EUROPEAN WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS
Newsletter 4Edited by |
ContentsI. EDITORIALII. REPORTS OF MEETINGS HELD DURING 1996
Editorial
``What is EWM for?" is an important question that often arises
(especially among new members of EWM) to which I am not sure there is
a definite answer. Let me try to suggest a few answers here that the
reader might like to comment on or extend with her/his own point of
view on the question.
First of all, EWM offers a network
structure for female mathematicians around Europe,
Interdisciplinarity seems to be one of the main features of EWM
meetings; it is imposed on us by the very fact that there
are few women working in a given field. It is also one of our main assets,
for it leads us to trying out new ways of exchanging scientific knowledge
and ideas. The audience being of a much broader scientific scope in an EWM
meeting than in a ``usual" mathematics conference, we cannot address such
an audience as we would in a specialized meeting.
Now, answering the question
``What could one expect from EWM?" is even more difficult. On the whole,
I has the feeling that
all the points mentioned above could be developped further.
For example, one could think how to develop more
solidarity through a system of e-mail pairings
between younger and senior women mathematicians, women
mathematicians who are isolated geographically/ scientifically
with less isolated ones.... One could also imagine a more systematic
exchange of ideas via the e-mail network. You will find a suggestion for a
discussion topic in this
Newsletter on ``equal opportunities and affirmative actions around Europe".
I will leave it to you to make further suggestions along these lines!
The video ``Women and Mathematics across Cultures, EWM - European
Women in
Mathematics" is now available from the EWM office in Helsinki.
The cassettes are in VHS and the prices are as follows:
System PAL : in Europe, 200 FIM outside Europe, 250 FIM
System SECAM/NTSC : in Europe, 220 FIM outside Europe, 270 FIM
Send orders via email to
ulmanen@sophie.helsinki.fi specifying which
system you want. After we receive your payment,
the cassette will be mailed to
you. Please pay via Eurogiro or SWIFT to ``Euroopan
naismatemaatikot" to the account number
with Postipankki Ltd, Helsinki Finland.
SWIFT address: PSPBFIHH; telex
121 698. The address of the bank where the EWM account is held is:
Unioninkatu 22, 00007 Helsinki, Finland. Bank drafts are also possible.
Personal cheques cause us a lot of expenses, so they are not
preferred, neither can we accept creditcards.
The video can also be purchased for cash at the Trieste meeting. If you want
to buy it there, please send your order in advance so that we
know which system
you want.
The proceedings of the Madrid meeting will also be available in
Trieste for 30 FIM.
Marjatta Näätänen would like to collect information about the occasions
where the video has been shown, so please send her e-mail
(mnaatanen@cc.helsinki.fi) if you have shown the video telling her
where and when. This could be very useful when applying for money
for various purposes.
EWM is pleased to announce the launch of its new Web page.
The address is
Comments or material for inclusion
should be sent to the EWM Web editors at ewm@risc.uni-linz.ac.at
or in case of difficulty to the EWM secretary Riitta Ulmanen at
ulmanen@sophie.helsinki.fi
If you are not on the EWM e-mail net and wish to join it,
e-mail sarah.rees@newcastle.ac.uk
Report of the 4th International Conference of Women-MathematiciansThe Fourth International Conference of women-mathematicians, entitled `` Mathematics. Modelling. Ecology." was held at Volgograd State University (VSU) Volgograd, Russia, May 27-31 1996. 98 members took part in the Conference. 28 of them were from Volgograd and 70 from other cities - Moscow, Yakutsk, Blagoveschensk, Rostov- on-the-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh and others. The most numerical delegations were from Voronezh - 11 participants, Moscow - 6, Vladimir - 5, Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod - 4 participants from each. Some foreign representatives also took part in the conference. 9 plenary papers were read at the conference:
The following round tables were held during the conference:
A resolution was adopted saying the proceedings of the conference were to be published at the University of Nizhny Novgorod, Professor Inna Yemelyanova is responsible. The resolution indicated the University of Rostov as the location of the next conference of women-mathematicians. Lydmila Novikova, Ass. Prof., is responsible for its organization and Professor Irina Melnikova (Yekaterinburg) is responsible for its scientific program. The resolution adopted at the IV International Conference of women-mathematicians: ``Mathematics. Modelling. Ecology." held at University of Volgograd, May 27-31 1996: The following items of the resolution were adopted at the final meeting of the conference.
Tatyana Vasilyeva, head of Organizing Committee of the
Conference.
Workshop on Renormalisation, Paris, June 14. and 15. 1996A two day workshop on renormalisation organized jointly by Femmes et Mathématiques and EWM brought together around 20 mathematicians and physicists interested in some way or other in the concept of renormalisation. The broad range of fields which the participants came from gives a hint as to the variety of topics both in mathematics and physics in which the concept of renormalisation arises. The topics addressed during the meeting were:
This workshop on the difficult topic of renormalisation, far from exhausting this vast area of research, hopefully helped towards a demystification of the concept and thereby contributed to making it more accessible to non specialists. The proceedings of the talks given during this meeting, complemented by an introduction reporting on some of the discussions that took place during the workshop around the concept of renormalisation, should serve as introductory material for students and non specialists. It is available from Sylvie Paycha at a cost of 25 FF (plus postage).
