Sonya (Sofia) Kovalevskaya

Soyna Korvin-Krukovsky was born in 1850 in Moscow to a family of the minor nobility because her father was a artillery general. As a child she became exposed to mathematics from wallpaper. Her house as a child was getting renovated, and one of her siblings' rooms was temporarily wallpapered with  lithographed notes of Ostrogradski's lecture notes on differential and integral calculus. Sonya would spend hours looking at the wallpaper, trying to decide which order the sheets belonged in, trying to decipher each and every phrase on the wall. Her father had her educated by a professor at the naval academy, and math just came easy to her.

In Russia, it was ludicrous for women to seek higher education, because Russia felt they did not deserve the same post-school training as men. However, if women married, they could attend universities outside of Russia, and that is exactly what Sonya did. In 1868 Sonya married Vladimir Kovalevsky, and together they went to Germany to study. In Germany Sonya studied with Weierstrass, who claimed that she had "the gift of intuitive genius." Unfortunately, Sonya could not study at the University of Berling with Weirestrass, so he privately tutored her for four years. She wrote outstanding research papers, and through her research, she qualified for a doctorate without the need of an examination. Alas, Sonya received a higher degree in mathematics with high honor!

Whenever she returned to Russia, she taught classes specifically for women at several universities. She taught many courses in advanced topics in analysis.  In 1888 she received the famous Prix Bordin for her paper On the Rotation of a Solid Body About a Fixed Point.  Sonya was a honorary mathematician, and everyone knew! Three years after receiving the award, she passed away from influenza. She was in the height of her career at this point, but still made remarkable contributions to mathematics and women's rights. Sonya made men during her time reconsider that women have the capabilities to be just as smart as men! Without Sonya, we may never be able to study mathematics, publicly, and freely. Thank you Sonya!!

References and Photo:

The History of Mathematics- David Burton

http://www.quotedb.org/quote/Sofia_Kovalevskaya/1

http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/kova.htm

Sophie Germain

Sophie Germain was born in 1776, in Paris, into a wealthy family. When Sophie was a young girl, the French revolution was occurring, which left her confined inside her house for long hours, and days. During this time she went into her father's library, and came across a book that discussed Archimedes' death. Legend has it that "during the invasion of his city by the Romans Archimedes was so engrossed in the study of a geometric figure in the sand that he failed to respond to the questioning of a Roman soldier. As a result he was speared to death" Sophie was intrigued! How could one man be so interested in a subject that he would die for it?! Therefore, she began studying mathematics.

Sophie was rebellious, because her parents insisted that girls should not study math. Note that during this time period, like the other women mathematicians, it was inappropriate for women to study mathematics. Her parents discouraged any studying of mathematics, so Sophie decided to study at nighttime, while they were sleeping. Her parents found out of her oppositional ways, and warned her not to study. Her parents took away her clothes and lighting in order to make her stay in bed, but Sophie always had extra hid, and still studied. How loyal! Her parents decided that she had an incurable disease for mathematics, and let her study. Sophie eventually taught herself differential calculus.

A college nearby Paris opened specifically to study science and mathematics, but since Sophie was a women, she could not attend. However, she used a code name "M LeBlanc," and submitted an analysis to Lagrange for him to check over. He was impressed LeBlanc's intelligence, and demanded to meet her! To his surprise, Sophie was LeBlanc, and he was amazed. He became her mentor, and he took her to meetings with other mathematicians. Sophie was loving life! Sophie repeated this action with Gauss, and she sent him a letter on number theory. He quickly found out that LeBlanc was really Sophie,  and was intrigued by her intelligence. For in this letter she proved a case of Fermat's theorem that states x^n+y^n=z^n, and she let n=5.

Alongside number theory, Sophie also went on to study the theory of elasticity. She wrote a paper, and submitted it three times to the French Academy of Sciences, and the final time she won an award.  She was the first female to attend Academy meetings who was not a wife of the other members. Sophie worked all her life on her proofs and theories. At 55, Sophie died from breast cancer. Sophie is an honorary historical woman for her work in mathematics, but also for her bravery to stand up to social prejudices, and fight for her love of mathematics.

