.) May, 15, 2000: Cornelia Niederdrenk-Felgner, Universit¨at T¨ubingen, President of the Working Group of Women in Mathe- matics of the Society for Didactics of Mathematics: Das Bild von Mathematik in der Schule – h¨angt schief (The Image of Mathematics in School—something is wrong) May, 22, 2000: Christine Bessenrodt, Institut f¨ur Algebra und Geometrie, Universit¨at Magdeburg, Representative of the European Women in Mathematics Commission: Mathematikerinnen in Europa. Trends, Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede der Entwicklungsbedingungen. (Female Mathematicians in Europe. Trends, Common Aspects and Differences between Conditions of De- velopment.)
May 29, 2000: Andrea Abele-Brehm, Fachbereich f¨ur Sozialpsychologie, Universit¨at Erlangen-N¨urnberg: Berufliche Pl¨ane von Mathematikerinnen und Mathematikern am Ende ihres Studiums. Ergebnisse einer repr¨asentativen Befragung der Absolvierenden des Jahrsganges 1998. (Perspectives of Female and Male Mathematicians in their Final Years at Universities. Results of a Survey during 1998.) June 5, 2000: Irene Pieper-Seier, Fachbereich Mathematics, Universit¨at Oldenburg: Wirkungen des Mathematikstudiums auf das Verh¨altnis zur Mathematik - Eine geschlechtsvergleichende Anal- yse bei Studierenden der Mathematik. Ein Forschungsprojekt in Niedersachsen. (Influence on the Relation towards Mathematics by Studying Mathematics—an Analysis with Students of Mathematics with Respect to their Sex. Research Project in Niedersachsen.) June 19, 2000: Christa Binder, Institut f¨ur Analysis, technische Mathematik und Versicherungsmathematik, Technische Universit¨at Wien: Olga Taussky-Todd (1906-1995) - eine besondere Mathematikerinnenkarriere. (Olga Taussky-Todd (1906-1995)—A Special Career of a Female Mathematician) June 26, 2000: Ina Kersten, Institut f¨ur Mathematik, Universit¨at G¨ottingen, First Women President of the German Math- ematical Society: Mathematikerinnen in Spitzenpositionen (Female Mathematicians in Top Positions)
13 July 3, 2000: (two lectures) Helgard Ulshoefer, Berliner Institut f¨ur Lehrerfort- und weiterbildung und Schulentwicklung: Die erste ordentliche Professorin einer deutschen Universit¨at - Mathilde Vaerting - war Mathematiklehrerin (Mathilde Vaerting, the First Female Professor at a German University, was a Math Teacher. Historical and Present-Day Moments of Mathematical Instruction.) Cornelie Leopold, Fachbereich Architektur, Universit¨at Kaiserslautern: Tests und internationale Ergebnisse zum Raumvorstellungsverm¨ogen bei Studierenden der Mathematik und Ingenieurwissenschaften. (Tests and International Results on Stereoscopic Power of Imagination of Students of Mathematics and Engineering.)
Renate Tobies, [email protected]
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EUROPEAN WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS New Women in Mathematics an International Forum for Women Starting in Mathematical Research Barcelona, Spain, July 6 to 8, 2000
We are planning a satellite meeting to the 3rd European Congress in Mathematics, which will take place in Barcelona, July 10-14 2000. The forum will take place in the days preceding the congress and will consist of 24 short talks in thematic parallel sessions: • 18 talks by participants about their PhD research, • 6 talks by established women mathematicians • a general session of 4 talks presenting the work of pioneering European women mathematicians of this century, by those who knew and worked with them. The themes of the sessions will be chosen according to the participants’ subjects. We hope to have a broad spectrum of different mathematics. Time will be set aside for discussion and contact. We are inspired by the ‘forum des jeunes mathematiciennes’ which the French group ‘femmes et math- ematiques’ has organised the last four years in Paris, and by the general meetings of EWM. We are planning a poster session. This being an interdisciplinary and introductory forum, the emphasis for posters is more on presenting oneself and starting a discussion than on exposing complete results. We have been experimenting with a rather personal style of posters at EWM meetings and found that exposing a thesis project or just areas or interest can be a good start and facilitate contact. It can be a challenge for women who are starting in mathematics and feel somewhat isolated to partic- ipate in conferences, especially in a large congress. We hope the forum will give more motivation to come to Barcelona, make it easier for them to obtain funding from their institutions for the forum and congress than if they were only going to attend the congress and give them the opportunity to make contacts which will make the congress a more worthwhile experience. Such a congress can be a very good place to make new contacts since it is attended by many, but it is not always easy to do so in the main programme amongst hundreds of participants. Bringing together emerging mathematicians with more established ones in a smaller group before the main congress should facilitate these contacts. Organising committee : Laura Fainsilber (Gothenburg), Marie-Francoise Roy (Rennes), Local contact : Nuria Fagella (Barcelona), Scientific committee : Emilia Mezzetti (Trieste), Sylvie Paycha (Clermont-Ferrand), Irene Pieper-Seier (Oldenburg), Tsou Sheung Tsun (Oxford), Marie-France Vign´eras (Paris).
