This Women's History Month, we are celebrating the extraordinary contribution of women mathematicians towards the advancement of mathematics.
We have asked a selection of prominent living women mathematicians what Women's History Month means to them, and have asked them to pick their female maths hero.
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Sophie Maclean
PhD student, King's College London
What does Women’s History Month mean to you?
To me, women's history month encompasses many things. It is about remembering the struggles and sacrifices women of history have made in order to work towards gender equality. It's about continuing that fight so that both men and women reap the benefits of an equal society. It is about marking the achievements that women have made throughout history, despite the disadvantages they faced when compared to male peers. Importantly for me, it is also about making sure we give a voice to ALL women, and achieve equality for ALL women, being mindful that we include those who find themselves in other minorities and marginalised groups (for example, but not exclusively, trans women, women of colour, and disabled women).
Who is your female maths icon/hero?
It's hard to come up with just one person. There are many female mathematicians in my field that I massively look up to but I won't mention them, if only so I can look them in the eye the next time we meet! I will restrict it just to historical mathematicians, which is easy as my favourite historical mathematician does happen to be a woman. My maths hero is Sophie Germain (who was born in Paris in 1776). I admire her tenacity to keep studying mathematics, despite active discouragement from her family. She even went as far as to pretend to be a man in order to access a university education. Her work focusses on prime numbers and I'm a number theorist myself, so I am a big fan of her as a mathematician as well as a person. Most experts agree that, had she had the education that she would have been afforded as a man, she would have achieved so much more in her work. She also has a very cool name..