Sylvie Paycha, paycha@ucfma.univ-bpclermont.fr
Report on the 1996 Meeting of the GDM Section Women and MathematicsThis section within the Gesellschaft fuer Didaktik der Mathematik GDM (Society for Mathematics Education) was founded in March 1989 and given the name Frauen und Mathematikunterricht (Women and Mathematics Teaching). Its aims are on two levels:
Two of the lectures in this public part were about the training of teachers, two lectures were concerned with the biographies of women mathematicians of the more recent past. The following abstracts give a short resume of these lectures. Christine Keitel (Berlin): Women and Mathematics - the blind spot in teacher training The lecture describes the reflections collected during an advanced tutorial (Hauptseminar) on mathematics education, with the title ``Mathematics - nothing for girls? On the gender-specific socialization in mathematics teaching". Collected by the - for the main part - female participants, these reflections were on the participants' own experiences and conceptions of mathematics, and on working conditions, which were changed and consciously formed anew by all participants whilst working in the tutorial. Instead of the form of the course of short lectures for students by students, which is the form usually taken by a German tutorial, small groups here worked intensively on complexes of questions which they had chosen themselves, then introducing the results of their work to the plenum. These results were presented in various forms which had been produced communally (video tapes, role-playing, poster exhibitions, slide shows, texts for debates etc.), and each small group also had a go at chairing the discussion. The continuous critical analysis and evaluation of the contents of the work and of the tutorial as a whole led to an intensive discussion on the conditions of study and on specific difficulties in teacher training, especially in the training of teachers in the field of mathematics in the elementary education sector. This is the very sphere where that subject appears off-putting and frightening for many students and discourages them from studying. Instead of trying to supress one's fear or dislike of mathematics, one could learn to approach these negative feelings quite deliberately and to change them. The new and independent working methods encouraged the students to try and formulate ideas about a new study-culture. One was able to notice that when discussing the unequal learning and teaching conditions for girls and boys in mathematics lessons, the theme of the tutorial also helped to awaken awareness of negative study conditions. Furthermore, suggestions from intervention projects which had been developed during women's research could also be applied to conditions which should be demanded during studies: working methods and presentation were changed in this way for other tutorial themes, too; similar work projects were demanded and realized by the students in other areas of study. Helga Jungwirth (Linz): normative versus interpretative paradigm - implications for research and the training of teachers In the normative paradigm the dramatis personae are considered as being equipped with specific dispositions and confronted with expectations which come from outside, which determine their actions in each specific situation. For the research into actions and interactions this means ascertaining the extant role-expectations and dispositions, and showing that the action characteristics which one observes can be derived from these. Training teachers according to the normative paradigm aims at informing them about the ``correct" rules of behaviour. In the interpretative paradigm action means taking things into consideration and designing lines of action on the basis of how these things are interpreted. For research this means that we must take the inter-dependency of actions into account, and analyse these in reciprocal combinations. Training of teachers which corresponds to the interpretative paradigm is aimed at increasing both the ability to reflect and sensitivity as regards what happens whilst teaching, as well as at encouraging the teacher to experiment with alternative ways of acting. Renate Tobies (Kaiserslautern): Marie Gernet: the first German lady to gain a doctor's degree in mathematics, teacher at the first German grammar school for girls (Maedchengymnasium) It has so far been generally accepted that Emmy Noether was the first German-born woman to become a doctor of mathematics at a German university. Studies in the university archives at Heidelberg have, however, shown that Marie Gernet (1865 - 1924) had already been given the title of doctor in 1895 for a dissertation written for Professor Leo Koenigsberger, whose lectures had already been attended in 1869 by Sofja Kowalewskaja. The lecture described the procedure whereby Marie Gernet gained her doctor's degree; she failed her first oral examination in mechanics (November 1894), passing the second time round. She showed her engagement during the reform of the Girls' Grammar School in Karlsruhe, where she worked for the rest of her life, dedicating her life as doctor and teacher of mathematics to developing the study of mathematics for women and supporting doctorships for women after those times (in Germany until the Nazis seized power in 1933). Irene Pieper-Seier (Oldenburg): Ruth Moufang (1905 - 1977) Ruth Moufang studied mathematics and physics in Frankfurt and gained her doctor's degree in 1930 with a dissertation on the ``Grundlagen der Geometrie" under Max Dehn. She was in Rome for a while for the purpose of study and held a teaching post at the university in Koenigsberg (the capital of East Prussia in those days) for a year. At first she dedicated herself to the study of Schlieúngsstze on projective planes. She succeeded in characterizing a class of non-Desarguesian planes geometrically and algebraically, thereby advancing much further than the standpoint taken by Hilbert. The planes which she described still carry her name today. Her university career came to an abrupt end in 1936. She was just able to qualify as a full university lecturer with the title of Dr. Habil. with a dissertation on ordered skew fields, but she was not allowed the venia legendi because, as a woman, she was not considered to have the necessary teaching and leadership qualities. She was obviously deeply offended by this discrimination, for she considered academic teaching and research to be her calling in life. >From 1937 on she was a research assistant and then head of department at the Research Institute of the Krupps Company. Her field of work was now boundary value problems and differential equations of the theory of elasticity and the higher theory of strength of materials. From 1946 onwards Ruth Moufang was finally able to take up her university career again. In 1948 she was given a lectureship at the University of Frankfurt, becoming associate professor/senior lecturer in 1951. This meant that she was the first female mathematics professor with the status of civil servant in Germany. (Teachers and those with higher positions at universities are usually civil servants in Germany.) In 1957 she was given full professorship. She held the jobs both of Director of the Mathematics Faculty and of Dean. She was professor in Frankfurt until 1970. Ruth Moufang never really overcame the discrimination to which she was subjected in 1936, especially since she had similar experiences at Krupps and also even after the War had ended. Her earlier work brought her fame and renown in the world of mathematics. As professor she enjoyed great respect from