This document provides a history of women in mathematics from ancient times to the 18th century. It discusses prominent female mathematicians like Hypatia in 350 CE, the first known woman in mathematics, who made important discoveries but was ultimately killed due to her success and gender. During the Middle Ages, women were largely barred from education. A few notable mathematicians emerged during the Renaissance and Enlightenment, such as Laura Bassi and Maria Gaetana Agnesi in Italy, where women had slightly more access to education, though faced many social barriers. The document outlines the obstacles and discrimination women faced in being recognized for their mathematical accomplishments.

1. Ashley Anne Strobridge
Professor Heather Kelly
Math 152
4/22/13
1
Women in Mathematics: Where History and Today Meet
Throughout history, women have faced many obstacles concerning math, from being
barred from universities, to having to present with male partners in order to have their work
heard, to being stereotyped as poor mathematicians, all simply for their sex. Despite these
exterior hurdles, though, women have succeeded in math, with many being famous in their
time for their discoveries; however, because of their underrepresentation in math and history
textbooks, we know very little of their existence today. This paper will examine these facts, and
explore the history of women in mathematics, the challenges they faced and their successes, as
well as what has led up to what is happening today: women finally being encouraged to enter
the field of mathematics, as a STEM field, and succeed alongside men, while still facing cultural
stereotypes.
A History of Women in Mathematics
From the very beginnings of recorded history, women have been brilliant in
mathematics, and they have also been struck down for being so. In 350 C.E., Hypatia was born
in Alexandria, Egypt. The daughter of a mathematician and philosopher, Theon of Alexandria,
she was educated in Athens before returning to Egypt to become an even greater and more
well-renowned mathematician than her father. She grew to be a respected advisor in the
political field, but was most well known for being the head of the Platonist school of Alexandria
and “the first mathematician to formulate the idea of conic sections” (“The Emergence of
Women at the Highest Levels of Mathematics”). It is recorded in a Greek text on Hypatia,

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translated by Catharine Roth, that “She wrote a commentary on Diophantos, the Astronomical
Canon, and a commentary on the Conics of Apollonios,” she also charted the stars, wrote a
commentary on Arithmatica by Diophantus, edited her father Theon’s commentary on Euclid’s
Elements, and invented the hydroscope. She was an authority in many things including
morality, intellect, and civil devotion. Socrates Scholasticus spoke of Hypatia in his Ecclesiastical
History:
Having succeeded to the school of Plato and Plotinus, she explained the
principles of philosophy to her auditors, many of whom came from a distance to receive
her instructions. On account of the self-possession and ease of manner which she had
acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind, she not infrequently appeared in
public in the presence of the magistrates. Neither did she feel abashed in going to an
assembly of men. For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue
admired her the more. (Scholasticus)
So not only was Hypatia the first renowned woman mathematician, but she was well-
respected among her male peers. Despite Hypatia’s profound success as a philosopher and
mathematician, she was born in a tumultuous time when Christianity was taking hold, and the
old Athenian roots of society were crumbling, so many Alexandrian Christians were wary of
her philosophical prowess, especially because she was a woman. When the bishop of
Alexandria, Cyril, became jealous and suspicious of her power, he ordered a crowd of angry
Christians to stone her to death then tear her limb from limb and drag her remains through the
city to the Church of the Caesareum (though some accounts claim that she was stoned and torn

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to pieces in the church itself). Hypatia was a very strong and successful female mathematician,
the first in a long line, but the manner of her death set the stage for men throughout history to
claim that mathematics was no realm for the female mind, and so for centuries after her death
there were no recorded female mathematicians.
In fact, during the Dark Ages, there was very little mathematics or any kind of academic
education being taught outside of monasteries, a place from which women were barred.
Between the 4th century and the beginning of the Renaissance around the 13th century, it was
rare that anyone other than royal men and holy men were taught anything academic, and the
only schools for children (boys and girls) focused almost exclusively on teaching the bible.
Upon the start of the Renaissance, it began to be acceptable for women to pursue an education,
but even then it was rarely available to anyone other than noblewomen and nuns, but never
anywhere officially other than in nunneries until Italy began admitting female students to its
universities in the 1600s. Even in the time of the Renaissance, when mathematics was gaining a
foothold in the everyday life of the populace, especially merchants, women were excluded from
this education. In a letter from Florentine humanist Leonardo Bruni to Italian noblewomen
Lady Baptista Malatesta in 1405 on appropriate subjects for her to study, Bruni states that
arithmetic, geometry, astrology, and rhetoric all lay “outside the province of women.” In other
words, these subjects were not meant for women and he didn’t think they could handle them.
He goes on to state the subjects that he felt were appropriate for women were those of morals,
poetry, history, and religious literature (“A Lady’s Education Pondered”). In her article “The
Evolving Role of Women in Mathematics,” Marilyn K. Simon states that during the

