Promoting Women in Mathematics

Abstract

The eight papers making up this special issue on promoting women in mathematics consider the underrepresentation of women in mathematics and the experiences and observations of authors who are immersed in this work. In this editorial, we identify common themes we see across many of these papers, framing our discussion with the “social identity framework of mathematical development” presented in the first paper. This framework consists of three beliefs conducive to the pursuit of mathematics, and we discuss how the authors address each of these beliefs in their work. We also present data to illustrate that the underrepresentation of women in mathematics continues to be an issue, and we hope the papers in this issue will be informative for others who want to lead gender-based initiatives.

Keywords:

• Women
• underrepresentation
• recruiting
• encouraging
• supporting
• retaining

1. HOW THIS SPECIAL ISSUE AROSE

This special issue arose out of a contributed paper session at the 2021 Joint Mathematics Meetings that we co-organized with Francesca Bernardi, Semra Kilic-Bahi, and Anila Yadavalli. The description was

The purpose of this session is to encourage meaningful discourse surrounding the underrepresentation of women in mathematics and statistics. Certainly, these disciplines benefit from the talents and contributions of all people—regardless of gender—and gender equity is a matter of social justice. To this end, we solicit talks offering promising ideas and solutions for recruiting, encouraging, supporting or retaining women in mathematics. We also welcome talks focusing on issues residing at the intersections of gender with cultural, ethnic, sexual or other identities.

The session was sponsored by the 50th Anniversary Committee of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM), the Joint Committee on Women in the Mathematical Sciences (JCW), the Committee on the Participation of Women of the Mathematical Association of America, PRIMUS, and Spectra. Organized into 3 parts, there were 21 talks.

JCW additionally sponsored this special issue. The JCW is a joint committee of nine professional associations: the American Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges (AMATYC), the American Mathematical Society (AMS), the American Statistical Association (ASA), the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM), the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS), the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), the National Association of Mathematics (NAM), the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).

2. WHY FOCUS ON WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS?

AWM is the oldest organization in the world devoted to women in mathematics. AWM's mission includes as part of its purpose “to promote equitable opportunity and treatment of women and others of marginalized genders and gender identities across the mathematical sciences.” Like AWM, we interpret the use of the term “women” broadly as a placeholder word inclusive of people marginalized based on their gender, such as transgender women and non-binary people. As AWM celebrated 50 years in 2021, it was an opportune time to focus the special session and this special issue on what has and has not been working to promote women in mathematics.

Diversity is of interest at colleges, universities, professional organizations, and national agencies like the National Science Foundation (NSF), which has a long-term goal to “Increase the number and diversity of US students trained in the mathematical and statistical sciences” [6]. Efforts have focused on women because they are underrepresented in mathematics and statistics despite comprising more than 50% of the US population and more than 58% of the undergraduate population [10] in colleges and universities nationwide.¹ Moreover, in the most recent NSF report on diversity and STEM, NSF highlights that “women were underrepresented among degree recipients at all degree levels in physical and earth sciences, mathematics and computer sciences and engineering” [7].

At the undergraduate level, the percentage of degrees awarded to women in mathematics and statistics in the USA reached a high of approximately 48% in 1998–1999 but then declined and was at approximately 42% in 2019–2020, the most recent year data is available to date in 2023 [9]. The data is separated by binary gender. See Figure 1, which roughly shows an increase followed by a decrease in percentages. (This graph was created using data tables from the US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics [9], focusing on the time period just before AWM was formed through the most recent data available.)

Figure 1. Share of undergraduate degrees awarded to women in the USA in mathematics and statistics from 1967–1968 to 2019–2020.

At the doctoral level, women who are US citizens and permanent residents have been earning more doctoral degrees than men in the USA, but not in mathematics and statistics [12]. The most recent data available from the US Department of Education [9] reveals that the percentage of doctoral degrees rose until 2007–2008 and 2008–2009 with a high of over 31%, but then roughly flattened out with a slight decline (see Figure 2). Most recently, approximately 29% of the doctoral degrees in the USA were earned by women.

Figure 2. Share of doctoral degrees awarded to women in the USA in mathematics and statistics from 1967–1968 to 2019–2020.