both colleagues and students alike. The time which the organizers of the conference allowed for the exchange of views and experiences after each lecture was used by the participants for lively discussions, where, amongst other things, great interest was shown in the problems which had been mentioned in the lectures. In the internal meeting of the section, the historical aspect was continued in two further lectures. In her lecture ``Influencing factors on the studies and careers of women in mathematics and the sciences" Renate Tobies (Kaiserslautern) presented the results of a historiographical investigation into the careers of women who had been successful in the field of mathematics and the sciences. In the light of the historical material she discussed the influencing factors and summarized them in ten theses. Almut Zwoelfer (Stuttgart), in her contribution ``Russian women scientists as daughters of their times", used the personal stories of individual women to depict the conditions under which Russian women were able to study and begin a scientific career in the second half of the last century, in particular in Switzerland and Germany. The theme of immigrants was also taken up by Christine Knipping (Hamburg) in her contribution ``Girls from immigrant families - a theme for mathematics teaching?", this time in connection with the present day. From her work with Turkish girls she gave a report of the doubly adverse circumstances to which these young people, as females and as children from immigrant families, can be subjected. The technical terminology used in mathematics makes do, on the one hand, with a reduced vocabulary, but on the other hand it demands absolute linguistic precision, and the question was discussed as to what role this plays for young people whose mother tongue is not German. Two further contributions referred directly to mathematics teaching. In connection with her dissertation (Staatsexamensarbeit), Tanja Steisel (Fuldabrueck) reported on attempts towards ``mathematics teaching conducive to female styles of learning", which she got to know while taking part in the model experiment Arbeit und Bildung Luebeck e.V. (work and education Luebeck, inc. soc.) and also at the Virginia Woolf feminist Girls' School in Vienna. How one can put into practice the demands for mathematics lessons which are application-oriented, true to life, interdisciplinary and action-oriented, at the same time allowing for team work and for letting the pupils fully participate with heart and soul is something which was presented convincingly by Ulrike Schaetz (Munich) in her lecture ``Motivation by attractive presentation: exhibitions in mathematics". With numerous examples she demonstrated that there are always themes within the confines of the regular curriculum which can be presented by pupils in the form of posters or hand-made objects. The photos which she brought of exhibitions and models made it quite clear with what enthusiasm the young people had worked, and how sensitive they were towards an aesthetic presentation of mathematical results. The conference ended with a report about the IOWME Sessions at the ICME 8 Conference in Seville and a discussion on further perspectives for the section. The most important thing here is the work on a communal publication, where concepts of and experiences with the continuing education of teachers on the theme ``Girls, boys and mathematics" are to be introduced and discussed. So far ten contributions from members of the section are planned, and are to be published in book-form in cooperation with the DIFF. During the last autumn conference we already discussed changing the name of the section Frauen und Mathematikunterricht (Women and Mathematics Teaching) without, however, finding a suitable alternative. This discussion was taken up once again, and above all the fact was criticised that the name seemed to indicate that women were a problem group, that always had difficulties with mathematics. It is however more and more the structures which are considered male which are being questioned, in education and even rudimentarily in mathematics and sciences themselves. In German there is unfortunately no neutral word like the English word ``gender". As none of the other suggestions met with unanimous approval, we only rid the name of the confinement to teaching, changing it to Frauen und Mathematik. After seven years Gabriele Kaiser gave up the presidency of the section. Cornelia Niederdrenk-Felgner was voted as her successor. Gabriele Kaiser was thanked for the great engagement which she had shown in presiding over the section since its foundation and in making it play an integral part in mathematics education in Germany. Gabriele Kaiser will probably organize the next autumn conference (26th - 28th September). Before then, the section will meet at the annual conference of the GDM in Leipzig. Some of the papers from the above-mentioned book will be introduced there. As always, all those interested are given a heartfelt invitation to attend this session.
For the GDM-Arbeitskreis Frauen und Mathematik:
FRANCO-RUSSIAN MEETINGA franco-russian conference organized jointly by ``Femmes et Mathématiques" and the Russian Association for Women Mathematicians took place in Luminy from Decmber 2 to December 6 1996. There were eleven Russian women mathematicians who came from various parts of Russia, and around twenty french women mathematicians attending the meeting. Organising this conference was not an easy matter for we came across lots of difficulties, some of which were overcome thanks to plenty of optimism and thanks to all the energy the participants and the organizers put into this project! Let me thank them again here! The meeting was organized around three topics (the first two of which covered two days each, the last one only one day):
There were also two evening discussions, the first one during which participants were introduced to one another and in which the chairwomen of RAWM and Femmes et Mathématiques presented the two organizations, the second one around a debate on the situation of women mathematicians in France and in Russia. All participants showed a lot of enthusiasm which contributed to making the atmosphere in the conference very pleasant. We hope this meeting gave the russian and french participants an oportunity to exchange ideas and we wish it will initiate deeper scientific contacts on the long run between french and russian matehmaticians and particularly women mathematicians. A video (in english) of this meeting will soon be available. Those of you who are interested in buying a copy, please let me know (the cost will be around 100F).
Sylvie Paycha,
paycha@ucfma.univ-bpclermont.fr
British Women in Mathematics Day 1996Following the successful day held in September 1995, the second of these events was held on December 16th 1996 at the Royal Statistical Society in London. Four speakers were invited: Dusa McDuff (Stony Brook), Evelyn Morrison (Oxford Brookes), Stephanie van Willigenberg (St. Andrews) and Janet Currie (Lancaster).Their subjects were respectively `What is special about Symplectic Geometry', `Shape Identification in Electrical Impedance Tomography', `Zig-zags and Algebras' and `Food poisoning in the north-west of England: an application of space-time point process methodology'. There was also a showing of the `European Women in Mathematics' video and a short discussion about attitudes to women mathematicians took place, where several different points of view were raised. Just over 30 women attended, including a number of research students, with interests extending over a wide area of mathematics.
