Women's Contributions to Mathematics

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Women's Contributions to Mathematics

Women in the world of mathematics is a subject that people rarely hear about. The only

time people do is if it’s a female math teacher. But what many do not know is that

women have made extremely important contributions to the world of mathematics.

Women have been documented to be involved in mathematics, since as early as the fifth

century A.D. Women such as Hypatia, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Sophie Germain, Emmy

Noether, Ruth Moufang and Sun-Yung Alice Chang. These women have lived through

difficult times such as women’s oppression, the French Revolution, World War I and II,

which included Hitler’s administration over women’s schooling, and social prejudices.

This did not stop their yearning for math though. These women combined have earned

many different awards, specifically ones usually given to men. They have conquered the

biases people have had towards them and made what they do best count. Many of their

theorems and equations are still used today, and some are even being perfected by others.

It is important that the reader realizes that educating children about women in

mathematics is important. Many children think of mathematicians as men, and that is

totally untrue. That thought could possibly contribute to the fact that women are less

likely to enter the mathematics field compared to men. This is because they are not

educated properly on the subject, and are not given the opportunity to excel. There are

many more women in mathematics then mentioned above, but the ones named are very

important to the field and children need to know that. By taking these 6 women’s

contributions and focusing on how they apply to the middle school curriculum would...

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Swift, Amanda. (revised in 1997). Sophie Germain. Agnes Scott College [Online].

Available: http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/germain.htm [1 March

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Taylor, Mandie. (1995). Emmy Noether. Agnes Scott College [Online]. Available:

http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/noether.htm [2 February 2000].

Unlu, Elif. (1995). Maria Gaetana Agnesi. Agnes Scott College [Online]. Available:

http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/agnesi.htm [1 March 2000].

Weisstein, Eric. (1996-2000). Riemannian Geometry. Wolfram Research Inc. [Online].

Available: http://www.mathworld.wolfram.com/RiemannianGeometry/html [7

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