[HN Gopher] A mathematician who delights in building bridges
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A mathematician who delights in building bridges
Author : News-Dog
Score : 27 points
Date : 2021-11-18 11:51 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.quantamagazine.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.quantamagazine.org)
| cs702 wrote:
| Not surprisingly, she says she faced discouragement and
| discrimination for being a woman early in her career, but says
| that things have gotten much better for women over the years,
| which is good to hear:
|
| _> I faced explicit discouragement in high school, whereas today
| there is a lot of explicit encouragement. Nevertheless, I have
| seen people around me experience subtle forms of discrimination.
| It's definitely harder to build a research program and establish
| long-term relationships if others view you as different. And it's
| harder to get taken seriously if you're always having to prove
| yourself.
|
| > I realize I've been luckier than most and have already made my
| name. But I still recognize that mathematics is not as inclusive
| as it should be -- not just for women, but for other people from
| underrepresented groups. That is especially true in my field, the
| Langlands program, which requires so much specialized knowledge
| that there is a huge barrier to entry.
|
| > I'm doing what I can to help others pursue this amazing field,
| though I feel it is not enough. I try more and more to make space
| for women -- and those who are underrepresented in general -- at
| conferences and within my own research group. And I'm happy that
| my group has a higher percentage of women than is common in the
| field._
|
| Surely there's more work to do, but I find it refreshing to read
| about someone who is tackling the problem with a _positive
| attitude_ on the front page HN!
| 1cvmask wrote:
| These puff pieces by journalists always feel the need to include
| some adversity story - whether real or contrive or perceived does
| not matter. It sells more copy.
|
| Contrast that with the recently deceased female Iranian
| mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman to win the
| Fields medal, and her accomplishments:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryam_Mirzakhani
|
| -
|
| Speaking of building bridges in Mathematics Paul Erdos came to
| mind. There is a great book on him called "The Man Who Only Loved
| Numbers."
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Loved_Only_Numbers
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s
| inglor_cz wrote:
| To be fair to the author, this lady is a Romanian and Romanian
| social norms are quite far from British ones. I don't really
| doubt that she heard some unflattering remarks from her peers,
| though no one probably actively hindered her from studying
| maths.
|
| I studied maths in Czechia in the late 1990s and girls studying
| maths were still considered somewhat abnormal, especially by
| people who weren't able to do the same :(
| treeman79 wrote:
| I work hard with my daughters on math. They are highly
| intelligent and have a talent for it.
|
| Nothing but lip and complaints on how useless it is. I know
| the moment they get a free choice, they will never touch it
| again.
|
| My only hope is to find a group of girls that are into math
| for them to hang out with. But more then likely will take the
| easy road of going off there looks to get what they want in
| life. One already has.
| munchler wrote:
| It's almost like women are autonomous individuals capable
| of making decisions about their own lives, and pursuing
| their own interests. Very odd. </s>
| throwawayacc2 wrote:
| It's weird to me to hear this. I was schooled in Romania as
| well and have the opposite impression. I am a little younger
| to be fair, I was in elementary school as opposed to high
| school in 2001, but, my impression ( biased since I am a man
| ) was that everyone, men and women, was encouraged towards
| STEM. Mainly because it was and still is seen as a path out
| of poverty. In fact, very often the teachers would praise
| girls for their conscientiousness. I heard this a million
| times as a student. Boys rush to solve the problem, blunder,
| end up making a big X on the paper, backtrack and make
| mistakes because they don't pay as much attention while girls
| are more attentive and are more careful in their solutions.
| This is the stereotype I got left with from school. Plus, a
| lot of teachers of STEM. Even in Uni ( also in Romania for me
| ) I had a lot of important subjects taught by women.
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