Helen Robinson,
Coventry University, December 1996
EUROPEAN WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS, 8th GENERAL MEETING
The 8th general meeting of the European Women in Mathematics (EWM), open to
members and non-members of EWM, is
organized in collaboration with the International Centre of Theoretical
Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, and will take place at this Centre
from 12 to 16 December 1997. The meeting will end on the 16th at
noon. Participants should plan to arrive on December 11 and are welcome
to stay until the 17th.
The organizing committee consists of:
A POSTER SESSION will be organized, and all participants are encouraged to present their work in this way. The deadline for applications is May 31st 1997. The application form is appended at the end of this Newsletter, and is also available via the WWW server http://www.math.helsinki.fi/EWM. Completed application forms should be sent (preferably by e-mail) to
Bodil Branner
Please complete this form and send it - preferably by electronic mail or fax
- before May 31st 1997 to Bodil Branner, Department of
Mathematics, Building 303, Technical University of Denmark, DK - 2800 Lyngby,
Denmark,
e-mail: branner@mat.dtu.dk and fax: +45 45 88 13 99. Family name: Given name(s): Date of birth: Nationality: Are you a Member of EWM ? yes/no Position/student-level: Permanent institute (name and full mailing address):
Telephone number:
Present institute (if different from permanent institute) (name and full mailing address): Telephone number: Fax number: e-mail address: Until when will you be at this institute ? Institute to which correspondence should be sent: Permanent/Present Fields of interest: I would like to present a poster on: Title: Abstract (max 10 lines): Proposed date of arrival: Proposed date of departure:
Will you be accompanied ? yes/no
FOR WOMEN FROM - AND WORKING IN - DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, ONLY: I would like to apply for ICTP/UNESCO funding: yes/no
for participation in
the Meeting and a stay at ICTP for a total period of
(please specify precise interval)
If yes, please enclose a curriculum vitae, including the names and addresses of 3 mathematicians who have agreed to provide references, and a brief letter describing your reasons for applying for a longer stay at ICTP.
V International Conference of Women-Mathematicians ``MATHEMATICS. ECONOMICS.''The foundation meeting of Russian women mathematicians held on May 25, 1993 in Souzdal has established the Association of Russian Women in Mathematics. The Association has been created aiming to render informational, consulting, and social support for women who have chosen mathematics as the sphere of their scientific activity. The International Congresses of Women Mathematicians were held under the auspices of UNESCO in Puschino (June, 1994) and Voronezh (June, 1995). The Russian Associations ``Women-Mathematicians" and ``Women in Science and Education", Rostov-on-Don State University and Studing Center ``ZNANIYE" propose to hold the fifth International Conference of Women-Mathematics, entitled ``Mathematics. Economics.", May 27-31, 1997. SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE:
G.Riznichenko - President of Assosiation of ``Women in Science
and Education", Prof. Moscow State University. SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME The programme comprises lectures,round tables and poster sessions. Themes and speakers will be selected by the Scientific Committee. SECTIONS:
The abstracts of communications (not more one page) will be published before the beginning of the conference. Conference proceedings are to be published after the conference. Text presented in Conference proceedings and for poster reports should consist of less then 6 pages (in page size 20x30 cm, top and bottom margins 2.5 cm each, left-hand margin 3.5 cm, right-hand margin 1.5 cm). Official languages of the Conference are Russian and English. IMPORTANT DEADLINES
LOCATION OF THE CONFERENCE Moryak at the bank of Black Sea near Novorossiysk. Arrival day at the conference is May 26, Sunday, departure: June, 1. You may order full board service at the student's cafe. A banquet is included into the conference fee. Excursions will be organized: to the winemaking plant at Abrau-Durso and a boat ride on Black Sea. ADDRESS OF ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:
Prof. G.Riznichenko,
Chair of Biophysics,
Biological Dept.Moscow State University
Vorobievy Gory, 119899 Moscow, Russia
Prof. Ludmila Novikova
344038, Rostov-on-Don, R I I J T, D.2, K.26.