14 We will put information on our web page http://www.math.helsinki.fi/EWM/ We have applied for some funding but do not know yet if any will be available. Participants are expected to make their own housing arrangements, together with arrangements to attend 3ecm. If you would like to attend, please fill in the following form and send it to [email protected] with subject : EWM-3ecm forum as soon as possible (the official deadline has already past but we will try to accomodate you).We will contact you and tell you when it is time to register.
Family name : First name : email address : mailing address :
General mathematical area (e.g. probability, PDE, algebra,...) : PhD (or expected PhD) : When? Where? On which topic?
Present professional situation :
Would you like to present a poster? Preliminary title :
Would you like to give a talk at the forum? If so please give us Title : Abstract :
Are you interested in attending without giving a talk?
Can you obtain funding from other sources, such as your institution ...if you give a talk? ...if you don’t give a talk?
Would you need funding from us to attend the forum? If so, approximately how much?
Are you planning to attend 3ecm?
Marie-Francoise Roy, [email protected] and Laura Fainsilber, [email protected]
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15 Joint EWM/AWM-session at the first joint AMS-Scandinavian conference Odense, Denmark, 13-16 June, 2000
At the Joint AMS-Scandinavian conference (see http://www.imada.sdu.dk/ hjm/AMS.Scand.2000.html) there will be a special session called Joint EWM/AWM-session on Wednesday June 14’th and Thursday June 15’th. The special sessions are in the afternoon. The program for this special session is almost ready now: Wednesday: Karen Uhlenbeck (Austin) talks about her life as a mathematician. We watch an excerpt of a video about Julia Robinson by George Csicsery. Round Table about women in mathematics in Scandinavia and the US. What are the differences, what can we learn from each other. Moderator: Ragni Piene (Oslo). Participants: Laura Fainsilber (Gøteborg), Karen Uhlenbeck (Austin), Berit Stensønes (Ann Arbor), Christina Wiis Tønnesen-Friedman, (Arhus).˚ In the evening we go out for dinner. Thursday: Ragni Piene gives a talk on algebraic geometry aimed at an audience of masters students (and the rest of us...) We watch the EWM-video. TBA (a talk on some applied math subject for the same audience.) To register for the conference go to the website above. The conference fee is 50 USD before May 1’st. The hotel rooms are only guaranteed if you register before April 1’st. Odense is a nice place - among other things it is the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen, our famous author. Hope to see a lot of you there. The organizers: Tinne Hoff Kjeldsen, Ellen Munkholm, Christina Wiis Tønnesen Friedman and Lisbeth Fajstrup. Lisbeth Fajstrup, [email protected]
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”The nature of gender – the gender of nature” 5th symposium on gender research Christian–Albrechts university Kiel, Germany November, 10-12, 2000
We are planning to explore gender as a category within the natural sciences and technology in four sessions with both a plenary lecture by a keynote speaker, and an open panel session in a less formal setting. Contributions for the panel sessions will be solicited through an international ”Call for Papers.” The sessions will encompass topics like the following: Gender between nature and culture - sex vs. gender? - gendering natural and cultural sciences - body politics - cyberspace and cybersociety Natural sciences and technology as ”male” projects? - historical and contemporary presence of women in the natural sciences and technology - the critique of science and de-gendered visions - concepts for the advancement of women Gender-typed treatment of resources: Environment - agriculture - nutrition - sustainability - perspectives for developing countries - Agenda 21 - environmental education
16 Gender and technology e.g., in information technology, computer science, genetic engineering and reproductive medicine, ...
