Notices of the American Mathematical Society
Welcome to the Notices of the American Mathematical Society.
With support from AMS membership, we are pleased to share the journal with the global mathematical community.
PDFLINK |
Research Networks for Women
Communicated by Notices Associate Editor Haydee Lindo
A version of this article appeared in the European Mathematical Society Magazine in 2022
Introduction
The gender gap is well documented in STEM fields in general, with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics finding in 2019 that women make up only 31% of the global STEM workforce
The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) Research Networks take a different approach to the goal of increasing gender diversity across the board: to create networks in mathematical research via focused Research Collaboration Conferences for Women (RCCWs) that expand into ongoing collaborations called Research Networks. The descriptor “AWM Research Networks Program” covers a wide range of activities run by communities of women supporting each other in research. Currently spanning 27 different research topic areas, the Networks themselves are individually created and sustained, with the support of the AWM, but managed by passionate individuals committed to broadening the community and creating conditions for research successes.
Several key elements of the successes of the Research Networks are:
- •
Women support each other in research through vertical integration—more senior women mentoring more junior women on research problems and careers.
- •
Research groups of women promote their joint work by giving research talks and co-organizing conferences with many women speakers.
- •
Early-career women are empowered to co-organize conferences with men and invite their women colleagues, and to participate in the editorial and reviewing process at an earlier career stage.
- •
Members of the Network actively promote the inclusion of women as speakers in major conferences and on editorial boards.
Women in Computational Topology Workshop, Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, University of Minnesota, USA, 2016.
There are currently 27 Research Networks in a wide range of mathematical focus areas, from topology and geometry to analysis, data science, and public policy (see the full list later in this article). Networks grow and are sustained through conferences, websites, email listservs, and publication volumes. Across all the Networks, more than 2,000 women researchers worldwide are involved. More than 62 workshops have been organized, including 11 workshops at the Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM) and eight at the annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), with more than 30 special sessions at the AWM Research Symposia. More information about the individual Networks and their activities is available on the AWM website, which hosts webpages, listservs, and contacts for each Research Network and provides general information about the program.
The Research Networks model has been applied in the classified mathematics space as well, inspiring a series of workshops for women in the international intelligence community. These workshops, started in 2019, invite women to jump into new problem spaces via a collaborative and welcoming research environment. To date, these annual workshops have had hundreds of participants working on tens of problems across a range of subject areas including cryptography, cybersecurity, and data science. The sixth workshop will take place in 2025.
The AWM Research Networks have proven to be an effective way to build community for women and many participants cite their experiences with these workshops as critical for their persistence and subsequent success in their careers. Survey results and testimonials included in this article attest to the impact of the Networks on participants and supporters. While the impacts of these workshops on the “bottom line” percentages of women at all levels of mathematics will take years to fully matriculate, preliminary metrics already demonstrate change: the American Institute for Mathematics (AIM) hosts SQuaREs programs for weeklong small group collaborations, and they have seen the percentage of women participating in SQuaREs jump from 18.1% to 37.5% over the last 10 years, as a direct result of the Research Networks
History
The Research Networks idea started with a conversation between Kristin Lauter, Rachel Pries, and Renate Scheidler at a number theory conference in 2006. Noting the lack of women invited speakers at number theory conferences worldwide, they decided to organize a research conference for women in number theory. To build community and to support graduate students in the so-called “leaky pipeline,” they designed it as a collaboration conference open to students and junior researchers, with senior group leaders proposing research problems ahead of time. Former Fields Institute director Barbara Keyfitz suggested applying to Banff International Research Station (BIRS), a conference center in the Canadian Rocky Mountains which runs 50 weeklong mathematical conferences per year. The first Women in Numbers (WIN) RCCW was hosted by BIRS in 2008.
The core program at BIRS is composed of five-day workshops, in which up to 42 mathematicians are invited to spend the week presenting and listening to math research talks. Historically, more than 90% of the participants were men. The WIN model was different because the participants were all women, students were encouraged to apply, research problems and groups were proposed and decided in advance, and almost all of the conference time was devoted to group work on the research problems. The WIN groups continued to work together after the conference to finish their results for publication in the volume published in the Fields Institute Series
During and after the 2008 WIN conference, the organizers and many of the participants worked together to form the Women in Numbers (WIN) Research Network. Michelle Manes created an email distribution list and organized follow-up special sessions at AMS meetings; Katherine Stange created a website highlighting women in number theory; the WIN organizers created a Steering Committee to plan future meetings and selected new organizers for the next conference at each successive WIN conference.