References and Photo:

The History of Mathematics, by Daniel Barton

http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/germain.htm

http://www.sciencephoto.com/images/download_lo_res.html?id=670043663

Maria Agnesi

Maria Gaetana Agnesi, born in 1718, was a brilliant linguist, philosopher, and of course mathematician. She was the oldest in her family, the first of 21 children. Her father was a professor of mathematics at the University of Bologna, so she was able to be educated by private tutors. Similar to Emilie du Chatelet, she spoke many languages including Italian, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and German. Similar to previous Mathematicians that I have blogged about, Maria lived in a time where women did not get an education, but women that had an education were highly renowned. Her father would hold meetings at his house, inviting brilliant intellectuals over, to dispute philosophical and scientific topics. Maria watched these meetings, spoke, and learned from intelligent minds. When she was 20, she wrote a book Propositions Philosophicae, which based on these discussions. In 1748, she published Instituzioni Analitiche, a book used to teach her younger siblings mathematics. It is the first surviving mathematical work written by a woman, to this day. In this book Maria made significant advances in algebra and analysis, and also differential and integral calculus. Maria's book math algebra clear, and people were ecstatic that they could read this exposition. Her most known development is the cubic equation yx^2=a^2(a-y), in which is known as the "witch of Agnesi."

Maria was a women who lived to please her father, and she took on the role of child prodigy mathematician to please him. She did like mathematics,but she had other interests that she pursued more, such as her religion. Once her mother died, Maria gave up going to her father's meetings to tend to the children. Her mother died when Maria was about 20, so Maria was a 20 year old, taking care of 20 children. That's astonishing! Once Maria's father died in 1752, Maria gave up mathematics for life. At this point in time, she decided  she was going to devote the rest of her life to charitable projects and religious meditation. In 1771, she became the directress of a home for the poor and ill, and she stayed directress until her death at age 81. Maria is not like other mathematicians, whose lives were only filled with researching and discovering new mathematics. Maria led a balanced life, and knew that family, and personal morals are much more important in life than being a famous mathematician, and I admire her for that.

References and Photo:
The History of Mathematics- by David Burton

http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/agnesi.htm

http://valure.wiki.ccsd.edu/Maria+Agnesi

Encourage girls to study math-- It's really not that bad!

As a woman, I find it difficult to see girls my age struggling with mathematics, because math has also come so easy to me. I always think to myself, Why can they not understand it? What is the problem?  I think you have to be a mathematically inclined learner, and at a young age in school, teachers need to encourage students. Into teenage years, it is apparent that girls need extra encouragement to enjoy mathematics, because males seem to like mathematics as it gets higher. I have listed a few strategies in my research of how to get females more involved in mathematics.

It is proven by many sources that girls in high school struggle in mathematics more than boys. According to the book What Successful Math Teachers Do, Grades 6-12, written by Alfred Posamentier, "Girls tend to attribute failure in mathematics to low ability and bad luck, and they tend to attribute success in mathematics to high ability. Also, girls are more than likely to hide their papers after failure and to have less pride in their successes." In order to counterstrike this generalization, teachers need to teach the girls how to analyze their failures, or incorrect answers, by comparing a successful test to an unsuccessful test. What strategies made the girls do well on the first test, but not as well on the second? Then, have the girls practice successful strategies to overcome the failing strategies, so they are more confident about upcoming math tests. For example, if a girl is taking a test in mathematics, on two separate topics, three weeks apart, then as a teacher I will analyze the conditions of each test. Some factors I would consider would be time of tests, seating of tests, neighbors during tests, distractions during test, grades, and  amount of time/homework done before tests. Then, I will sit down with the girl, and tell her how to have more successful tests, such as sitting in the middle of the room, around girls, taking the test on a Thursday, instead of a Monday, complete quiet, and make sure there are homework checks to have all homework done.

Beyond self confidence, boys play a huge role in affect girls' confidence in mathematics. Girls tend to be interested in more than one subject, such as all school subjects, whereas boys are more narrow minded and focus on one, such as history or mathematics.Also, boys in grades 6-12 show greater confidence in their ability to do mathematics than females. However, how can we as teachers get girls to focus on mathematics? Should we split the classes, girls from boys, and promote gender differences? Or should teachers promote mixed genders and teach girls how to learn along with boys, without feeling lesser of a student. As a teacher, I will mix my students, but however, pay special attention to girls who may be struggling.  Let me be a bit more specific, I will not baby the girls, and spoon feed them mathematics, I will give them opportunities to be more confident in their abilities. For example, if students from younger grades are struggling in math classes and they need a tutor, I will give the opportunity for a girl to take on the leadership role. Teachers need to make special efforts to encourage girls to study mathematics.