Organizations and individuals at institutions have long been working to support and promote women in mathematics and statistics, so one might wonder why there has not been more progress. We believe that the number of women earning degrees would show an even larger gap if not for these efforts. In addition, while the papers in this special issue mainly focus on efforts to address the underrepresentation, they also highlight many reasons why their programs are still needed.

3. SPECIAL ISSUE PAPERS

We open this special issue with the paper “Strengthening the STEM Pipeline for Women: An Interdisciplinary Model for Improving Math Identity” [1] by Victoria Akin, Sophia T. Santillan, and Lauren Valentino because this paper presents a framework for mathematical development that we find to be useful when considering the common themes across all of the papers. As Akin, Santillan, and Valentino explain, they have developed an ambitious two-semester program to recruit and promote women in mathematics by working purposefully to instill three beliefs “conducive to the pursuit of mathematics” in undergraduate women and middle-school girls. Together these beliefs make up what they call the “social identity framework” for improving math identity:

1. The student believes they are capable of success in mathematics and science.

2. The student believes a mathematics-related career is personally relevant and meaningful.

3. The student believes a mathematics-related career would be welcoming.

Akin, Santillan, and Valentino speak about each of these beliefs and argue that initiatives focusing on social identity development can improve women's confidence in mathematics, and more generally, STEM. When examining other papers in this issue that present initiatives to recruit and support undergraduate women in mathematics, we find that they, too, describe programming targeting these same beliefs to varying degrees. We decided to introduce the papers in this issue by examining common themes as they relate to each of these beliefs, in turn.

3.1. First Belief: Capable of Success

Addressing the first belief: The student believes they are capable of success in mathematics and science, we observe that all of the initiatives place undergraduate women into research experiences or early teaching/mentoring roles that typically reside outside of the students' regular coursework. These early professional experiences serve to build mathematical expertise and leadership skills, and through these additional mathematical activities, participants come to believe in their ability to succeed in mathematics and mathematical careers. In the paper “Programmatic Strategies to Engage and Support Undergraduate Women in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science” [3], Sandie Han, Nadia Stoyanova Kennedy, Diana Samaroo, and Urmi Duttagupta report on an STEM scholarship program at New York City College of Technology, which supports undergraduate women in applied mathematics and computer science. The multifaceted program provides financial support to a vulnerable population of women while offering a range of early STEM opportunities including research and peer tutoring. Han, Kennedy, Samaroo, and Duttagupta state, “The program emphasized the development of empowering settings for women's engagement and achievement, which act to sustain and expand interest in mathematics and computing, and thereby help them to see themselves as future professionals in the field.”

Several of the papers present programs where women undergraduates are empowered in their role as mentors in a middle-school or high-school outreach program. For example, Akin, Santillan, and Valentino describe their program Improving Girls' Math Identity, which is designed to address two key leaks in the STEM pipeline for girls and women: middle school and college. Using a two-semester course sequence, they train undergraduate women to lead workshops in problem solving for middle-school girls. As the authors report, the program has “improved mathematical efficacy and confidence among both the undergraduate mentors and the middle school participants.” In the paper, “Mentoring female undergraduates in research-centered outreach” [11], Violeta Vasilevska and Carolyn Hamilton present a two-tiered mentoring program in which women professors mentor women undergraduates, who, in turn, mentor high school girls. With the guidance of professors, the undergraduates design and run intensive after-school programs. Survey data indicated that the mentoring experience increased undergraduate mentors' confidence in their ability to learn mathematics.

Another paper that connects to the first belief, but from a different direction, is “ ‘I Just Feel the Need to be Good at Something, and that Thing Should be Math’: Acknowledging Asian/Asian American Identity in an Accelerated Mathematics Program” [13]. As a part of their research, Anila Yadavalli, J. D. Walker, Jeff J. Shi, and Jonathan Rogness investigate beliefs about success in mathematics. They present the results of a large-scale, mixed-methods survey of students in grades 6–12 who are taking college courses in a 5-year program. Among other conclusions, they report that “while the majority of students believed that anyone could succeed at math, As/AsAm [Asian/Asian American] and white girls both reported the lowest confidence in their abilities and the highest rates of imposter syndrome.” So their research provides the evidence of a need to address the first belief when designing programs to support women in mathematics. Yadavalli, Walker, Shi, and Rogness's paper also discusses implications for the classroom.