EWM WORKSHOP ON MODULI SPACES IN MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICSThe purpose of this interdisciplinary workshop is to explain to non-specialists different uses of moduli spaces in various areas of mathematics and physics such as differential and algebraic geometry, dynamical systems, Yang-Mills theory and conformal field theory, and to facilitate the exchange of ideas between workers in these fields. This workshop follows the very successful workshop on Renormalisation in Mathematics and Physics' organised jointly by EWM and femmes et mathématiques in Paris in June 1996. It is hoped that these two will be the start of a biennial series of interdisciplinary workshops. The workshop will be a small scale two day meeting with about six talks and ample time for discussion. Abstracts of the talks should be available at the workshop and it is hoped that more detailed proceedings of the workshop, including the discussions and additional comments by the speakers, will be available afterwards. Location: Mathematical Institute, Oxford, England. Accommodation will be organised nearby. Organising committee:
Frances Kirwan: frances.kirwan@balliol.ox.ac.uk
Some news from Germany 1996Here is some news on projects and activities concerning women and mathematics in Germany that have taken place or have started this year. At Erlangen, the women representatives of the University of Erlangen have initiated this year a special activity to honour Emmy Noether. In cooperation with the city of Erlangen and the organisation ``Friends of the old town'' they have worked for having a memorial tablet at Hauptstr. 23, where Emmy Noether was born and had lived. To make this remembrance more individual than the ``standard'' tablets used by the city, a local woman artist was contacted to design a special tablet for Emmy Noether. As this means an increase in the cost, special efforts have been made to collect contributions for this bronze. Via our email-network the call for donations was spread, and it was also published in the Newsletter of the German Mathematical Society (DMV). In the meantime, the necessary people have been persuaded to allow to attach the memorial tablet to the house (though with some difficulties), and recently the artist has presented the design for the tablet. So hopefully soon there will be a special bronze tablet at Erlangen keeping the remembrance of Emmy Noether alive. In the same recent issue of the DMV Newsletter also a report on the Round Table on Women and Mathematics at Budapest appeared; in the article, the topics and contributions of the Round Table were put into a general context for reflecting on the situation in Germany. Based on the observation during several discussions that most of the available data on mathematicians in Germany are out-of-date (i.e. mostly from 1987, and for the old West Germany) and not completely reliable, recently a joint project with the DMV was started. Letters were sent to all mathematical institutes in Germany asking about the number of mathematicians on the faculty on specific positions, and the number of graduates and students in recent years (all data separately for women/men). The answers are supposed to come back by the end of January, and the data will then be compiled at Magdeburg; it is planned to make the results publicly available by the DMV via the internet. Certainly, for the good cooperative connection with the DMV it has been quite important that the current president of the DMV is a woman (the first in the long history of the DMV), Prof. Ina Kersten, who was reelected as president a year ago! A German EWM meeting was planned to take place at a conference house in the Harz area in June 1996; a program with a number of good speakers had been organised and an application to the ministery of Sachsen-Anhalt had been successful in obtaining some financial support. But, the unfortunate news are that it had to be cancelled in the end because by the time of the deadline the number of registrations for the meeting was too small. The good news are that the email-network in Germany has been further extended this year; spreading information on positions and special grant programs is the main activity on the net, and a lot of bilateral communication has taken place ``behind the scenes'', often in reaction to some distributed information. It takes some time but it seems that the net is growing tighter!
Christine Bessenrodt.
Bibliography of Mathematical Books Written by WomenThe following is the preface of a bibliography of mathematics books written by women, prepared by Mara Neusel. This bibliography will soon be available via the EWM homepage: At the 7th meeting of the EWM in Madrid, September 1995, I was given the assignment of establishing a bibliography of math books written or edited by women. So far I have found about 1200 references, and I think it is time to make it public, because I need help to improve it: (1) I subdivided the list according to a quite simple rule:
(2) Most of the references I found by browsing through Math. Reviews on CD ROM. A corollary of this are the following two problems:
(4) Last, there are bound to be lots of misprints.
So please, send me any corrections, remarks, comments, suggestions and
new references (or just names) to
During the preparation of this bibliography I made the observation that lots of the books in this list have disastrous reviews. Don't misunderstand: I am in favour of calling a spade a spade. BUT if you do so you have to give reasons for your opinion - at least in Math. Reviews. But what I observed were reviews where the reviewer panned a book arrogantly and made no attempt to justify mathematically his opinion. I don't know whether this is a corollary of male chauvinism of the reviewers (and hence of Math. Reviews) or this is statistically a normal phenomenon. I want to thank Raphaële Supper (Strasbourg, supper@math.u-strasbg.fr) for her wonderful collaboration. She has built up a bibliography consisting of books and articles about women in mathematics/sciences/etc. Like mine, it will soon be available via EWM homepage. I thank Larry Smith, who provided me with lots of names and titles. Finally, I want to thank the KTH, Stockholm, Sweden, for having Math. Reviews on CD ROM on a great fast PC - and of course for giving me the opportunity to spend two wonderful months at their institute in spring 1996.
Mara D Neusel
