Women: From Inequality to Inspiring Example
Students Hanna Carolina da Silva Rezende, 24, and Melissa de Sousa Cruz, 21, from the University of Brasília (UnB), decided to turn the large disparity in the presence of men and women in the Mathematics faculty into research. By surveying enrollments each semester, they showed that the number of male students is currently double that of women. Ten years ago, the difference was even greater, with one female student for every three male students.
“There is a great contrast between men and women in Mathematics, and we decided to research this difference at UnB. We are improving very slowly,” Hanna stated in a presentation at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM 2018), which runs until August 9th at Riocentro.
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The differences go far beyond undergraduate degrees. The survey shows that, although the university has been awarding master's degrees in Mathematics since 1964, only in 1973 did a woman earn that title. The doctoral program, which began in 1978, had only produced male graduates until 1995.
Hanna and Melissa are now dedicated to research on the gender disparity among teachers. “Science has always been seen as a male-dominated field. We are also looking for explanations about where this inequality begins. I believe it stems from the transition from elementary to high school,” stated Melissa.
Before the presentation of future mathematicians Hanna and Melissa, Nepalese professor Bhadra Man Tuladhar, founder of Kathmandu University, gave an inspiring lecture for those fighting to reduce gender inequality. The researcher recounted the story of Russian Sofia Kovalevskaia, the first woman in the world to receive a doctorate in Mathematics, from the University of Göttingen, Germany, in 1874.
Sofia faced all sorts of obstacles to continue her studies after completing secondary school, to the point of having to get married in order to leave Russia. She lived in Germany and Sweden, where she dedicated herself to research that led her to be considered one of the most important professionals in Mathematics in the 19th century.
Sofia's work on the revolution of a solid body about a fixed point earned her the Prix Bordin award in France. She also distinguished herself in the research of partial differential equations and gave her name to the Cauchy-Kovalevskaia theorem.
In his lecture, Tuladhar recalled famous quotes from Sofia, such as: "It is impossible to be a mathematician without being a poet at heart." Sofia, who gives her name to one of the moon's craters, combined mathematical research with literature and activism in feminist movements until her death from influenza at the age of 41. "She is an inspiration for the feminist cause," the professor stated.