3.2. Second Belief: Relevance and Meaning

Moving on to the second belief in their social identity framework: The student believes a mathematics-related career is personally relevant and meaningful, Akin, Santillan, and Valentino observe that “social factors like gender (as well as race and socioeconomic background), shape which values take priority for a given person.” Han, Kennedy, Samaroo, and Duttagupta also address this issue, reporting that “recent research shows that persistence in mathematics and science programs is associated with students' ability to identify with relevant careers in the field and to find connections to their personal goals.” They purposefully expose undergraduate participants to a range of STEM experiences and careers through seminars, lecture series, lab tours, and field trips, and they offer career counseling through “robust and sustained one-on-one advising and mentoring.” Indeed, many of the papers describe programming involving speaker series, informational meetings/socials, and day-long events that reveal the utility, relevance, and meaning of mathematics by connecting undergraduate women and/or middle or high school girls to women professionals working in a variety of mathematics-related careers. For instance, in their outreach program, Vasilevska and Hamilton purposely bring in women in mathematical careers and foster discussions about careers that use mathematics.

In the paper “Building Community: One AWM Chapter's Tale of Programmatic Outreach” [5], Lyn McQuaid, Vanessa Maybruck, and Yun Lu reflect on the evolution of the AWM Chapter at Kutztown University over the past decade. They describe events like “Beyond Pink-Collar Jobs” and a virtual speaker series which bring in women speakers and panelists in “male-dominated academic and industrial positions including mathematics, cyber security, finance, and industrial engineering.” Feedback indicates that the women find value in these interactions. One participant wrote “this event gave girls exposure to more math careers that they can see themselves doing rather than the normal male dominated roles in math.” Another observed “It's encouraging to see women from a broad variety of careers in math talk about their work.”

In “Virtual Sonia Kovalevsky Day Mathematics Outreach Events for Middle School Girls” [2], Andrea Arnold describes a virtual implementation of a Sonia Kovalevsky Day, where undergraduate women took on leadership roles in planning and running online mathematical activities for middle school girls. The one-day event featured keynote talks delivered by women in the mathematical sciences who could convey the nature of their research and demonstrate that women can be successful in mathematical careers. The event culminated with remarks “highlighting the different career opportunities and application areas of mathematics.” Survey results indicated that participants appreciated learning about women in mathematics and the different application areas and careers in mathematical sciences. One wrote “SK Day is a great event for anyone to be inspired by other impactful women in the Mathematical Industry.”

In the paper “Promoting Women in Mathematics Through Creating a Learning Community and Encouraging Double Majors” [8], Jessica OShaughnessy describes how the second belief is front-and-center in recruiting women into the mathematics major. She reports that the Mathematical Sciences Department at Shenandoah University has increased the percentage of women in the mathematics major by purposefully targeting women's perceptions of mathematical careers while capitalizing on the university's requirement that students declare a minor or second major. Faculty actively recruit women into a second major in mathematics by “tapping into the students' service-related interests ” and by “demonstrating how mathematics can be used to make a positive impact on communities.” Additionally, the department teaches calculus through an interdisciplinary lens, incorporating biological, chemical and health-related examples to pique the interest of Shenandoah University students, many of whom major in a health-related career.

Yadavalli, Walker, Shi, and Rogness's survey specifically asks students about their perceptions of “math career relevance.” They compare the mean responses and find statistically significant gender differences, with boys rating math careers as more relevant. In an intersectional analysis, As/AsAm girls rated math careers as least relevant among all the groups studied. The authors say “We interpret this to indicate that As/AsAm girls are receiving the message from their teachers that they should be good at math, but they struggle to see how being good at math fits into their personal lives, goals, and interests.”

3.3. Third Belief: Environment is Welcoming

The third social identity framework belief: The student believes a mathematics-related career would be welcoming is clearly driving the work described in all of the papers in this issue, as authors highlight the need for students to have mentors and role models who share their identity and present the many different initiatives they have created to build community through mentoring programs, mathematical activities, and social opportunities. While authors do not explicitly state that such work will instill a belief that a mathematics-related career would be welcoming to the women participants, they are operating under the implicit assumption that students who feel like they belong in the community where they are practicing mathematics currently are more likely to believe a future mathematics-related career will be welcoming, as well.