Since then, WIN has run nine more conferences, five at BIRS and four in Europe. These conferences involved more than 200 women in number theory from around the world, were organized by more than 20 women, many of them participants in the first WIN conference, and produced more than 50 published research papers in nine proceedings volumes so far. When planning started for the first WIN conference in 2006, there were three women professors in number theory at top research universities in the US; now there are several dozen women faculty in number theory, most of whom are part of WIN. The success of the WIN collaboration model was palpable from the very first conference: the BIRS staff said they had never experienced such energy and excitement from workshop participants, although they had been running weeklong workshops for many years.
Early adopters pushed the model pioneered by WIN into other areas of mathematics. In 2011, the first Women in Algebraic Combinatorics workshop was held at BIRS, organized by Georgia Benkart, Stephanie van Willigenburg, and Monica Vazirani. Two years later, 2013 saw the launch of three more Networks: Women in Topology (WIT—Maria Basterra, Kristine Bauer, Kathryn Hess, and Brenda Johnson), Women in Shape Analysis (WiSh—Kathryn Leonard and Luminita Vese), and Women in Mathematical Biology (WIMB) hosted its first WhAM! Women in Applied Math, Dynamical Systems in Biology workshop. In 2014, Women in Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing (WINASC—Susanne Brenner, Sigal Gottlieb, Chiu-Yen Kao, Hyesuk Lee, Fengyan Li, and Carol Woodward) launched with its WhAM! A Research Collaboration Workshop for Women in Applied Mathematics: Numerical Partial Differential Equations and Scientific Computing workshop.
Based on the successes of these workshops, AWM received a five-year, $750,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE grant (2015–2020) to spread the model to more areas of mathematics (grant oversight committee: AWM presidents Ruth Charney, Kristin Lauter, and Kathryn Leonard, and AWM executive director Magnhild Lien). The goal of the program, “Career Advancement for Women through Research-focused Networks,” was to build and sustain Research Networks in many areas of mathematics, and this fit nicely under the ADVANCE grant's mission to “increase the representation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers, thereby contributing to the development of a more diverse science and engineering workforce.”
To date, more than 2,000 women researchers have participated in events as part of at least one of the 27 Research Networks, with more in formation. Weeklong RCCWs are being hosted annually by IPAM, IMA, AIM, and the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics (ICERM) in the United States, and internationally, including at the Centre Internacional de Mathematiques (Luminy, France), the Lorentz Center (The Netherlands), Nesin Math Village (Sirince, Turkey), the Henri Lebesgue Institute, Hausdorff Research Institute for Mathematics (Bonn, Germany), and the University of Leeds (United Kingdom). Some Networks have even had workshops at locations beyond the traditional institutes: Women in Groups, Geometry, and Dynamics (WiGGD) has held two “Research Retreats” at National Parks!
Women in Numbers–Europe2 Workshop (WINE2), Lorentz Center, Leiden, Netherlands, 2016.
To support the Research Networks, AWM organizes follow-up workshops at JMM and SIAM where RCCW participants meet to present the research done at the workshops, continue collaborations, and develop informal mentoring relationships, including peer mentoring. These workshops include a poster session for graduate students, which welcomes early-career mathematicians into the existing Networks. In addition, AWM organizes biennial AWM Research Symposia which host special sessions for many Research Networks, providing opportunities for new people to be invited to present and for members of different Networks to meet and share ideas. These events aim to bring women mathematicians together to recognize and celebrate their research contributions and achievements. Professional development activities include a nonacademic jobs panel, exhibit hall, and networking events. The most recent AWM Research Symposium was hosted in 2023 at Clark Atlanta University in Georgia.
The culture of RCCWs is different than most other research experiences. The schedule for most workshops is largely unstructured, dedicating the majority of the time to discussion and collaboration in small groups rather than lectures, with each team and each participant working toward a very specific outcome. The success of these workshops is completely due to the participants, who show unusually high levels of energy and enthusiasm, dedication to their teams, and commitment to the completion of the project. Indeed, for many women, participation in a Research Network helped to relieve pandemic blues:
“Zoom meetings to work on follow-up WIT projects were the highlight of my weeks during the pandemic lockdowns!” —Anna Marie Bohmann (Vanderbilt University)
The Women in Operator Algebras (WOA) II team displayed heroic dedication to their event in 2021, transitioning to a then-novel hybrid format:
The workshop [Women in Operator Algebras II] had 42 participants from 15 countries (Australia, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Italy, Korea, Denmark, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, USA, UK). Most of the researchers participated online, while 7 researchers from the USA and Canada were on location. The hybrid format worked well in facilitating collaborative work, with all participants actively involved in zoom or in person in discussions and exchange of ideas.
