This document provides biographies of several notable female mathematicians including Hypatia, Sophie Germain, Sofia Kovalevskaya, Katherine Johnson, Shakuntala Devi, and Maryam Mirzakhani. It discusses their backgrounds, important contributions to mathematics, and how they overcame challenges facing women in the field. Some of the key accomplishments mentioned are Hypatia teaching mathematics in ancient Greece, Germain's work in number theory, Kovalevskaya being the first woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics, and Mirzakhani being the first woman to win the Fields Medal. The document aims to showcase the achievements of these pioneering women in mathematics.

1. WOMEN IN
MATHEMATICS

2. Name : Ariba Rizwan Shaikh
Class : S.Y.B.Sc
College Name : SIES College of Arts ,Science and Commerce.
Place : Sion (West) , Maharashtra.

3. Introduction
As we all know Women have faced a lot of difficulties in every field of
knowledge.
But most of them fought and made their way through it. They now portray as
role models for the upcoming generation.
Majority of the female mathematician faced hatred and hardships because of
their gender and love for Maths, but they fought through it and overcame the
differences and now are being recognized as some of the Great Female
Mathematicians in the world.
There is even a quote by Katherine Johnson:
“Girls are capable of doing everything men are capable of doing.”

4. Hypatia
o 370-415 AD
o Greek
o Hypatia is the first woman known to have taught
mathematics.
o Most consider her to be the first female to have made a
significant contribution to mathematics.
o Hypatia was also an accomplished astronomer and perhaps
best-known as a Neoplatonist philosopher. (Neoplatonism was
a strand of Platonic philosophy that began in the third
century.)
o She did work on algebraic equations and conic sections. She
invented the astrolabe for ship navigation and devices for
measuring the density of fluids.

5. Sophie Germain
o 1776 – 1831
o French
o Marie-Sophie Germain was a physicist, and philosopher.
o She is best known for her work in number theory, but
her work in the theory of elasticity is also very important to
mathematics.
o Sophie received her honorary doctorate , after her death .

6. Sofia Kovalevskaya
o 1850 – 1891
o Russian mathematician
o She made monumental contributions to analysis, partial
differential equations and mechanics. She was a pioneer and
icon for females in mathematics and STEM subjects
everywhere.
o The first woman to obtain a doctorate in mathematics, she
went on to gain global recognition in the mathematical
community due to her paper on partial differential equations.
o She was awarded the Prix Bordin from the French Academy
of Sciences, a prize given to the best solution of a specific
mathematical problem.

7. Katherine Johnson
o 1918 – 2020
o American
o She joined NASA in 1953 and her contributions in orbital
mechanics were crucial to the success of the USA’s
aeronautics and space programmes.
o Katherine Johnson is known for her work in complex
manual calculations at NASA, and specifically, her work in
orbital mechanics, which helped with initial and
subsequent U.S. manned spaceflights.
o In 2015, she was presented with the Presidential Medal of
Freedom by Barack Obama for her important work as a
mathematician, physicist and space scientist as a woman
of colour.

8. Shakuntala Devi
o 1929 –2013
o Indian
o She is a writer and mental calculator, popularly known as
the "Human Computer".
o She wrote a number of books in her later years, including
novels as well as texts about mathematics, puzzles, and
astrology.
o She wrote the book The World of Homosexuals, which is
considered the first study of homosexuality in India . She
saw homosexuality in a positive light and is considered a
pioneer in the field.
o Her talent earned her a place in the 1982 edition of The
Guinness Book of World Records.

9. Maryam Mirzakhani
o 1977-2017
o Iranian
o One of the greatest mathematicians of her generation,
making exceptional contributions to the study of the
dynamics and geometry of mathematical objects called
Riemann surfaces.
o Mirzakhani’s work concentrated on several branches of
theoretical mathematics: hyperbolic geometry, symplectic
geometry, Ergodic theory, moduli spaces, and Teichmüller
theory.
o In 2014, she was the first woman, and first Iranian, to be
awarded a Fields Medal (also known as the International
Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics) for “her
outstanding contributions to the dynamics and geometry of
Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces”.