Colloquium - Towards gender equality: women in mathematics on the move in Brazil and France

Speaker. Gabriela Marino Silva (University of Campinas, Brazil)

Abstract. The underrepresentation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) has been gaining prominence in speeches by agencies of the United Nations System and, pervasively, in scientific organizations. Amongst STEM disciplines, mathematics has one of the lowest proportions of women: women are about 23% of mathematicians in Brazil and 22% in France. Many reasons for such phenomenon have been evoked by specialized literature in different fields, such as sociology, economy, psychology, education, and social studies of science, especially, feminist and gender studies. Current explanations are mostly based on culturally rooted aspects, focusing on the role of cultural and gender stereotypes. In parallel, women have gathered to diminish the constraints for younger generations in mathematics: the Association for Women in Mathematics in the United States, the European Women in Mathematics, and the African Women in Mathematics Association are a few examples. Considering that, this communication draws from the trajectories of Brazilian and French mathematicians engaged in building gender equality to enlighten the differences and similitudes distinct contexts might produce when addressing this phenomenon that repeats itself worldwide.