c. 350–370 until 415: The lifetime of Hypatia, a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher in Roman Egypt who was the first well-documented woman in mathematics.[2]
18th Centuryedit
1748: Italian mathematician Maria Agnesi published the first book discussing both differential and integral calculus, called Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana.[3][4]
c. 1787 – 1797: Self-taught Chinese astronomer Wang Zhenyi published at least twelve books and multiple articles on astronomy and mathematics.[6]
19th Centuryedit
1827: French mathematician Sophie Germain saw her theorem, known as Sophie Germain's theorem, published in a footnote of a book by the mathematician Adrien-Marie Legendre.[7][8] In this theorem Germain proved that if x, y, and z are integers and if x5 + y5 = z5 then either x, y, or z must be divisible by 5. Germain's theorem was a major step toward proving Fermat's Last Theorem for the case where n equals 5.[7]
1829: The first public examination of an American girl in geometry was held.[9]
1874: Russian mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya became the first woman in modern Europe to gain a doctorate in mathematics, which she earned from the University of Göttingen in Germany.[12]
1880: Charlotte Angas Scott of Britain obtained special permission to take the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos Exam, as women were not normally allowed to sit for the exam. She came eighth on the Tripos of all students taking them, but due to her sex, the title of "eighth wrangler," a high honour, went officially to a male student.[13] At the ceremony, however, after the seventh wrangler had been announced, all the students in the audience shouted her name. Because she could not attend the award ceremony, Scott celebrated her accomplishment at Girton College where there were cheers and clapping at dinner, and a special evening ceremony where the students sang "See the Conquering Hero Comes", and she received an ode written by a staff member, and was crowned with laurels.[13]
1890: Philippa Fawcett of Britain[19] became the first woman to obtain the top score in the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos Exam. Her score was 13 per cent higher than the second highest score. When the women's list was announced, Fawcett was described as "above the senior wrangler", but she did not receive the title of senior wrangler, as at that time only men could receive degrees and therefore only men were eligible for the Senior Wrangler title.[20][21]
1930s: British mathematician Mary Cartwright proved her theorem, now known as Cartwright's theorem, which gives an estimate for the maximum modulus of an analytic function that takes the same value no more than p times in the unit disc. To prove the theorem she used a new approach, applying a technique introduced by Lars Ahlfors for conformal mappings.[32]
1971: The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) was founded. It is a professional society whose mission is to encourage women and girls to study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and to promote equal opportunity for and the equal treatment of women and girls in the mathematical sciences. It is incorporated in the state of Massachusetts.[54]
1971: The American Mathematical Society established its Joint Committee on Women in the Mathematical Sciences (JCW), which later became a joint committee of multiple scholarly societies.[55]
1973: American mathematician Jean Taylor published her dissertation on "Regularity of the Singular Set of Two-Dimensional Area-Minimizing Flat Chains Modulo 3 in R3" which solved a long-standing problem about length and smoothness of soap-film triple function curves.[56]
1983: American mathematician Julia Robinson was elected the first female president of the American Mathematical Society for the term of 1983-1984 (but was unable to complete her term as she was suffering from leukemia),[59][71] and became the first female mathematician to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.[29]
1996: Ioana Dumitriu, a New York University sophomore from Romania, became the first woman to be named a Putnam Fellow.[84] Putnam Fellows are the top five (or six, in case of a tie) scorers on The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition.[85][86]
1998: Melanie Wood became the first female American to make the U.S. International Math Olympiad Team. She won silver medals in the 1998 and 1999 International Mathematical Olympiads.[87]
2004: American Melanie Wood became the first woman to win the Frank and Brennie Morgan Prize for Outstanding Research in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Student. It is an annual award given to an undergraduate student in the US, Canada, or Mexico who demonstrates superior mathematics research.[89][87]
2012: The Working Committee for Women in Mathematics, Chinese Mathematical Society (WCWM-CMS) was founded; it is a national non-profit academic organization in which female mathematicians who are engaged in research, teaching, and applications of mathematics can share their scientific research through academic exchanges both in China and abroad.[101] It is one of the branches of the Chinese Mathematical Society (CMS).[101]
2013: The African Women in Mathematics Association was founded. This professional organization with over 300 members promotes mathematics to African women and girls and supports female mathematicians.[102][103]
2019: American mathematician Karen Uhlenbeck became the first woman to win the Abel Prize, with the award committee citing "the fundamental impact of her work on analysis, geometry and mathematical physics."[113]
2019: Marissa Kawehi Loving became the first Native Hawaiian woman to earn a PhD in mathematics when she graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2019. In addition to being Native Hawaiian, she is also black, Japanese, and Puerto Rican.[114]
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