13
Although hybrid formats are challenging, the organizers noted that the dedication of participants made the workshop successful.
“We had groups with people in 3–4 different time zones and they did their best to adapt, getting up very early or working way past their bedtime, to make sure their research group produced great work. It was a testament to the commitment of these women to their research work, their collaborators, and the research network in general.” —Maria Grazia Viola (Lakehead University)
Group work at WinCompTop, IMA, University of Minnesota, USA, 2016.
Launching a Research Network
Research Networks are created and grown by a group of women in a research area. AWM’s role is to encourage group formation and growth, share opportunities, provide funding, host websites and listservs, and host workshops and symposia. AWM’s Research Network Committee works with groups, recommending a math institute and supporting the process by which the proposal is submitted through their competitive selection. Networks are encouraged to:
- •
form their own Steering Committee;
- •
create and maintain a webpage;
- •
create a listserv to facilitate communication;
- •
organize special sessions and AWM workshops;
- •
publish proceedings in the AWM-Springer Series;
- •
advertise their Network in the AWM Newsletter.
These and other recommendations are available in ``How to Launch a Research Network,'' and interested parties can reach out to the Research Networks coordinatorFootnote1 with any questions.
Women in Topology started with a conversation between Maria Basterra, Kristine Bauer, Kathryn Hess, and Brenda Johnson at a BIRS workshop in 2011. By that time, the first WIN workshop had taken place and planning for the second one was underway. Kristine Bauer had heard about WIN from her colleague Renate Scheidler. At the time, a particularly strong cohort of women researchers was completing PhDs and starting postdoctoral positions in algebraic topology, so an RCCW in that area was well positioned to address the challenges facing women across this field of mathematics, especially the lack of senior women in the field at research universities, and a leak in the pipeline at the transition from graduate student to permanent academic position. After initial conversations at the BIRS workshop and the first AWM Research Symposium the following fall, they submitted an RCCW proposal to BIRS, using WIN as a model. The proposal was accepted, and planning began in earnest for the first WIT workshop in 2013.
RCCW organizers need to find both team leaders and team members, which can be a challenge in a field where women have traditionally been underrepresented. Given that the field of algebraic topology had few senior women at research universities in 2012, recruiting team leaders required recruiting more junior faculty members, some of whom had little or no experience in directing research projects, or were just entering tenure-track positions. For these leaders, the experiment of participating in WIT carried some risks and required rapid development of certain skills, but the experience also provided training and skills for these future PhD advisors, and exposed participants to leaders from a wide range of institutions. Organizers identified team members by first contacting PhD advisors in the field to solicit recommendations, and then sending out invitations to those individuals. This process also informed leaders in the community about the existence of WIT. Finally, the organizers encouraged all teams to submit a paper for a proceedings volume, which was published in the American Mathematical Society’s Contemporary Mathematics series
Testimonials after the workshop enthusiastically describe the productive and cooperative atmosphere of the event:
“This was the most productive workshop I’ve attended in my career. We went from a few half-baked ideas to enough material for a research paper over the span of four (albeit rather long) days. I now have new collaborators with whom I’m eager to work in the future. I expect this week to pay dividends for a long time.”
Women in Topology Workshop hosted at BIRS, Canada, 2013.
The WIT Network grew out of this first workshop. A second RCCW, WIT2, was held at BIRS in 2016, again organized by the WIT1 team, with proceedings published as a special issue of Topology and its Applications
One sign of success for WIT is that the number of women in the field has grown to the point that instead of organizers having to recruit to find enough leaders and participants, they now have a limited number of spots available, and the Network has explored other models for meaningful research events to involve more participants.
Publication
Publishing a proceedings volume after each workshop sets a concrete goal and deadline to motivate research groups to continue working after an RCCW and to complete at least one paper based on their collaboration.
The AWM-Springer Series was launched in 2014 by founding editor Kristin Lauter, to create a home for the proceedings volumes of research articles produced by RCCWs. A list of the 34 volumes published to date is available on the series webpage. RCCWs have also published proceedings as special issues of journals and in other conference proceedings series. These volumes provide a record of the excellent research done by the groups, demonstrating the serious nature of the workshops.
