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Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 2
Outline of the talk
Gender Studies on Mathematics: Introduction Classification of Research Topics
Some Results Some Projects Some Ideas and Questions
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 3
Gender Studies on Mathematics
Introduction: Why is it so hard to do Gender Studies
on Mathematics?
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 4
Gender Studies on Mathematics
joint with Irene Pieper-Seier (Oldenburg): entry
Mathematics in the German Handbook Women‘s and
Gender Studies
A.B./I.P.-S.: Mathematik – Genderforschung auf schwierigem Terrain, in: Beate Kortendiek/Ruth Becker (eds.): Handbuch Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, 2008
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 5
Gender Studies on Mathematics“Mathematics is one of those scientific
disciplines that are hard to access by women’s and gender studies. The category “gender” seems to play no role in mathematics. The objects of mathematical research are abstract objects, studied only by logical deductions. Thus gender is neither an explicit nor an implicit topic of mathematical research. And the research methods look so objective that there seems to be no influence of the researchers.”
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 6
Gender Studies on Mathematics
contents of mathematics hard to access by gender studies
so far: research mainly on women in mathematics
Gender Studies on Mathematics not yet established as a research area
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 7
Gender Studies on Mathematics
Classification of research topics
history of mathematics didactics of mathematics mathematics as field of study or work science studies on mathematics
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 8
Gender Studies on Mathematics
Classification of research topics
history of mathematics didactics of mathematics mathematics as field of study or work science studies on mathematics
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 9
History of Mathematics
biographies of
individual women mathematicians groups of women mathematicians
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 10
History of Mathematics
biographies of individual women mathematicians, in order to appreciate these women make them and their contributions to
mathematics visible
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 11
Maria Gaetana Agnesi
1718 – 1799, Milan 1748 Instituzioni
Analitiche ad Uso della Gioventù Italiana: first book on analysis in Italian
1750 appointed “professor of mathematics” at the university of Bologna; but she never worked there
1752 she left mathematics
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 12
Maria Gaetana Agnesi
Agnesi was typical for women scientists of her time: no formal education not part of the scientific
community exceptional
U. Klens: Mathematikerinnen im 18. Jahrhundert, 1994
M. Mazzotti: The world of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, 2007
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 13
Ruth Moufang
1905 – 19771930 PhD, Frankfurt1936 habilitation – but the
Nazi regime did not allow her to teach: because she was a woman!
1957 first female professor of mathematics in Germany
Literature: Irene Pieper-Seier
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 14
History of Mathematics
biographies of groups of women mathematicians, combined with a description of the history of
women’s education a reflection on the marginalization of
women in mathematics
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 15
History of MathematicsThe first female PhDs in mathematics in
Germany:Until 1908, eight women obtained their PhD in
mathematics in Germany, among them seven women from abroad, e.g.:
Sofia Kovalevskaya (Russia; Göttingen 1874) Grace Chisholm Young (UK; Göttingen 1895) Mary Frances Winston (USA; Göttingen 1897)
They paved the way for German women. It was only in 1909 that women were allowed to study throughout Germany.
Literature: Renate Tobies
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 16
History of MathematicsPresentation of role models – Motivation for
female students:
„well, Emmy Noether, in algebra ..... when I heard about her, I went home and read a little bit about her, because I liked it that at least once there was a women and not always only men.“
Interview with a female math student from Hamburg. From a study by Dr. Anina Mischau (Bielefeld).
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 17
Gender Studies on Mathematics
Classification of research topics
history of mathematics didactics of mathematics mathematics as field of study or work science studies on mathematics
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 18
Didactics of Mathematics
differences in achievement / in interests gender-sensitive teaching methods coeducation? “doing gender” in the classroom:
in math classes girls actively contribute to the construction of “femininity” by acting as if they were low achievers (Sylvia Jahnke-Klein 2001)
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 19
Gender Studies on Mathematics
Classification of research topics
history of mathematics didactics of mathematics mathematics as field of study or work science studies on mathematics
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 20
Mathematics as field of study or work
collecting statistical data sociological studies
on students of mathematics on people working in mathematics
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 21
Mathematics as field of study or work
two studies carried out at the University of Oldenburg:
Beate Curdes, Sylvia Jahnke-Klein, Wiebke Lohfeld, Irene Pieper-Seier 2003: Students of mathematics, their experiences and their plans for the future
Karin Flaake, Kristina Hackmann, Irene Pieper-Seier, Stephanie Radtke 2006: Female professors of mathematics
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 22
Mathematics as field of study or work
Some results of these studies: female students of mathematics
like mathematics because it is “clear” and “reliable”
consider doing mathematical research / writing a PhD thesis as “risky” (this is not the case for male students)
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 23
Mathematics as field of study or work
Some results of these studies: most female professors of mathematics
in Germany have been encouraged from the
beginning of their careers were part of a research group already
as a student
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 24
Gender Studies on Mathematics
Classification of research topics
history of mathematics didactics of mathematics mathematics as field of study or work science studies on mathematics
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 25
Science Studies on Mathematics
so far: not much research
some starting points: the image of mathematics female mathematics ?
