29/06/2018

Medalist Luize D'Urso is interviewed on the Piauí Podcast.

Karine Rodrigues

"Problems don't discriminate between men and women." This phrase comes from Luize Mello D'Urso Vianna, a 21-year-old from Rio de Janeiro, winner of seven gold medals at the Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad (OBMEP), vice-leader of the victorious team that represented Brazil at the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO) in April, among numerous other achievements in mathematics. It's clear, therefore, that she knows what she's talking about.

Luize's extensive experience in mathematics competitions, which began at age 11 when she debuted in the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools), allows her to discuss the issue of gender in the field with ease as a guest on "Maria Vai com as Outras," a podcast from Rádio Piauí dedicated to women and the job market, hosted by linguist and PUC-Rio professor Branca Vianna. Luize was interviewed in the episode about women in science, which also featured biologist Ana Carolina Carnaval, a professor at The City University of New York.

Ouro desde a 1ª OBMEP

Luize, an undergraduate student at PUC-Rio and already a veteran of the highly competitive IMPA Summer Program courses , argues that the male predominance in Mathematics has nothing to do with any perceived incapacity of girls, as she has heard so many times since childhood.

The discouragement weighs heavily, the student assesses, recounting that, even having received encouragement at home and grown up "without fear of Mathematics," she has often felt uncomfortable when faced with so few women as teachers and in competitions in the field.

“This is a little painful. I'm studying Mathematics because I want to be an Olympiad teacher. At one point, I realized there weren't any women there. It's a matter of representation. You don't see yourself in that place. Then you think, suddenly, you can't do it.”

The situation is so uncomfortable that Luize decided to act even before finishing her degree. On Saturdays, she gives free math lessons to girls who want to participate in the Olympiads. "To balance things out," she says, referring to the lack of encouragement she has witnessed so many times.

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To learn more about Luize's experience, listen to the podcast "Maria Vai com as Outras," available on all platforms (SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher, iTunes), as an audio file on YouTube, or in your preferred browser on the Piauí website . The program airs every two weeks and, according to Branca, was created to add another important topic to women's issues: women in the workplace.

As highlighted in the program's presentation, 40% of Brazilian families are headed by women: "They earn 25% less than men, and this has consequences for the income of almost half of the families. In the end, this disparity affects income distribution in the country."