Teachers also need to use different motivational strategies for girls and boys. Boys become much more easily motivated in mathematics because of their narrow minded interest. However, girls need help relating math to other areas of study, in order to see the wide range of topics. To teach girls math, teachers should be able to relate equations to areas where they are used, for example, the quadratic equation to the golden section, or other parts of art or architecture. Teachers could connect mathematical structures to music, such as Bach's music, or even a contemporary style.  It is also important to relate famous mathematicians to philosophy and history, in order to see that all people that are good at mathematics have other interests as well.

References from :
What successful Math Teachers Do, Grades 6-12 by Alfred Posamentier, Daniel Jaye

Tips for the Mathematics Teacher, by Alfred Posamentier, Hope Hartman, Constanze Kaiser

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07329/836652-53.stm

Emilie du Chatelet

Emilie du Chatelet, the only Frenchwoman of her time to develop a passionate talent for science and mathematics. Emilie was born in 1701, in Paris, into a noble family. Because of her name, she was highly educated in literature, poetry, and foreign languages. Actually, by the age of 12 she was fluent in Latin, English, German, Italian, and Spanish. However, Emilie found extreme interest for mathematics.She also married into another noble family, in which she was able to study under  two great mathematicians, Pierre-Louis de Maupertuis and Alexis-Claude Clairaut. At the age of nineteen she married the thirty-four-year-old Marquis du Châtelet. Emilies is also known to have associate and love philosopher Voltaire, in which she helped him write his version of Elements de la Philosophie de Newton. Emilie's most notable achievement is her French translation, with an added detailed commentary of Newton's Principia. Unfortunately, she died early, and it remained unfinished.

Emilie never felt lonely in her life; she had several affairs during her lifetime. When Madame du Chatelet was 44, she became surprisingly pregnant. It is key to remember that during this time era, women were usually grandmothers by the age of 44, and it was unheard of for a woman to become pregnant at that age. In the spring of 1748, Emilie met and fell in love with the Marquis de Saint-Lambert, a courtier and very minor poet. This affair, however, did not destroy her loving, scholarly friendship with Voltaire. Even when he found out that she was carrying Saint-Lambert's child, Voltaire was there to support her. With the help of Voltaire and Saint-Lambert, she was able to convince her husband that it was his child she was carrying. Emilie thought she only had nine months to live, because she would not make it through child birth, so she put all of her efforts into completing her translation of Principia. Whenever her daughter was born, Emilie was working at a friend's desk. Initially all seemed well and Emilie's friends came to visit, but she became ill and died of an infection within the week. Her death filled all of the intellectual  Europeans with sadness, and they laid her to rest like a queen. Her infant was not taken care of after Emilie's death, so the infant died shortly after. Emilie's work was seen to have been published by a former friend Clairaut, and he published it in 1759, in a two-volume edition. Although Emilie du Chatelet did create any original science, she interpreted it for the French people to understand, and through her efforts, the arrivals of Halley's comet was able to be predicted.

Refrences and Photo from :
The History of Mathematics by David Burton
http://scriptamus.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/ladies-of-the-laboratory-3-the-scientific-slut-emilie-du-chatelet/

http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/chatelet.htm

Hypatia

Hypatia of Alexandria, a woman of mathematics and philosophy, known to be the first woman to study and make tremendous efforts in mathematics. Hypatia lived from 370-415 according to The History of Mathematics, by James Burton. Other sources claim similar birth and death years. During this time period ,Romans were in reining positions and were beginning to convert Christianity. Hypatia was the daughter of Theon of Alexandria, which I have understood to also be her teacher. Hypatia learned medicine, mathematics, and philosophy from her father. During this time period, women did not study. Women were considered inferior, but whenever a woman who knew what she was talking about spoke ingenious ideas, that men who had also studied mathematics did not know about, people were blown away.

Hypatia made great strides in mathematics, and we known this by her writings. She wrote a "commentary on the first six books of Diophantus's Arithmetica, as well as a treatise on Apollonius's Conic Sections. She had a high level of knowledge on astronomical discoveries, which she learned from her father, and edited the Almagest, written by the great astronomer Claudius Ptolemy.