Keynote presentations: 1. Prof. Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Biochemistry Brown University at Providence, RI, USA 2. Prof. Dr. Lydia P. Makhubu, President of TWOWS - Third World Organization for Women in Science University of Swaziland at Kwaluseni 3. Prof. Dr. Nelly E. J. Oudshoorn, Department of Science and Technology Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands 4. Prof. Dr. Judy Waicman, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University at Can- berra Call for papers Proposals for presentations related to the topics of the four main sessions or to the overar- ching theme of the symposium are invited worldwide from researchers of all academic disciplines. Proposals may be either for oral presentations in concurrent sessions (30 minutes alloted, 10 minutes discussion time included) or for poster presentation. For both presentation formats an abstract is required which should be written in English (preferable) or German and be no longer than one typewritten page. Electronic submissions (rtf format or regular email message) will also be accepted. Conference volume ZiF has its own publication series, in which selected contributions from the symposium will be published. Conference fees - registration prior to October 1st, 2000: DM 150 /DM 50 (students/unemployed) - registration after October 1st, 2000: DM 175 /DM 60 (studensts/unemployed) (We have limited funds for financial support in special cases!!) Key dates Deadline for submission of proposed abstracts: April 1, 2000 Notification of acceptance: July 1, 2000 Symposium: November, 10-12, 2000 The symposium will be sponsored by the Ministery of Education and Science of the Federal Republic of Germany.
For further information please contact Susanne Olkers¨ ZiF-Zentrum f¨ur interdisziplin¨are Frauenforschung Christian-Albrechts-Universit¨at zu Kiel Olshausenstr. 40 D-24098 Kiel phone (German code): (0)431/5 79 49-51, FAX -50 home: http://www.uni-kiel.de/zif/ e-mail: [email protected] Susanne Olkers,¨ [email protected]
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4th German EWM meeting Short information
The 4th German EWM meeting is planned to take place October 09 - 10, 2000 at the Faculty of Mathematics of Chemnitz University of Technology (Saxony).
17 Mathematical programm of the meeting will focus on recent advances in the numerical mathematics, applied analysis, discrete mathematics, stochastic optimization, approximation theory and important appli- cations in various disciplines. Invited Speakers: Roswitha Maerz (Berlin) Anna-Margarete Saendig (Stuttgart) Angelika Steger (Muenchen) Silvia Vogel (Ilmenau) A poster session will be organized, and all participants are encouraged to present their work in this way. In addition there will be a discussion on the topic: ’Job Opportunities and Job Chances for young mathemati- cians’. Moreover, talks on the topics - How we can inspire talented girls for mathematics? - Recent results and trends on Women and Gender Research. will be presented. Conference fee: 10 DM Contact: [email protected] Information: http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/mathematik/ewm/
Sybille Handrock, [email protected]
6. OTHER NEWS
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London Mathematical Society’s Committee on Women in Mathematics
In 1999 the London Mathematical Society (the main learned society for academic mathematicians in the UK) decided to form a subcommittee on Women in Mathematics. This was prompted by a discussion meeting of the Council of the Society about the issue that there are relatively few women in academic mathematics in the UK (18% lecturers, 3% professors), despite the fact that the undergraduate proportion of women is around 40%, and comparison with several European countries (notably those in the south) which shows that it need not be the case that so few women succeed as academics. I was asked to chair the committee, which has 8 members from different UK universities (and includes one man!). So far our actions have been: • To collect current statistics on the proportions of women in mathematics at different levels. • To initiate a high-profile annual Lecture (the Mary Cartwright Lecture) which will feature an eminent female speaker, or be about the mathematical work of a woman. The first such lecture took place in Cambridge at the Isaac Newton Institute March 4th 2000. The speakers were Professor Walter Hayman, who was a student of Mary Cartwright and gave a historical talk, and Professor Caroline Series, who gave a talk on “Exploring the space of Quasifuchsian Groups”. The event was well-attended and was followed by a dinner at Girton College, Cambridge, where Mary Cartwright had been Mistress for many years. • To get the LMS to support a Daphne Jackson Fellowship in mathematics. Daphne Jackson was the first female professor of physics in the UK (in the 1970’s) and she set up a scheme to help people (mainly women) to return to academia after a career break. They are sponsored by various companies, universities and societies. This is the first time the LMS has agreed to sponsor such a fellowship.
