Promotion and Retention of Women in Mathematics :: Mathematical Careers Education Essays

Promotion and Retention of Women in Mathematics How do we interest and retain more women in the field of mathematics? "Women now make up nearly half the undergraduate math majors in the U.S. (1993 Annual Survey of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical association of America); yet in graduate math programs, only about one-quarter of the American students are women" (Adhikari & Nolan, 1997, p. 17). For women who choose SME (Science, Mathematics, Engineering) majors, persistence rates in the major are significantly lower than that of male peers. (Seymour, 1995, p. 438) I am interested in the topic because I am a female who experienced pursuing undergraduate and graduate mathematics degrees. I want to know what I can do to help motivate other women in mathematics. While reading the literature, I became aware of subtle personal experiences that paralleled common experiences of women pursuing mathematics majors. Whereas I had informally considered my attempts at fair, consistent treatment for all students to be po sitively related to motivating women (and other minorities) in mathematics, upon reading the literature a strong case is made for additional support to different groups. Although I will focus the majority of the paper on college experiences that influence women in SME majors, literature also points to the influence of pre-college coursework. â€Å"Maple and Stage (1991) found that students who took more science and math courses in high school were significantly more likely to choose science and math majors in college† (Trusty, 2002). Farmer, Wardrop, Anderson, and Risinger (1995) found taking elective science courses in high school had a moderate direct effect on persistence for women in science-related careers, but taking elective math courses did not. (p. 163) Although in this research taking elective math courses was not found to effect persistence of women in science-related careers, I contend that math courses are still critical as they are prerequisites for science electives of chemistry and physics. The National Science Foundation has reported, â€Å"young women have lower interest in math courses and take fewer advanced math courses† (Farmer, Wardrop, Anderson and Risinger, 1995, p. 157). In addition, Seymour and Hewitt (1997) found the effects of inadequate high school preparation to be the most common contributor to early decisions to switch from SME (science, mathematics, engineering) majors to non-SME majors (p. 79). Seymour (1995) also points out that studies have noted â€Å"the subtle deterrents to active participation in mathematics and science which bear upon precollege girls† (p.