Many women organizers, editors, and reviewers gain valuable experience in the publication process through their work to produce these volumes. Editing the volume and reviewing the papers becomes a community-building experience that invites participants to join the publication process at an earlier career stage than is typical. The published volume of research papers highlights the work done by women in the area and provides evidence to argue for the importance of funding subsequent conferences for women, which in turn supports further development and organization of the Research Networks. Often the editors invite contributions from women researchers who were not at the conference, so the volumes also serve to highlight work by women in the research area more broadly.
Some Research Networks prefer to publish their results in topic-focused journals rather than in conference proceedings, while others prefer the relatively short turnaround time for proceedings volumes to ensure that papers appear in time for job searches. Regardless of the format chosen, the very process of publishing benefits the participants in other significant ways. Early-career participants gain experience in the process of publishing and advertising research results. At early-career stages, such opportunities for professional development can help women to persist in the research mathematics profession. In addition, group leaders often write recommendation letters for graduate student or postdoctoral group members based on their contributions to the proceedings paper. In cases where collaborations develop into longer-term research programs, publishing a proceedings paper on preliminary results guarantees that everyone in the group is credited for their contributions before subsets form spin-off collaborations to develop further results.
A selection of the AWM-Springer Series volumes.
Continuing Efforts
As the Research Networks continue over time, they must also evolve. As the number of women in any particular field has increased, some Networks have found they now have grown to the point that the limited number of spots in RCCWs are competitive. Because the Networks are seeded with established research groups, they can fall victim to the very elitism that the program is trying to combat. As a result, some of the Networks are perceived as being open only to the top tier. Networks have started exploring other models for meaningful research events to involve more participants, and ways to cast a wider net for applicants. In order to expand access beyond a previously limited applicant pool, some Research Networks have broadened their recruiting efforts to include asking faculty advisors to recommend their graduate students.
Related programs have been modeled on the Research Networks, such as the 2022 Roots of Unity program at IMA for students in the first three years of their graduate programs, which focused on supporting women of color. This program uses a similar collaboration model but with participants reading key research papers instead of working on research problems. Many of the organizers, Christine Berkesch, Michelle Manes, Priyam Patel, Candice Price, Adriana Salerno, and Bianca Viray, are active members of Research Networks. A second workshop was held in summer 2024 at ICERM.
Other programs seek to support ongoing research after an RCCW. BIRS and AWM launched a follow-up program, where small groups who have participated in an RCCW are funded to attend BIRS for up to two weeks of continued research collaboration. Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath) deputy director Hélène Barcelo launched the Summer Research in Mathematics program for women, SRiM, to build on the successes of the Research Networks program: for the last 5+ years, SLMath has funded follow-up collaboration meetings for groups of 4–6 researchers to continue research on a project started at one of the RCCWs.
In 2021, AWM launched its flagship research journal, La Matematica, which publishes work in a broad range of mathematical areas and is dedicated to unbiased and constructive review practices. The founding editors-in-chief, Donatella Danielli, Kathryn Leonard, Michelle Manes, and Ami Radunskaya, all played organizational roles in their respective Research Networks. La Matematica’s editorial board is more than 75% women, compared to an average of 9% across math journals
AWM continues to support new Research Networks, with 2024 seeing the launch of the 27th Network, Computability and Complexity by Gender Minorities (CoCoGEMS). All Research Networks seek to carry out the AWM's mission to promote equitable opportunity and gender-inclusivity across the mathematical sciences. To find out more about how to get involved with any of the existing Networks, or to launch your own, visit the AWM website.
Assessment
The Research Network program has been a tremendous success. The NSF ADVANCE grant funded an assessment team led by Erin Leahey, PhD, who surveyed RCCW and AWM workshop participants, and performed a final impact survey to determine longer-range effects of the program. These survey results covered participants of 46 RCCWs, three Research Symposia, and 15 special sessions linked to AWM workshops at large meetings.
Participants were surveyed after events, and response rates for all surveys exceeded 80% and were often above 90%. These responses were uniformly positive, with more than 90% of respondents agreeing with the following statements about RCCWs:
- •
The group collaboration functioned well.
- •
The project was exciting to work on.
- •
The project has promise.
- •
I expect to continue with my collaboration group.
- •
I made connections outside of my collaboration group.
- •
The workshops met or exceeded my expectations.
- •
I would recommend the conference to a friend.
- •
I would attend the conference again, either as a member or project leader.
Responses to the special session survey were also quite positive, with more than 90% of participants agreeing with the following statements:
- •
I feel more confident working on a team.
- •
I feel more confident doing research in the mathematical sciences.
- •
I feel more confident about my professional opportunities.
