Recently I prepared an item for Rachel Levy's Grandma Got STEM blog that told a bit about my granddaughters who like math. My preparation for that posting led me to focus on my wish to have math be a fun place for girls to hang out -- a place for lots of girls: feminine girls, sporty girls, popular girls, silly girls (as well as geek girls). Mathematics has mostly been a lonely place for females -- my first girl-friend who was also a math person was a colleague whom I met in my 40s (see my poem for Toni, "Girl-Talk"). I want mathematics to be a welcoming place for my granddaughters. A place with friends.
Related to this concern, wonderful news came in my email box recently from Susanne Pumpluen (video) at the University of Nottingham. She has started a Women in Maths page on Facebook . There one can find bios, videos, news links and FRIENDS. Visit. LIKE. Offer your comments and support.
Among my thoughts about being a math woman is recollection of a remark made to me back in the days that I was a youngish professor. A remark by a male colleague, a chemistry professor, a remark for which I did not have a strong reply:
I like
you, JoAnne.
You think
like a man.
Why do I remember this so well? What might I have said in response?
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"So why do you like me, then?"
ReplyDeleteMarion--
DeleteI like you because you are fun to be with and smart--and I like that we have both math and poetry in common!