“Building a STEM Community” is one of five components making up Han, Kennedy, Samaroo, and Duttagupta's scholarship program, and they have worked to foster a sense of belonging and diminish isolation through informal gatherings, collaboration opportunities, and mixed STEM activities. They report, “Whether formal or informal, these events have nurtured a friendly learning environment and widened the student support network.” Han, Kennedy, Samaroo, and Duttagupta have also fostered a sense of belonging by connecting women in their program with same-gender role models, tapping women scientists and faculty from various STEM fields and alumni of their program to give talks about their STEM careers and to offer advice. They report, “In short, we believe that factors such as collaborative work in small teams, the inclusion of peer support, and the participation of women role models such as scientists, faculty, peer leaders and program alumni have been crucial to the success of the scholarship program.”

In a similar vein, Arnold explains that “SK Days at WPI seek to bolster the girls' continued enthusiasm for mathematics by providing a welcoming environment in which the girls can engage in fun, interactive math activities while meeting other girls in the region who share similar interests,” and OShaughnessy reports that concerted efforts to make their mathematics major events more social and team-oriented have allowed students “to feel welcome and not out of place no matter their mathematical ability.”

Building community is a key piece of McQuaid, Maybruck, and Lu's paper. Partnering with other organizations and affinity groups across campus, the chapter has worked to increase the visibility of women in mathematics—inviting women from mathematics-related careers to speak about their work and sharing information about notable women mathematicians. Their efforts have led to increasing numbers of women majoring in mathematics, and they describe the successes they have had as well as some lessons learned.

3.4. Ordering of Papers

The first two papers in this special issue specifically incorporate identity. Akin, Santillan, and Valentino's program in “Strengthening the STEM Pipeline for Women: An Interdisciplinary Model for Improving Math Identity” aims to address societal beliefs and stereotypes, lack of role models, workplace culture, lack of interest, gender differences in beliefs about achievement and performance, and gender differences in performance on spatial reasoning tasks. They offer a series of workshops for middle school girls on weekends during the academic year and weekdays during the summer. Undergraduate students help with the program. In “ ‘I Just Feel the Need to be Good at Something, and that Thing Should be Math’: Acknowledging Asian/Asian American Identity in an Accelerated Mathematics Program,” Yadavalli, Walker, Shi and Rogness explore identity by looking at the intersections of race, ethnicity and gender in their survey. They also raise awareness about the model minority stereotype on Asian and Asian American students. As part of this stereotype, these students may be perceived as more intelligent and hard working than their peers. Girls reported the least positive experiences in the survey and the authors discuss implications for the classroom.

Two papers focus on supporting and promoting undergraduate women where undergraduates are their only target group. Han, Kennedy, Samaroo, and Duttagupta build STEM identity among undergraduate students in “Programmatic Strategies to Engage and Support Undergraduate Women in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science.” OShaughnessy increases the number of undergraduate majors in mathematics by “Promoting Women in Mathematics Through Creating a Learning Community and Encouraging Double Majors.”

The next three papers incorporate outreach programs that involve undergraduates in their planning or implementation. Akin, Santillan, and Valentino's paper does also, but we listed that paper first rather than with these outreach papers. (There are many ways we could have ordered this special issue to highlight connections among the papers.) After-school programs take place at high schools throughout the academic year in Vasilevska and Hamilton's paper. McQuaid, Maybruck, and Lu include a one-day program for middle school girls and high school girls in their activities. Arnold discusses a virtual one-day program for middle school girls. Since PRIMUS focuses on undergraduate studies, the papers focusing on outreach in this special issue detail the undergraduate students' roles and any preparation for these roles. They also discuss the impact that this work has had on the undergraduates.