New book on Women in Mathematics and SciencesThe historian of mathematics Renate Tobies, of the Mathematical Department of Kaiserslautern University in Germany, is preparing a book on women in mathematics and sciences. This book will be published by Campus publishing house, Frankfurt a.M. and New York, in 1997/98. An early woman doctor in mathematics said in 1912 :``In spite of all culture of men and art, of all women bodies and ballets", we deal with mathematics and science. She belonged to those women who attended German universities in droves in order to study mathematics and sciences in the beginning of the 20th century. Renate Tobies has assembled an illustrious circle of experts to contribute to this book. The American historian of science, Lorraine Daston, now Director of Max Planck Institute of History of Sciences in Berlin, writes about the history of female intellect. The mathematician and prizewinning writer Cordula Tollmien describes the relationship of the first woman doctor in mathematics, Sofja Kowalewskaja (1850-1891), and her girlfriend, the first woman doctor in chemistry Julia Lermontowa (1847-1919). Both got their doctor's degree at Goettingen University in Germany in 1874. For the first time, archive material of their doctorates will be published completely here. Renate Tobies gives the whole book an introduction with the subject: ``Aspects of influence on women study and career in mathematics and sciences". In addition, she analyzes the women doctorates in mathematics at German universities until 1933. Waltraud Voss, from the Dresden Technical University, draws an impressive portrait of two sisters, who got their doctor's degrees in mathematics. One of them worked as a longstanding assistant at a mathematical department. She was the first scientific assistant at a mathematical department of a technical university in Germany, and she worked with the mathematician Gerhard Kowalewski (1876-1950) who stimulated the most women - until 1933 - to write a doctoral thesis in mathematics. Irene Pieper-Seier, professor in mathematics at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, presents a picture of life and work of the first woman who got an official professorship in mathematics at a German university: Ruth Moufang (1905-1977). For the first time, new interesting archive material of her doctorate and her correspondence with the Nazi-ministry will be published. Annette Vogt, Max Planck Institute of History of Sciences in Berlin, shows that women could hold responsibles positions in the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (today: Max Planck Society). Ute Deichmann, who wrote a prizewinning book on biology in Nazi-Germany and who is a member of the genetics department at the Koeln University, 1996/97 Edelstein International Fellow in the History of Chemical Sciences (Philadephia and Jerusalem), documents and analyzes the special affinity of women to genetics in Germany. And last but not least, the American historian Jeffrey A. Johnson, professor at the Villanova University, Pennsylvania, draws a detailed picture of women chemists in the German chemical industry since the end of the 19th century. The head of mathematical department of the Kaiserslautern University, Prof. Knut Radbruch, describes an interesting study on discussion of womens' problems in the 18th century as a foreword to this book: Tobies, Renate (Ed.): ``Aller Maennerkultur zum Trotz": Frauen in Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften. Frankfurt a.M. and New York (forthcoming 1997/1998) (ca. 288 S., 13 Abb) Content:
Visiting ChicagoThe Pottawattomie Indians called Chicago ``Checagou'' or ``Checaguar'', which in their language meant ``wild onion'' or ``skunk''. Presumably the name had to do with the smell of rotting marshland onions which used to cover the entire area. But that was long time ago - when I arrived in Chicago in November 1995 I found no Pottawattomies and the onions were mainly in deep-dish pizzas (also called Chicago pizzas). However, the city mushroomed universities, the biggest ones of which are the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Northwestern University (located, in fact, in Evanston) and Loyola University. The University of Chicago, which I visited for a year, was founded 1892 on Rockefeller money. The department of mathematics was founded the same year. It had a good start - the International Congress of Mathematics was held in Chicago 1893 in connection with the International Exposition commemorating the four hundredth anniversary (1892) of the Columbus' arrival in America. The department immediately managed to hire excellent mathematicians, such as E.H. Moore, O. Bolza and H. Maschke. Their students included L.E. Dickson (the first mathematics Ph.D. of the university), O. Veblen, D.G. Birkhoff, R.L. Moore and G.A. Bliss. Dickson and Bliss later worked as professors in Chicago. The University of Chicago accepted women both as undergraduate and graduate students already in the 19th century. Between 1900 and 1939 altogether 46 women obtained a Ph.D. in the department of mathematics. Of the 46 women 30 were students of either Dickson or Bliss. At that time the University of Chicago produced about 17 per cent of all the mathematics Ph.D.'s in the U.S.A. and about 20 per cent of the female mathematics Ph.D.'s. I found the previous numbers in [Green]. According to that article women earned 14.3 per cent of the mathematics Ph.D.'s granted to Americans 1900 - 1939. Starting in the 1940s there was a sharp decline in actual numbers of women earning a Ph.D. in mathematics in the U.S.A.. The bottom was reached in the 1950's, when only 5 per cent of the mathematics Ph.D.'s were awarded to women. Only in the early 1980s did the percentage of women rise back to the level of the first four decades of this century. I do not have statistics from Chicago after the World War II, but I have no reason to assume that the trend would be very different from the national one. Anyway, I find the statistics of the early 20th century absolutely fascinating. I always assumed that only one or two women besides Emmy Noether were doing mathematics at that time and that the number of women would just steadily grow, little by little... When I arrived to Chicago my first impression was that the mathematics department was full of women - women attending graduate classes, women giving talks in seminars and even in colloquiums, women eating cookies during the tea hours and giving peanuts for the squirrels... Sounds silly? None of the above will be taken for granted by a person from Fennoscandia. However, I later realized that there weren't quite as many women as I first imagined. More precisely, the statistics about the faculty and graduate students are as follows: The department of mathematics has about 30 members of senior faculty, all of whom are men (I learned that Karen Uhlenbeck used to have a position in Chicago some time in the 1980s, but she left. I do not know whether there has ever been any other women in the senior faculty.) The department has altogether about 20 assistant professors and instructors, three of whom are women. It also has a woman as a senior lecturer. The number of graduate students is about 100, and about 20 per cent of them are women. Even if the job situation is more than somewhat sour also in the U.S.A., most of the graduate students in Chicago, both male and female, manage to find academical jobs after graduating. I was told that the quitting percentage of the female graduate students used to be very high in the 1970s, but that it nowadays is the same as the quitting percentage of the male graduate students. I was also told that the department actually has more female graduate students than female undergraduates majoring in mathematics. I found that surprising, but did not find an explanation for the fact. The female instructors and graduate students are very active. They organize women's tea parties several times a semester (good pastries!). On Thursdays there is a women's lunch. I found the weekly lunch an excellent idea. For a visitor it gave a good opportunity to learn to know people outside my field, i.e. those who would not attend the algebraic topology seminar. In a week I will return to Helsinki. The Pottawattomies might be interested to know that in Finnish Finland is called ``Suomi'', while marshland is called ``suo'' - only the wild onions are missing.
Marja Kankaanrinta, Finland
Bibliography J. Green and J. LaDuke, Women in the American Mathematical Community: The Pre-1940 Ph.D.'s, Math. Intelligencer 9 (1987) no. 1, 11-23.