- •
I feel more confident about my networking opportunities.
While most of this article focuses on the academic community, these workshops also affect industry, as the following comment shows:
“My PhD was in pure algebraic geometry and I began a career in data science right after I finished graduate school. Exiting through the academic turnstile, I found making this switch to be disorienting and even a bit demoralizing. […] Even though I was no longer practicing algebraic geometry, my desire to work at an edge of human understanding didn’t vanish when I accepted a job at a tech company. In this age of gratuitous information exchange, I had most of what I needed for research at my fingertips except for the most essential piece—a research community! This workshop was exactly the bridge that I needed; it was the missing piece!! My engagement with the WiSDM group has added more focus and fervor to my data science work.” —Women in the Science of Data and Mathematics (WiSDM), July 2017
At the end of the ADVANCE grant, Leahey and her team conducted a final impact study, sending surveys to all participants in RCCWs during the funded period. Responses to the final impact survey were also strongly positive. Almost all respondents thought that participation in their Research Network had helped them professionally by improving the quantity and quality of their research (73%), raising visibility (75%), or increasing their access to opportunities ranging from speaking invitations to job opportunities. More than 90% of respondents agreed that participation in a Research Network helped grow their professional network. Moreover, comments in response to an open-ended question show the effect on the mathematical community:
- •
I have seen many more conferences with a balanced number of women speakers.
- •
[My area] has seen a tremendous growth in women researchers.
- •
The number of keynotes delivered by women is notably higher than 6 years back.
- •
There are a lot of powerful women in [my area] because of [the Research Network].
- •
I have noticed a lot more [younger] women pop up in my field largely through work they do with more established women who then promote their younger collaborators.
- •
[In my area] there are far more papers published and more talks given by female speakers.
- •
There are still conferences with all-male speakers or program committees, but now the [Research Network] steering committee can point this out and direct organizers to the network for women speakers.
Testimonials
Research Networks are, at their core, grassroots organizations, formed and sustained by those working within a research area, who are willing and able to invest time and resources in their research community. Perhaps the most profound measure of the success of the Networks is the passionate way in which individual participants, with near uniformity, report the impact that participation in Research Networks has had on their own careers. Many of these testimonies come from researchers who participated at sensitive stages of their career and were emboldened by their experience.
WIN group engaged in discussion, BIRS, Canada, 2017.
- •
“Amazing experience! Most of my time was with my group, and we progressed much more than we expected to. We have plans to continue the research and have discussed further projects as well. We really enjoyed each other, and I feel like I have new collaborators and mentors as I begin an Assistant Professorship—the timing couldn’t be better.” —Women in Math Biology (WIMB), June 2019
- •
“I really enjoyed this collaboration. My group worked well together and I am excited for this collaboration to continue. I am a new tenure track faculty member at an institution with a small math department. It is especially important for me to find outside collaboration networks to help with publications for tenure and this workshop helped me to do so.” —Women in Graph Theory & Applications (WIGA), 2019
- •
“This workshop gave me an amazing opportunity, which previously (especially as a grad student) felt like an impossible dream. Being able to work with leaders in the field was incredibly uplifting and motivating. Furthermore, the programming, the schedule and atmosphere were one of a kind and reminded me of why and how much I enjoy mathematics.” —Women in Symplectic and Contact Geometry and Topology (WiSCon), July 2019
- •
“I made a lot of new connections with researchers that I expect to continue in the future, besides just future collaborations. One of my group members has told me that she would like me to come speak at her university sometime.” —Women in Operator Algebras (WOA), November 2018
- •
“I am a graduate student, and this was the first workshop or conference that I felt was completely worth the time—I learned so much, made so many connections, and am excited to continue work on our project.” —Women in Shape Modeling (WiSh), June 2021
Figure 7 . A timeline of the existing Research Networks.
- •
“WIN had a profound impact on my career. Before attending the first WIN workshop I was contemplating leaving the profession. I had started a great tenure-track job at Oregon State University two years earlier, but found that making the transition from graduate student to postdoc to tenure-track assistant professor was throwing me for a loop…
Attending WIN and connecting with Kristin was a transformative experience for me. The research network forged at WIN gave me the confidence to make research a crucial and nurtured part of my university experience. I often confess that I believe WIN saved my career. My WIN mentor, Dr. Ling Long, became a long-term collaborator, mentor, and friend. I worked with her on projects at WIN2 and WIN3 as well and we have coauthored seven papers. My work with WIN continued with remotely co-leading a project at WIN4 weeks after the birth of my child, and leading a (virtual) project at WIN5 that we just submitted. WIN has been a huge part of my research life and my growth as a researcher.” —Holly Swisher, professor, Oregon State University (WIN)
Many participants in Research Networks say that the benefits of belonging to a Research Network are not limited to advancing one’s career goals, and that the workshops are personally gratifying in immeasurable ways. Some of these intangible benefits include providing community, personal growth, improved self-confidence, and resilience. Perhaps for this reason, many researchers return to participate in workshops in their Networks again and again and are now able to report on their extensive experience.