We conclude this special issue with Joanna G. Jauchen's paper on “Everyday Activism: Gender-Based Service in STEM” [4]. Applying the lens of institutional activism, the author reflects generally on the work of faculty who promote women in STEM. Jauchen discusses related literature and personalizes it through an intersectional perspective. She describes how the process of reading the literature and reflecting on it has impacted her understanding of the environment, the aims, and the means. The environment is defined as “the universities where we work, the challenges that still face women in those universities, and the dynamics, relationships and systems we need to navigate in order to support women.” The aims are the goals for gender-based service and the means are the ways faculty accomplish these goals. Jauchen writes “As we begin to understand the rules, norms, and cultures that constrain us, we will be better equipped to strategically contest them and create the sorts of institutional change that we want to see.” The paper includes many practical and theoretical ideas and questions to consider. These apply to faculty who might be interested in contributing for the first time as well as those who are already leading initiatives. After reading the rest of the papers in the special issue, we believe that Jauchen's paper can help readers to personalize the experiences, observations, and recommendations shared by authors and better connect this content to their environment, aims, and means.

3.5. Conclusion

The papers in this special issue demonstrate the varied efforts that are underway to reduce the gender gap in mathematics. Authors describe initiatives aimed at building the three beliefs making up the social identity framework using a range of programming, including: undergraduate research, interdisciplinary work, outreach, mentoring, community building, speaker series, mathematical training, and scholarships. As Akin, Santillan, and Valentino report, such interventions “are crucial for promoting a math-compatible identity for girls and women ” and “By addressing each of these beliefs, STEM-capable girls and women may be more likely to choose, pursue, and persist in mathematical and scientific career opportunities.” Nonetheless, more work remains. As the data presented in Section 2 reveals, the percentage of US women earning PhDs in mathematics has roughly flattened out with a slight decline from its all-time high, while the relative percentage change of undergraduate degrees awarded to women in mathematics and statistics in the USA is approximately −12.5$\mathrm{\%}$ from its high in 1998–1999. Additionally, the NSF reports that women remain underrepresented “among all degree recipients at all degree levels in physical and earth sciences, mathematics, computer science and engineering.” In the culminating article in this special issue, Jauchen writes: “We need the community to fuel institutional change” and we agree. The authors contributing to this issue offer many practical ideas to recruit, encourage, support, and retain students. They also discuss numerous issues related to the underrepresentation of students who are historically marginalized, including women. We hope that their experiences and observations will help faculty and administrators reflect on their practices and institute action to further diversify the students who major in mathematics and statistics.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We greatly appreciate the contributions of Francesca Bernardi, Semra Kilic-Bahi, and Anila Yadavalli, who co-organized the original special session with us. AWM, JCW, MAA, and Spectra, who were either sponsoring organizations or had committees that sponsored us, helped us advertise the session and the special issue. Thank you also to Silviana Amethyst for her feedback on an early draft, PRIMUS, Matt Boelkins, Editor-in-Chief of PRIMUS, and the reviewers, without whom this special issue would not have been possible.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah J. Greenwald

Sarah J. Greenwald is a Professor of Mathematics and faculty affiliate of gender, women's, and sexuality studies. Investigating connections between mathematics and society, Greenwald has been recognized for teaching, scholarship, and service. This includes a Mathematical Association of America Pólya Lecturer Award and a Fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics. Greenwald was cited for “creative and effective efforts to spark interest in mathematics among young people, especially girls…extensive contributions to advancing women in mathematics through writing, lectures, and working with professional societies…and mentorship of students.” A member of the editorial board of PRIMUS, Greenwald earned a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and a BS from Union College.

Judy Holdener

Judy Holdener is a Professor in the Mathematics and Statistics Department at Kenyon College, where she is continually thinking about ways to make mathematics more welcoming for women and other underrepresented groups. She enjoys incorporating inquiry-based learning, technology, and play into her classroom, and she regularly mentors undergraduate research projects. In 2022, she and three former students won the Trevor Evans for one such research project. Her scholarly interests span number theory, dynamical systems, mathematical art, and mathematics education. Holdener is on the editorial board of PRIMUS as well as the program committee for Bridges: Mathematics, Art, Music, Architecture, Culture. She earned a PhD from the University of Illinois-Urbana and a BS from Kent State University.

Notes

1 We acknowledge that this special issue is focused on women in mathematics in the USA. All of the special issue authors are at US institutions and all but one of the special session speakers were at US institutions.