Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

The Association for Women in Mathematics: How and Why It Was Founded, and Why It’s Still Needed in the 21st Century

  • Mathematical Communities
  • Published:
The Mathematical Intelligencer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

References and Further Readings

  • AWM. “AWM Newsletter.” 2014a. https://sites.google.com/site/aw mmath/awm/newsletter.

  • AWM. “Noether Lectures.” 2014b. https://sites.google.com/site/ awmmath/programs/noether-lectures.

  • Blum, Lenore. “A Brief History of the Association for Women in Mathematics: The Presidents’ Perspectives.” AMS Notices 38(7), 1991, pp. 738–774. http://www.awm-math.org/articles/notices/ 199107/blum/.

  • Case, Bettye Anne, and Anne M. Leggett. Complexities: Women in Mathematics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.

  • Darken, Joanne. Personal communication, 2014.

  • Frystak, Shannon L. Our Minds on Freedom: Women and the Struggle for Black Equality in Louisiana, 1924–1967. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2009.

  • Gray, Mary. “The Association for Women in Mathematics—A Personal View.” The Mathematical Intelligencer 13(4), 1991, pp. 6–11.

  • Gray, Mary. Personal communication, 2014.

  • Green, Judy, and Jeanne LaDuke. “Women in American Mathematics” in Duren, Peter (ed.), A Century of Mathematics in America, Part II. With the assistance of Richard A. Askey, Uta C. Merzbach. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, 1989.

  • Green, Judy, and Jeanne LaDuke. Pioneering Women in American Mathematics: The Pre-1940 PhD’s. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, 2008.

  • Greenwald, Sarah J. “The AWM Newsletter Archives.” AWM Newsletter 42(3), 2012, pp. 5–6.

  • ICERM. “AWM Anniversary Conference at Brown University (September 17–18, 2011): 40 Years and Counting: AWM’s Celebration of Women in Mathematics.” https://icerm.brown.edu/awm-anniver sary-2011/.

  • Jacob, Kathryn. “How Johns Hopkins Protected Women from ‘The Rougher Influences,’” AWM Newsletter 6(5), 1976, pp. 2–4.

  • Jones, Phillip S. “Historical Background and Founding of the Association.” in May, Kenneth O. (ed.), The Mathematical Association of America: Its First Fifty Years. Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America, 1972.

  • Kenschaft, Patricia C. Change is Possible: Stories of Women and Minorities in Mathematics. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, 2005.

  • LaDuke, Jeanne, Mabel S. Barnes, Olga Taussky-Todd, Vivienne Malone-Mayes, and Judy Green. “Centennial Reflections on Women in American Mathematics.” Panel presented at the AMS Centennial Meeting, Providence, RI, August 9, 1988, and published in AWM Newsletter 18(6), 1988, pp. 4–12.

  • Laison, Diane. Personal communication, 2014.

  • Mandelson, Dayle A. “Women’s Changing Labor-Force Participation in the U.S.” in Dubeck, Paula and Kathryn Borman (ed.), Women and Work: A Handbook. With the assistance of Sonia Carreon and Amy Cassedy. New York, NY: Routledge, 2013.

  • Morawetz, Cathleen S. “Women in Mathematics.” Notices of the American Mathematical Society 20(3), 1973, pp. 131–132.

  • Murray, Margaret. Women Becoming Mathematicians: Creating a Professional Identity in Post-World War II America. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2000.

  • NAM. “Biography of Etta Zuber Falconer.” NAM Newsletter, XXVI(2), 1996, p. 5.

  • National Parks Service. Women’s Rights National Historical Park. United States Department of the Interior, 1994. http://www.nps. gov/wori/planyourvisit/upload/Brochure-Reduced-size.pdf.

  • National Science Foundation. Survey of Earned Doctorates. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvydoctorates/.

  • Pitcher, Everett. A History of the Second Fifty Years, American Mathematical Society 1939–1988: Volume 1. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, 1988. http://www.ams.org/sam plings/math-history/hmpitcher-index.

  • Pitcher, Everett, and Paul T. Bateman. “The Annual Meeting in Dallas.” Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 79(4), July 1973, pp. 655–662. http://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1973-79- 04/S0002-9904-1973-13251-3/S0002-9904-1973-13251-3.pdf.

  • Pitcher, Everett, and Kenneth A. Ross. “The Annual Meeting in San Francisco.” Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 80(4), July 1974, pp. 587–778. http://projecteuclid.org/download/ pdf_1/euclid.bams/1183535690.

  • Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. American Women: Report of the President’s Commission. Washington, DC: GPO, 1963.

  • Rury, John L. “Who Became Teachers” in D. Warren (ed.), American Teachers: Histories of a Profession at Work. New York, NJ: Macmillan, 1989.

  • SIAM. “The AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecture.” http://www.siam. org/prizes/sponsored/kovalevsky.php.

  • Taylor, Jean E., and Sylvia Wiegand. “AWM in the 1990s: A Recent History of the Association for Women in Mathematics.” Notices of the American Mathematical Society 46(1), 1999. Expanded version AWM Newsletter 29(1–4): http://www.awm-math.org/ articles/199812/awm1990s/.

  • United States Department of Commerce. Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation, 2011. http://www.esa.doc.gov/Reports/ women-stem-gender-gap-innovation.

  • Williams, Scott. “Mathematicians of the African Diaspora: A Modern History of Blacks in Mathematics.” http://www.math.buffalo.edu/ mad/madhist.html.

Download references

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Bettye Anne Case, Joanne Darken, Mary Gray, Cathy Kessel, and Diane Laison for helpful conversations, and to Wellesley College for access to its AWM Archives Collection.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah J. Greenwald.

Additional information

This column is a forum for discussion of mathematical communities throughout the world, and through all time. Our definition of “mathematical community” is the broadest: “schools” of mathematics, circles of correspondence, mathematical societies, student organizations, extra-curricular educational activities (math camps, math museums, math clubs), and more. What we say about the communities is just as unrestricted. We welcome contributions from mathematicians of all kinds and in all places, and also from scientists, historians, anthropologists, and others.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Greenwald, S.J., Leggett, A.M. & Thomley, J.E. The Association for Women in Mathematics: How and Why It Was Founded, and Why It’s Still Needed in the 21st Century. Math Intelligencer 37, 11–21 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00283-015-9539-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00283-015-9539-8

Keywords

Navigation