18 We also have plans to investigate mentoring schemes and small grants for those on career breaks to help them to keep up with research during their time away from a university. We hope that initiatives like these can really make a difference and will encourage more women to stay in mathematics. If there are other national committees of this type the committee would be very interested in hearing about them and the different ways in which they are tackling the issues relating to women in mathematics. Please e-mail me if you have ideas and contacts. Catherine Hobbs, [email protected]
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Research Project: On the Development of Subject-related Strategies, Attitudes and Assessments by Women Mathematics Students Enrolled in Mathematics Degree Programmes and University Training for Secondary School Mathematics Teachers
directed by Prof. Dr. Irene Pieper-Seier and Prof. Dr. Kristina Reiss, Department of Mathematics, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg Research and Teaching Assistants: Dipl.phys. Beate Curdes, StR Sylvia Jahnke-Klein
supported by Nieders¨achsischer Forschungsverbund f¨ur Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung in Naturwis- senschaften, Technik und Medizin (Lower Saxony Research Pool for Gender Studies in Science, Technology and Medicine) Abstract: Compared with, say, the engineering and natural sciences, in mathematics women account for a not inconsiderable proportion of students, but their numbers tend to tail off on completion of a first degree. Far fewer women then men go on to pursue postgraduate studies, culminating in a doctorate or university lecturing qualification (”Habilitation”).This project sets out, on a number of different levels, to explore the reasons for this. To this end, a survey will be conducted among male and female mathematics students at three different points in time: when they begin their studies, on completion of their interim examinations and shortly before their final examinations. They will be asked about their personal view of mathematics, including aspects such as their attitude to the subject, their expectations with respect to the study programme and their own capabilities, the discrepancy between expectations and reality, their personal belief of mathematics and their experiences with the subject and with mathematical people. The project aims to help determine whether and how studying mathematics enables future mathematics teachers - especially women teachers - to counter gender role stereotypes. Such stereotypes, of the variety ‘mathematics is not for girls or women‘, are actually passed on at school, among other places. The project will also set out to correlate these aspects to the individual‘s technical competence. The main concern here will not be to make an assessment purely in terms of the product, i.e. the solution of problems. Instead, the aim will be to observe which processes are favoured in solving the problems. Interpretation of the results will take the form of a gender-related comparative study. Irene Pieper-Seier, [email protected]
7. QUESTIONNAIRES
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Age limits
19 One evening during the EWM meeting in Loccum was dedicated to a discussion on age limits stipulated in many announcements for grants. The wish to have such a debate was prompted by a discussion within the European Mathematical Society as to whether hiring policies which favor young candidates end up discriminating unfairly against women. The question of age was raised again in a recent series of letters on the ewm-net, which expressed concern about age limits in grant advertisements, as women are often hindered in applying for the grants just because they are beyond the required age. During the discussion one of the suggestions that were made in order to document age patterns in careers was to gather data on a large number of mathematicians, both female and male. Towards this point we drew up a questionnaire. Subsequently, this text was discussed in the Committee for Women and Mathematics of EMS, where some questions were added and (may be) improved. The final text follows below. We hope that the results of this questionnaire will convince organisations that award grants, such as EU’s educational programmes, that age limits ought to be dropped. We also hope it will help change the image that all important mathematics is done at an early age and that this will influence hiring policies. Please fill in the questionnaire and send your answer to Emilia Mezzetti (Dipartimento di Scienze Matematiche, Universit`adi Trieste, Via Valerio 12, 34127 Trieste, Italy). If enough filled questionnaires will be collected, it will be possible to elaborate them and try to deduce some conclusion. Thank you in advance. (This text is a shortened version of a report that will appear in the Hannover proceedings.)
1. Are you male or female?
2. How old are you?
3. What is your nationality?
4. How many children do you have?
5. At what age did you complete your Ph.D.?
6. How many countries have you studied/worked in?
7. What is your mother’s job? What is your father’s job?
8. What is your partner’s job?
9. Did you choose your place of residence motivated by your career or by that of your partner?
10. Did the problem of the residence play a role in your professional life?
11. Do you have a permanent job?
12. How many years after your Ph.D. did you obtain your first permanent job?
13. At what age did you write the paper of which you are most proud of so far?
14. Did you go through a time in your career when you could not do mathematical research? If so, how long were these gaps? In your opinion what were the reasons for these gaps?
15. Comments:
Nadia Larsen, [email protected] and Emilia Mezzetti, [email protected]
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20 Mentor-Ring Questionnaire to Members of EWM
We invite you to fill in this questionnaire and return it to your regional coordinator. Please send a copy also to the convenor. The aim is to learn which resources the members can share among themselves. Purposes: i) To create a database which can be used to support members who may need help by referring them to other members. ii) To be able to make comparative studies that will make clear the areas where members generally need help. We can use such information to address our future policies.
Surname
Name
Country of Origin/Residence
Degrees/University/year
URL (Webpage address)
Gender
Home Address I
Home Address II
Present Occupation (if any)
Work Address I
Present Occupation
Date since last appointment
Full/Part time
Permanent/Temporary
Organisation/Dept
Area of research
Mathematical Topics taught
Experience in networking
Two Recent publications that best explain your research
Other details you think relevant
21 Positions held in committees
Please feel free not to fill in fields you feel may infringe on your privacy.
Dr. Irene Sciriha [email protected] Convenor-EWM Dept of Mathematics Faculty of Science University of Malta
EWM Office, Riitta Ulmanen , Secretary, Department of Mathematics, PO Box 4, Yliopistonkatu 5, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland Tel 358 9 191 22853, Fax 358 9 191 23213 e-mail: [email protected]
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