Although she appeared to be a very smart woman, she lacked common sense. Alexandria was in a religious battle, and Hypatia fought against Christianity. The government wanted all people to practice Christianity. But until it became a legal religion, Hypatia did not have to practice it. As a woman in this time, she should have followed Christianity to keep the peace with her government officials. However, stubborn Hypatia did not. She was an "unquestioned" leader of the neo-Platonic school of philosophy, and lectured against Christianity. Along with those lectures, she also spoke about mathematics and philosophy, and distinguished people wanted to hear what she had to say.  A student of hers, philosopher Synesius, spoke of Hypatia in the highest terms considering her to be  like a "mother, sister, and reverend teacher," and praised her for her teachings and virtue.

Although we do not know many details of Hypatia's life, we know more about her death. Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, did not like Hypatia lecturing to Christians if she was a non Christian. Through my research, I found that the followers of Cyril spread rumors that Hypatia was drawing large crowds to her lecture hall and explaining paganism, a belief that is not Christian. We do not know if she was actually preaching paganism or not, records have been lost. One day, after a lecture, Hypatia was attacked by a crowd of religious zealots, similar to loyal religious protesters. She was reported to be slashed by sharp oyster shells, and torn limb from limb, then burnt.

Some historians believe that Hypatia's death represented the opposition between science and religion today, and others argue that her death had nothing to do with religion or science, but government. Personally, I believe her death symbolizes that restrictions that government has over religion. As a free country we are able to practice any religion we choose to, but there is a push for Catholicism and Christianity. However, the government allows other religions to be practiced here, and are making advances in not having Christianity/Catholicism as a major religion. Hypatia stands for the minor religions of this country, the ones that we may deem unfit to practice, but everyone has that freedom. The government and the schools are the religious mobs. There are Christian holidays celebrated in workplaces and schools, and there are Christian names on government documents. As a Christian, I do not mind these traditions, but if I were Hindu, I would feel like Hypatia in my own country.

Hypatia is known as the first women mathematician for her astounding writings, and controversial lectures. Although we do not know much of her life, we know that her death symbolizes the conflicts of government, science, and religion today.

Woman in Mathematics

Hello, and welcome to my blog! My name is Maci, and this is my first blogging experience. I am currently enrolled in a history of mathematics course, at the college I attend, and my assignment is to create a  blog describing famous historical women mathematicians. In order to better understand the significance of this subject, background information is needed. So here we go!

Background Info Self:

I am Maci, and I am currently enrolled in a bachelor of arts teaching program, and in one in a half years, I hope to have this bachelor degree in my hands. I am excellent at mathematics, and I have been my entire life. Math for me was always one of those kind of things that just came easy. However, I am not the type of person who is able to sit behind a desk and compute solutions to problems all day. So, I decided I would push my desire for mathematics onto other people, and work towards become a secondary education math teacher. To my surprise, I'm pretty good at it, but I've never had my own classroom, my own students, or my own rules, so I'm sure the students I've helped are desperate to learn, love learning math, or just well behaved. Think back to high school, and I am sure you can remember that math teacher that negatively impacted your attitude towards mathematics. Whether it be in 7th grade pre-algebra, 10th grade geometry, or 12th grade calculus, there was a teacher who made you dislike math, even for a short period of time. I remember in 10th grade, I had a geometry teacher who would teach by putting us into groups, and by the end of the year, about 70% of the class hated math. Most days I wanted to get up and teach the class, just so other students would stop complaining. This is my inspiration. I want to be that math teacher, that changes students minds from hating mathematics, to understanding, tolerating, and maybe even loving it.

Background into Women:

Women in society are still placed on a downgrade to men. Factories hire women like minorities, and once they have met the federal guidelines for diversity, women do not get hired anymore. It's a trend that has been happening for decades. However, women have seen a rise in honor, and more women are taking over men's powerful positions. Hilliary Clinton ran for the primary candidate in the past presidential election. Twenty years ago, women did not run for president. I am not a feminist, but I believe in equality, especially in intelligence. Gender does not make a person smarter or dumber compared to the opposite gender. Historically, women were not allowed to study mathematics, and if they did, they knew a mathematician through their family ties. Women were to do housework, and men were allowed to study, and educate themselves. Why? In today's time we see that women are just as intelligent as men. If women were allowed to study in the 1700s like men did, our society could be farther along in math, science, and medicine. Diseases could be cured, but women minds were not allowed to be challenged. I feel sympathy towards these women. On my part, I would like to recognize eight women mathematicians in this blog, proving that women are no better or worse than men, but just as intelligent.