A review of the book ``L'Europe Mathematique"We start this review by quoting Catherine Goldstein and Jim Ritter in their article of introduction to ``L'Europe Mathematique", Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris 1996. ``This book started its life as a response to a specific state of affairs. It was in 1991 that the European Mathematical Society was founded; its aim was to profit from the construction of a political, economic and cultural European Community to federate those initiatives and projects which promised to promote mathematics on the European continent and beyond. As often happens in projects of this sort, a further justification for the seizing of the opportunities and necessities of the present - and future - was sought, in an appeal to the past of mathematics. In this light, the formation of a European society was felt to be all the more justified in that mathematics was seen properly as a European invention. This vision was supported by the standard story of the development of the domain, a story that can be summarized in the following way: Born in Greek antiquity, slumbering forgotten during the somber obscurantism of the Middle Ages, mathematics was to be recreated a second time in the seventeenth century and in Western Europe by Galileo, Descartes, Newton and Leibniz. This reborn discipline, gradually showing its efficiency through the growth in its range of possible applications, soon came to spread spontaneously over the entire planet." One of the goals of the book is to explain why this story is false, and how accepting it as truth has affected (and impoverished) european mathematics. And such a goal is precisely one of the reasons why I thought of reviewing this book for the newsletter of EWM. Because in the course of analyzing this story and the construction of the mathematical Europe, the twenty three authors of the book place us in front of twenty three different ways of approaching what we could call the social history of european mathematics. And, as (european) women mathematicians, our history is intimately linked to the social history of (european) mathematics. As Laura Fainsilber humorously points out during her interview in the video just recently produced about EWM, one of the responses we, women mathematicians, most often get when our profession comes out in the course of a conversation is: ``You do not look like a mathematician!" What does a mathematician look like? Or, more precisely, what is a mathematician expected to look like? Where does that expectation come from? Does it respond to a real situation? Is this the only expectation held about mathematics? Is there ``a" way of being a mathematician? Is there ``a" way of doing mathematics? Is there ``a" mathematics? These are some of the questions that sooner or later come up when we think of women as mathematicians, and we have frequently, and inevitably, come to them in our discussions within the association EWM. And, as we have found in such discussions, these questions are in turn related to the transmission of mathematics and to the sociology of mathematics. (*)
Capi Corrales.
Equal opportunities, Affirmative actions, ...topics for a debate within EWMThe contributions that follow on the system of ``Frauenbeauftragten" in Germany will hopefully be the first of a series of contributions from members EWM who would like to share their opinion on any type of affirmative action concerning women mathematicians they have experienced personally, or indirectly in their country or abroad. EWM seems to be the ideal place for such a debate, and contributions of this type might help us get a better idea of the actual impact affirmative actions can have in practice. I encourage you all to react to these contributions and to tell us about your personal point view on affirmative actions you know of.
Sylvie Paycha
At the beginning of the nineties, on the repeated request of women at German universities, a system of women delegates (``Frauenbeauftragten" in German, who might be called ``equal opportunity officers " in the United states) was introduced in Germany. One woman delegate for the whole university is elected for a two year mandate to represent the interests of female students, female administrative and teaching staff at that university. She generally has an official position along with a full salary and is given a certain budget that goes towards actions related to female students or staff at her university. She coordinates a group of women delegates (``Vertrauensfrauen"), each of whom represents a department of that university and is elected for a two year mandate by female students and the female staff of the department. These can benefit from a little financial support given out by the university women delegate to organize actions in their own department. A woman delegate for a department is either given a small salary for the work she does for womens' issues or she is given a smaller teaching load to compensate for the time she spends on womens' issues. She can attend all the meetings that take place at her department, but however does not have the right to vote. Within these commissions, she can express her opinion and defend womens' interest whenever necessary. She has some influence on the way new professors are appointed in as far as she can comment on the preliminary choice of short listed candidates. Being a woman delegate also means sometimes having to report on sexual harassment that might take place in her department and acting as a moderator in such matters. A woman delegate can on her own accord, organize a seminar or discussion sessions for her women colleagues, but since the amount of money she has is very limited, she might not be able to invite people from outside to give a talk at that seminar and finding money elsewhere in the department is not an easy task when it is for a ``womens' seminar"! At first sight this new ``Frauenbeauftragten" system might seem successful; the enthusiasm with which women saw it was becoming a reality after they had struggled for such a system for over 20 years now testifies for its first success. Some women still believe this system is indeed efficient, others now have their doubts about whether it is actually useful for women. In the long run, the system of ``Frauenbeauftragten" has become an institution, which does not give women the originally expected influence. Let us turn to mathematics. A ``Frauenbeauftragte" in a mathematics department might be a young ``PHD student" or maybe an assistant but rarely is she a professor since there are very few women professors in mathematics in Germany. What impact can one expect her to have in a commission which consists mainly of professors, who might well be the ones who will examine her a few months later? The system of ``Frauenbeauftragten" also has perverse effects. Of course, one obvious perverse effect is that working on womens' issues might take up so much time that it can have negative effects on your own career as a mathematician. There are more subtle negative effects. When appointing new professors, knowing that women delegates are in the commission to defend the few women candidates, men might report in a very negative way on a woman candidate if they have decided to support another (male) candidate. This negative judgement might have consequences on the career of this woman candidate. There are also difficulties inherent to that type of responsablity. A woman delegate might experience a certain passivity in the attitude among her colleagues and a lack of solidarity among women of her department. The institutionalized defence of women that goes with the system of ``Frauenbeauftragten" seems to have let the energy of the individual women towards womens' issues fade away. One can add to this that, as often happens when one takes ``political" responsibilities, a women delegate who is supposed to support her women colleagues might end up working for her own ambition. Let us end up pointing out some of the positive effects, like the fact that women have in some places been brought to interact more amongst themselves, even if this means they end up divided in their opinions! On the other hand, even if women do not have much impact on the decisions made in the department, the fact that they attend the commissions held in the department may help them build up arguments to fight the ones given by their male colleagues. They acquire some kind of experience in confronting adverse opinions. Can they actually benefit from this experience as members or future members of the mathematical community or does this experience slow them down in their scientific activity and in their integration and recognition within the mathematical community? It seems to us that the initial idea of having Frauenbeauftragten might have been a good one and it indeed led to some small changes. However, in practice it is rather disappointing, for the reasons given above. Let us hope that it served as an intermediate phase towards more efficient actions.
