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Abstract

Despite appearances, mathematics has never been exclusively the province of men. From antiquity onwards women have had a little known involvement in this field. This review is based on a booklet produced as a celebration of the lives and work of nine remarkable women mathematicians, whose significant contributions to mathematics go largely unsung, and who during their lifetimes had to overcome enormous barriers of discouragement and discrimination to pursue their passion. The first biography is of the Greek Aspasia (470–410bc), and the last of the German Emmy Noether (1882–1935), who still at the beginning of the twentieth century encountered strong resistance to her wish to devote her life to mathematics.

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Women in the history of mathematics

Abstract

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References