Images of mathematicians: a new perspective on the shortage of women in mathematical careers

Abstract

Though women earn nearly half of the mathematics baccalaureate degrees in the United States, they make up a much smaller percentage of those pursuing advanced degrees in mathematics and those entering mathematics-related careers. Through semi-structured interviews, this study took a qualitative look at the beliefs held by five undergraduate women mathematics students about themselves and about mathematicians. The findings of this study suggest that these women held stereotypical beliefs about mathematicians, describing them to be exceptionally intelligent, obsessed with mathematics, and socially inept. Furthermore, each of these women held the firm belief that they do not exhibit at least one of these traits, the first one being unattainable and the latter two being undesirable. The results of this study suggest that although many women are earning undergraduate degrees in mathematics, their beliefs about mathematicians may be preventing them from identifying as one and choosing to pursue mathematical careers.

Representations of Mathematicians in Lower Secondary Mathematics Textbooks

“…For example, Rensaa (2006) interviewed 31 adults about how they imagined mathematicians; she found that more than 40% of respondents have an image of a mathematician as being "a middle aged man with glasses, old-fashioned dressed and middle fitted, unsocial and boring" (p. 3). Similarly, Piatek-Jimenez (2008) explored the images that five female undergraduate mathematics students had about mathematicians; she found that the female students perceived mathematicians as exceptionally intelligent, obsessed with mathematics, and socially inept. It is important to note that there are studies suggesting that people who have a positive relationship with mathematics (e.g.…”

“…Our study shows that the analysed textbooks have a gendered representation, an eminently male representation of mathematicians, that is achieved through the first of the mechanisms mentioned by Mendick et al (2008), the dominant representations of mathematicians being men: out of a total of 158 representations of mathematicians identified in the textbooks, we located only one representation of a woman, Hypatia the Greek mathematician. This dominant representation of mathematicians as men in mathematics textbooks could encourage women to produce masculinized images of mathematicians, which in turn could hinder their identification of themselves as potential members of the community of mathematicians and discourage them from pursuing further studies in mathematics (Piatek-Jimenez, 2008).…”

“…Such images have been identified as factors that can be decisive for the students to feel (un)identified with, (un)attracted to, and (dis)interested in the study of mathematics (Picker & Berry, 2000;Rock & Shaw, 2000). Moreover, some authors suggest that the negative images of mathematics and mathematicians that some students possess are a factor that inhibits them, especially women, from pursuing an advanced degree in mathematics (Mendick, 2005;Piatek-Jimenez, 2008). But, where do these images come from?…”

On the Persistence and Attrition of Women in Mathematics

“…Piatek-Jimenez [50] found that undergraduate women mathematics students viewed mathematicians as exceptionally intelligent, obsessed with their work, and socially inept. Stage and Maple [60] noted that women graduate students described mathematicians as working in isolation and lacking social interactions.…”

Lower secondary students’ views about mathematicians depicted as mathematics teachers

“…Those student images significantly relate to their performance in (Wong, Marton, Wong, & Lam, 2002) and attitudes to mathematics (Aguilar et al, 2016). Furthermore, students who have negative images of mathematics (Latterell & Wilson, 2004) and know little about the work of mathematicians are less interested in pursuing mathematics (Latterell & Wilson, 2012;Piatek-Jimenez, 2008) or math-related careers (Piatek-Jimenez, Cribbs, & Gill, 2018).…”