Virtually every time we log onto a machine in this faculty we are reminded of one of the (many) great mathematicians- Descartes, Cayley, Mobius, Lagrange, etc. While many of the names may be completely unfamiliar to you, I'll bet that you are pretty confident that you know something about them -- that they are likely male. In fact, I challenge you to name one famous woman mathematician. It's not an easy question. Even today when we look about our classes there are clearly more men than women. However, despite the difficulties that they faced solely because of their gender, there are indeed noteworthy female mathematicians -- Maria Gaetena Agnesi, Emmy Noether (Hey, you can log on to that...), Emilie de Chatelet, Sonya Kovalevskaya...
For the remainder of this term I hope to give you a little insight on some of the women that have braved the gender barriers AND the rigours of mathematics. Of course there are more than I can fit into one term of mathNEWS, so if you are really interested, there is a wonderful web site that contains an excellent bibliography and listing of many, many female mathematicians. I know I was surprised when I saw how many, and in which periods they worked.
If you have any comments about women mathematicians, please feel free to pass them along to me at mjmishna@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca.Since this is the first article, let's begin with the first woman in mathematics, Hypatia. Hypatia is generally identified as the first woman to make a substantial contribution to mathematics. She was born in Alexandria in 370 and died there 45 years later. She was the daughter of mathematician/philosopher Theon. Theon was her tutor and trained her in many areas. She became a popular teacher and students would travel from Europe, Africa and Asia to hear her lecture. She wrote on Diophantus Arithmetica, conics, and Ptolemy's astronomical works. Like many others of her time all works of hers are lost with the exception of titles and references. Some letters from Synesius to Hypatia asking her opinion on the construction of an astrolabe and hydroscope still exist, as do a portion of her original treatise ``On the Astronomical Canon of Diophantus.'' Hypatia was fortunate to be born in a time where some women could pursue academic careers and to be born to a man that recognised her talents and encouraged her. Indeed, she was much more fortunate than many later women in this respect, as you shall see.
Now you can name at least one woman in math history. That's a good start.
Marni Mishna
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