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Renaissance, and even into the 19th century, it was thought by many (mostly men), that
“women’s brains are too cold and too soft to sustain rigorous theory; that the female cranium is
too small to hold a powerful brain; that mathematics requires a “virile” mind, properly cleansed
of femininity; and that exercising women’s brains would shrink their ovaries” (Simon 782). It is
clear that women in academia had much to overcome early on, but despite the fact that these
ideas held until nearly the 20th century, women still managed to eke out a place for themselves
among the annals of mathematical history, some even becoming famous in their own time.
During the Age of Enlightenment, approximately 1650-1800 C.E., there were a small
number of women who were able to make names for themselves in the field of mathematics.
Many of these women came out of Italy, the one country during this time (namely the 1600s-
1700s), which had a University that allowed women to attend, and even become professors. The
first woman to ever receive her doctorate was Elena Cornaro Piscopia, who received a doctorate
in Philosophy in 1678 from an Italian university (Coffin, Cole, Stacey, and Symes 509),but many
who would follow would make a stronger impact on the world of academia, namely
mathematics. The University of Bologna produced and employed two famous female
mathematicians, Laura Bassi (1711-1778) and Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799).
Laura Bassi earned her doctoral degree from the University of Bologna in 1732, the
second of only two women ever to receive an academic qualification from a European
university up until that time. This was only the first of many barriers she would break down for
women in math and science. She was the first ever female professor at a European university;
she was elected to the Academy for the Institute for Sciences in 1732,she taught courses in

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Newtonian Physics for 28 years, she published 28 papers on physics and hydraulics using the
results of her own experiments, and in 1745, Pope Benedict XIV appointed her as the only
woman to the Benedettini (the Benedictines), a group of 25 elite scholars in Italy. None of these
achievements was easily gained, however, as she had to petition for her right to each one of
these appointments to sometimes doubtful men,but in the end her skills and talents won the
day, and she became a woman of many firsts.
Maria Agnesi was even more famous in her day than Laura Bassi. According to the
article “Women in 18th Century Mathematics” in the journal Science and itsTimes, Maria Agnesi
“was one of the most remarkable female mathematicians of all time.” Agnesi was encouraged
by her parents in her education. She was a brilliant math student, so much so in fact that “at age
seventeen she wrote a paper about ballistics and planetary motion that was admired by
contemporary scholars” (“Women in 18th Century Mathematics”). Perhaps what Agnesi is most
famous for is her book Analytical Institutions, a two-volume mathematical text she authored that
covered differential and integral calculus. The book was wildly successful and respected in
academic circles, and was even translated into French by the Academy of Sciences for use as a
textbook in France. Ironically enough, France respected her work enough to teach her ideas to
its French men of learning, but still refused to admit Agnesi to its Academy of Sciences due to
the mere fact that she was a woman. In England, at Cambridge University, mathematics
professor John Colson learned Italian so that he could translate her book on calculus. She was so
beloved in Italy that after she died, many scholarships, streets, and even a school were named
after her in her honor.

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As it is hinted to above, in France, women didn’t have the same types of freedoms
within the field of academia as in Italy. In fact, the only places where any French women were
even exposed to math in the 1700’s were in the salons, where “Parisian noblewomen presided
over gatherings of scientists and thinkers…cultivating a social climate that became the driving
force of progress in the Age of Reason” (“Women in Eighteenth-Century Mathematics”). Social
protocol dictated that they merely play hostess in their salons, yet somehow Emilie de Breteuil,
Marquise du Châtelet (1706-1749) and Sophie Germain (1776-1831) were able to become famous
mathematicians despite these social restrictions.
Emilie de Breteuil’s family thought she was too tall and unattractive to be married, and
so allowed her a tutor. She excelled in many subjects, and was so intelligent that she was
considered a genius. Despite this fact, because of social protocol she was not allowed to enter in
intellectual discussions with men, and so she disguised herself as a man in order to take part in
these scientific meetings. She was married at age 19, but still continued her studies, and became
so well-known for her wit and wisdom that she became friends with Voltaire and they
remained close life-long friends. She wrote the only French translation of Isaac Newton's
Principia (1642-1727) and a physics textbook, among other texts (“Women in Eighteenth Century
Mathematics”).
Sophie Germain was known as “the Hypatia of the eighteenth century.” At age 13,
Germain was determined to become a mathematician,and she taught herself calculus and
mathematics. Her parents disapproved, but she soon also gained the title of genius after she
submitted papers to professors under a male name. She eventually revealed her gender, and in