Astrid Hilbert, Mara D Neusel, Sylvie Paycha
At the Ruhr-University Bochum, RUB, we have a half-position available at the science department for a women delegate (``Frauenbeauftragte") representing the whole university. She has two female coworkers: a student and an employee of the administrative branch. In order to help her in her task, most of the faculties of the RUB have so-called ``Vertrauensfrauen" who are well versed in the local current affairs and organisation of their faculties. They are not renumerated for this work which is only an honorary position. There are two of us ``Vertrauensfrauen" working in the mathematics department. Our task is to forward information to the women of our faculty and our aim is to safeguard their interests.
Michaele Völler, Birgit Worat
Am Fachbereich Mathematik der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg gibt es zur Zeit ein Team von vier Frauenbeauftragten, das aus drei Studentinnen und einer wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiterin besteht. Einige unserer Aufgaben und Einflussmöglichkeiten:
Antonia, Bianca, Elke, Helga
Translation The mathematics department of Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, has a group of women delegates formed with three students and an assistant. Here are a few of our tasks and potential ways of action:
Antonia, Bianca, Elke, Helga
Here are a few comments by Annegret Liebers from Konstanz on the
previous contributions: The duties and activities of the ``Vertrauensfrau" were very much like the ones described by Michaele Völler and Birgit Worat from Bochum University and by Antonia, Bianca, Elke, and Helga from Oldenburg University. In particular, whenever the department wanted to fill a position, the ``Vertrauensfrau" (or her substitute when she was not available) had to give her consent by signing some form. This seems like a powerful means of control because the ``Vertrauensfrau" could veto any hiring decision made by the department. But firstly, I do not know what would have happened in case of a veto. It would certainly delay the hiring process but it would probably not prevent the hiring. Secondly, I am not sure a ``Vertrauensfrau" would really use her veto because that would generate confrontation with people she is otherwise relying on for good cooperation. Thirdly (and most aggravatingly), the necessity of having that form signed by the ``Vertrauensfrau" was just another addition to the bureaucracy within the university to the eyes of the dean's office. For ``important" positions such as instructors, the ``Vertrauensfrau" was usually notified of the hiring process beforehand and had a chance to take part in the decision making process (if she had time to do so). But more than once the person in charge of getting the administrative paperwork done for hiring someone called me up saying ``Could you please come down and sign this form for hiring student xyz as a teaching assistant, it is really urgent, and we cannot get hold of the `Vertrauensfrau' herself ?" So what would I do ? Of course I had no idea whether women candidates for this student position had been actively sought. In a department with 30 professors, 60 PhD students and many Master's students working as teaching or research assistants, it is impossible to keep track of all their positions and how these are being filled. But not signing the form would probably mean that the student would simply get hired a month later - and lose a monthly salary. So I would reluctantly sign the form. The result of the whole procedure was that the dean's office regarded the ``Vertrauensfrau" as an administrative hurdle and was not really open to her concerns. And the signature on that form gave a false sense of security that in the corresponding hiring process, women had been duly considered. In reality, the signature was mostly a formality. (Despite this rather negative assessment of the situation, I believe the ``Vertrauensfrau" in our department had in a few cases indeed made an impact on the decision of a hiring committee that lead to hiring a woman where it is not clear whether otherwise a man or a woman would have been hired.) Another activity in 1993 was to write an affirmative action plan for the department and to have it approved by the highest departmental committee (the ``Fachbereichsrat"). According to the university's affirmative action plan, every department had to establish such a plan for themselves. The ``Vertrauensfrau" and I contacted interested individuals (all women except for one male professor), and the ``Fachbereichsrat" officially formed a committee with us six members to write a proposal for that affirmative action plan. Seven months after the committee took up its work, our proposal was approved by the ``Fachbereichsrat" (the approved version was of course in several aspects weaker than our proposal, but at least there was a large majority of 10 yes votes out of a total of 13). The writing of those affirmative action plans in the various departments created a lot of discussion of women's issues within the departments, and that was in my view a positive effect. But I do not have the impression that the departments stick to their promises. If nobody has the time, energy and motivation to verify and/or demand the fulfillment of the goals set in the affirmative action plan, then the plan does not have the intended consequences. My overall feeling about affirmative action is well expressed by the evaluation of the system of ``Frauenbeauftragte" given by Astrid Hilbert, Mara D Neusel, and Sylvie Paycha: The ``Frauenbeauftragten" started out with enthusiasm and energy, but a certain burn-out and frustration have set in, because the changes we have hoped for do not take place. Even worse, there are indeed the ``perverse effects" described by Astrid, Mara and Sylvie. I would also like to point out that the institutionalization of affirmative action in Germany varies greatly from ``Bundesland" to ``Bundesland". I am now a PhD student at the University of Konstanz in ``Baden-Wuerttemberg", where there is no departmental ``Vertrauensfrau", and where the ``woman delegate for the whole university" is a female professor who gets a reduction of teaching duties but otherwise maintains her job as a full professor while serving as ``woman delegate". (And of course there is no such thing as the requirement to have a hiring decision signed by the woman delegate.) Also, I find that the women at this university are generally much less interested in women's issues than was the case in Berlin. My ``measurement" for this interest is the general women's assembly (``Frauenvollversammlung") that is being held twice a year: Even without having exact figures, the jam-packed large auditorium for that occasion in Berlin contrasts with some 20+ women typically attending the assembly in Konstanz. There are a few very active women in Konstanz, and there are quite a few women who are generally interested in women's issues and who might on occasion become involved - I consider myself part of this category - but the large majority of women here seem to be simply not interested. I am looking forward to finding out about the situation in other countries in the next EWM newsletter!
Annegret Liebers
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