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 26
The image of mathematics mathematics is seen as a “male”
discipline (e.g. in German speaking countries, in the UK)
(how) does mathematics, and the teaching of mathematics, participate in constituting this male image and thus in the construction of gender?
“vicious circle” (Paul Ernest, 1995): low percentage of women in mathematics – gender-stereotypical image of mathematics
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 27
Female mathematics?
Origins of mathematical concepts
Ellen Harlizius-Klück 2004:
books on arithmetic in Euclid’s elements: seemingly no application
possible origin: weaving – work done by women
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 28
Female mathematics?
Ethnomathematics
mathematics of non-western cultures implicit mathematical practices, e.g., in
handicraft, art, architecture often carried out and handed down by
women
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 29
Female mathematics?
Ethnomathematics
Paulus Gerdes: Women, Art and Geometry in Southern Africa, 1998
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 30
Female mathematics?
Ethnomathematics
Paulus Gerdes: Women, Art and Geometry in Southern Africa, 1998
review of this book, by Jens Høyrup:
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 31
Female mathematics?
“In the present book, the author continues his investigations of the mathematical – in particular geometrical – thought of African cultures and of its possible utility in mathematics teaching in an African context. It concentrates on women's geometrical creations, in part because women students may need extra encouragement in Africa as elsewhere in order to counterbalance the model mathematician normally presented in cosmopolitan mathematics education, but mainly because women are the sophisticated geometers in the cultures that are dealt with in the book:
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 32
Female mathematics?
they decorate the houses, they weave bags and baskets from coloured straw, they make tattooings – and some of them are experts who guide others. (…) Here as elsewhere, sophisticated mathematics is a specialist's business, as reported in various places in the book. The notion of “sophisticated mathematics” is justified, even though the specialists in question do not look at themselves as “mathematicians”, a role for which traditional society has no space; but many of the patterns shown in the book exhibit symmetries that bear witness of intense reflection on formal properties of patterns.”
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 33
Some projects
my current research project
ideas for future research
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 34
Current research projectGenderMathematik: Gender competence as
an innovative element of teacher education in mathematics
joint project: Anina Mischau (sociology, Bielefeld) Sabine Mehlmann (pedagogics, Gießen) A.B. (mathematics, Hamburg)
team members: Torsten Woellmann, Georgine Kalil
supported by the German Ministry of Education and Research
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 35
Current research projectGenderMathematik: Gender competence as
an innovative element of teacher education in mathematics
main steps: design and development of a seminar
“Gender Competence in Mathematics” for teacher education at universities
testing and evaluation of the seminar at eight German universities
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 36
Current research projectGenderMathematik: Gender competence as
an innovative element of teacher education in mathematics
contents of the seminar: knowledge on gender: e.g., mathematics
as a gendered discipline didactical competence: methods for
gender-sensitive teaching of mathematics
(self) reflection
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 37
Ideas for future research
Mathematics as a field of social practice:
mathematicians at work mathematics as scientific community with
special culture metaphors which practices are part of mathematics
and which are not?
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 38
Ideas for future research
Metaphors:
mathematical structures or objects live in certain spaces inherit properties get married
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 39
Ideas for future research
Mathematics as social practice
possible method: laboratory studies: ethnographic
studies on scientists at work
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 40
Ideas for future research
Mathematics as social practice
Bettina Heintz: Die Innenwelt der Mathematik, 2000:
ethnographic study at the Max-Planck-Institut for Mathematics in Bonn
sociology of mathematics gender almost not considered
Andrea Blunck Mathematics and Gender Studies 41
Ideas for future research
Questions that may be gender-related:from a review of Heintz’ book, by Moritz Epple: Which research topics are considered to
be important? Which methods are considered to be promising? Which groups share these views?
How does the mathematical community award reputation?
How do different areas of mathematics compete for resources and how are such competitions settled?