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1811 she was awarded the grand prize for her theory of elasticity by the French Academy of
Sciences. Because she was a woman, she was not necessarily famous in her time, and even on
her death certificate it merely states that she was a property owner, but after her death she
gained much status. The article “Women in Eighteenth Century Mathematics” states that “her
work in number theory led her to develop a theorem, known as Germain's theorem,” and that
“today Germain is regarded as an important founder of mathematical physics and a pioneer in
the area of elasticity” (“Women in Eighteenth Century Mathematics”).
The Industrial Revolutions’ advancements allowed a comparatively large amount of
women to make discoversies in the fields of sciences and mathematics. Victorian standards for
women were strict, however, limiting most women to the “sphere” of the home and family, but
a few women were able to rise above these binding limits during this time. One of the most
famous of these women was Augusta Ada Byron, a British applied mathematician, who was
born in London in 1815. Her mother, Anabelle Millbanke, was an amateur mathematician, and
her father was the famous poet Lord Byron. She was an intelligent child who was interested in
mathematics. Despite her adeptness in the field and increasing ability as she matured, in the
early 1800s in Great Britain women were still prohibited from entering any universities, and so
her education was limited to tutors. However, she soon met Charles Babbage, who was a
pioneer in the field of computer science. The two struck up an immediate friendship and
partnership, and soon he handed her the task of translating from French to English a paper on
the Analytical Engine, or early computer. He encouraged her to add her own notes to the paper,
and these notes would eventually become her contribution to the field of mathematics and

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computer science. Her final document was three times the length of the French original because
of her additions. Her contributions included a program for the machine to run, and notes on
how the machine could not think for itself and needed a programmer, among other notations.It
is stated in the article “Augusta Ada Byron” in Science and ItsTimes, “Byron’s work on this
paper showed her insight into the future of computers, as she showed an understanding of the
concept of a programmed machine that was beyond her time” (“Augusta Ada Byron”). Because
of a lack of the proper technology at the time, neither Babbage nor Byron would have the
opportunity to create a computer, but Byron’s work in the field was unprecedented at the time.
During this time, many women were educated in mathematics in Germany, the second
country to Italy to allow women to enter universities. The one university in Germany that
allowed women was the Gottingen Mathematical Institute in Germany, and it attracted many
women from around Europe during the mid to late 1800s. Grace Chrisholm Young attended
Gottingen because in the 1800s her native England was still not accepting women into their
universities. Young was the first women to receive an official doctorate in Germany in 1896, and
as it states in the article “Emergence of Women in Science and Mathematics” published in
Science and ItsTimes in 2001, “Young published her own book on geometry in 1905; it included
patterns for geometric figures that are still used in math classes. The next year she and her
husband, mathematician William Young (1863-1942), published the first book to provide
comprehensive applications of problems in mathematical analysis and set theory” (“Emergence
of Women in Science and Mathematics”). Many women followed Young in Germany, including
Emmy Amalie Noether (1882-1935), a brilliant abstract algebraist whom Albert Einstein

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admired for her mathematical talents, and said of her that she “...was the most significant
creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began"
(“Emergence of Women at the Highest Levels of Mathematics”). This compliment is notable in
that as Einstein does not include the qualifier that Noether is a woman in calling her a genius,
so he is including women and men in this evaluation, thus Noether is not just a genius female
mathematician, but “the most significant creative mathematician” of both women and men
since the mid-1800s, when the higher education of women began.
Upon seeing female success in mathematics at Gottingen, Germany soon passed a law
allowing all colleges to admit women into their ranks. Other European nations followed, and by
the end of the 19th century, most European nations admitted women into their colleges, and 70%
of American colleges were co-educational. This victory was hard-won, but still, women faced
many challenges, from harassment by male classmates, to male professors simply ignoring
them in classrooms, to little career-opportunity once they graduated. Over time, things
gradually improved, but there are still obstacles to overcome.
Women in MathematicsToday
In 1988, an article in the New York Times called “Careers; A Shortage of Women in
Mathematics” points out that The American Mathematical Society “has 21,000 members, but
only 15 percent are women. The 17-year-old Association for Women in Mathematics has about
2,500 members.” Granted, these facts were from 1988,but the disparity remains. Though
females in secondary education in the U.S. are now performing at rates equal to men, The
National Science Foundation in 2009 found that there is a gender gap when it comes to those

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who choose to go into a mathematical field for a career. In fact, study after study has found that
the stereotypes that women were bad at math or that math is not a suitable field for women
have prevailed, leading to a lack of women in math-related career fields. Despite the fact that
women are now getting better grades than men in math classes in high school and college
(Sapna Cheryan 184),less than 25% of undergraduate and graduate degrees go to women in
computer science and engineering, and an even smaller percentage enter careers in physics. In
fact, the American Institute of Physics stated in 2005 in their article “Women in Physics and
Astronomy,” that among the top 20 physics departments in colleges in the US, only 6% of the
full professors of physics are women, followed by 11% of the associate professors, and 12% of
the assistance professors. The article also freely admits that “in many physics departments,
women encounter climates that range from chilly to hostile” (Czujko & Ivie), and that “women
earn significantly lower salaries than men” (Czujko & Ivie). With these obstacles, it is clear that
women are still being influenced to stay out of mathematical careers. If they make it past their
hostile and resentful male colleagues, they still have smaller salaries than these bitter
counterparts who seem to make life difficult for women in the field at every turn. They are
underrepresented in the field, so there are not many current female role models in the field for
those women rising up in mathematics. This lack of encouragement may account for the
statistics laid out in in the 2009 article “Women Lead in Doctorates” on the website Inside
Higher Education. In the article, Scott Jaschik stated that though for the first time in history
women have an overall lead in doctorates awarded from universities, “Only 22 percent of
engineering doctorates in 2008-9 were awarded to women, and only 27 percent in mathematics
and computer science” (Jaschik). The article also states that women are now leading in the

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health and biological sciences (Jaschik), but it is clear that physics and many other math-related
fields remain more than somewhat closed to the female sex.
Against all odds, expectations, and restrictions, a small percentage of women
throughout history have succeeded in mathematics. From the times of Hypatia in the 2nd
century, through the Renaissance when even a modest education was denied to women,
through the Age of Enlightenment when it was thought that women’s brains “couldn’t handle
the strain” of thinking about mathematics, through the Industrial Revolutions and the Victorian
Era when women were encouraged, even forced, to stay in their social “sphere” of home and
family, and all throughout this time when women were barred from entering almost every
university in the world, women have made great strides and discoveries in the field of
mathematics despite stereotypes and myths about their capacity as great thinkers. However, in
the presence of these many and varied accomplishments, won against all odds, women still
continue to bear the burden of the stereotype that women don’t belong in mathematics. On
paper, women are now being encouraged to enter the STEM fields of Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics. There are numerous scholarships being awarded to young
women today to encourage them to enter the STEM fields, so it is a hope that in the future,
women will not be so underrepresented in mathematics and other math-related fields. But it is
clear that though women have fought a long battle to reach societal acceptance in math, and
have achieved many accomplishments along the way, there are still stereotypes to overcome,
and policies to break down before there will be a level playing field for women in mathematics.

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Gale, 2000. World History In Context. Web. 31 Mar. 2013.
Cheryan, Sapna. “Understanding the Paradox in Math-Related Fields: Why Do Some Gender
Gaps Remain While Others Do Not?” Sex Roles. Vol. 66, 184-190. 2011. Web. 27 Feb.
2013.
Coffin, Judith…[et al.]. Western Civilizations. Ed. Jon Durbin. New York: W. W. Norton &
Company, Inc., 2011. Print.
Czujko, Roman and Rachel Ivie. “Women in Physics and Astronomy.” American Institute of
Physics. 2005. Web. 22 April 2013.
"Emergence of Women at the Highest Levels of Mathematics." Science and ItsTimes. Ed. Neil
Schlager and Josh Lauer. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale, 2001. World History In Context. Web. 27
Feb. 2013.
Eriksson, Kimmo and Torrun Lindholm.“Making Gender Matter: the Role of Gender-Based
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Sweden.” Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. Vol. 48, 329-338. 2007. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.
Fowler, Elizabeth M. "Careers; A Shortage Of Women in Mathematics." New York Times. 1 Nov.
1988. World History In Context. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.
Jaschik, Scott. “Women Lead in Doctorates.” Inside Higher Education. 2010.Web.22 April 2013.
Scholasticus, Socrates. “The Life of Hypatia.” Ecclesiastical History. Alexandria on the Web. Web.
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Simon, Marilyn K. “The Evolving Role of Women in Mathematics.” MathematicsTeacher. Vol. 93,
782-786. 2000.Web.8 Mar. 2013.
"Women in Eighteenth-Century Mathematics." Science and ItsTimes. Ed. Neil Schlager andJosh
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