- •
“I’ve participated in each of the first three editions of Women in Topology, and one of the unexpected rewards has been that it’s given me a way to measure my growth as a mathematician. For instance, during the presentations of research projects at the most recent workshop, I was suddenly struck by the realization that I had a grasp of the context for all of them: that is, I understand why one might want to pursue each of these questions. In contrast, chatting with some of my junior team members showed that many of these research directions were new to them, just as they had been for me during the first workshop in 2013. All of a sudden, I felt that I was en route to becoming a senior member of the topology community. It was an affirming and strengthening realization.” —Anna Marie Bohmann, assistant professor, Vanderbilt University (WIT) [now associate professor]
- •
“I am very grateful to have been involved for the past several years with three of the AWM research networks as either a workshop participant (WiSh 1, WinCompTop 1) or a co-organizer (WiSDM 1 & 2, WinCompTop 2). In particular, thanks to the WiSh and WinCompTop workshops, I have continued to publish multiple papers with my team members as well as established new and lasting collaborations with others in the network. These research networks have been transformative for my career as they propelled me forward into new and diverse subfields of mathematics and computer science and enabled me to make exciting and meaningful connections with researchers at all levels.” —Ellen Gasparovic, associate professor, Union College (Schenectady, NY, USA)
- •
“Together with Ayelet Lindenstrauss I was a team leader in three of the “Women in Topology” workshops and this had a huge influence on my career. Of course the closest bond is with the team members and with Ayelet. We had a follow up to the first WIT-meeting where we applied successfully for an AIM SQuaRE project. In total I share seven publications with Ayelet by now. I was deeply impressed with the mathematical abilities of some of the group members. But more generally I am more aware of the women whom I met in the WIT-programs. We meet each other now and then and I know what they work on. So I will for instance think of them when I’m asked to suggest speakers for seminars or conferences.” —Birgit Richter, Hamburg University (WIT)
- •
“I am happy that the WIG II workshop gave me the opportunity to meet researchers from the Americas, specially from my home country, Mexico. Over the week of the workshop, I was able to participate actively in a research project which involves both new and known topics of my own research. This interaction with colleagues whose research areas partially overlap mine has broadened my view on the connections between different areas of mathematics. I am glad to say that after a week of work at the CMO our team obtained its first results, and we have now created a plan to consolidate this effort in a paper and in future collaborations.” —Ingrid Membrillo Solis, University of Southampton (WIG2)
- •
“The first time I heard about WIN-E I was skeptical “a conference only for women?”, but I gave it a try, and I just loved it. I had never felt myself that comfortable in a math conference and I had not realized before how much pressure I was feeling while attending regular conferences. I met incredible collaborators, colleagues, mentors, women. At that time I was going through a difficult moment finishing my thesis, and thanks to them and their support I found the motivation and the energy to pursue a career in academia. When I was given the opportunity to organize WIN-E3 I could just say “yes!”. I was very happy about being able to give back to other women what I had received from this amazing community. Thanks to all of you, together we can make it!” —Elisa Lorenzo García, WIN-E1, WIN-E2 participant, WIN-E3 organizer, group coleader
References
[ 1] - Women in science, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2019, https://uis.unesco.org/en/topic/women-science.,
Show rawAMSref
\bib{unesco}{misc}{ title={Women in science}, institution={UNESCO Institute for Statistics}, date={2019}, url={https://uis.unesco.org/en/topic/women-science}, } [ 2] - Gender gap in science—a global approach to the gender gap in mathematical, computing, and natural sciences: How to measure it, how to reduce it?, 2020.,
Show rawAMSref
\bib{WiS20}{misc}{ title={Gender gap in science---a global approach to the gender gap in mathematical, computing, and natural sciences: How to measure it, how to reduce it?}, how={\url {https://gender-gap-in-science.org/}}, date={2020}, } [ 3] - The Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Annual Survey, American Mathematical Society, 2018, https://www.ams.org/learning-careers/data/annual-survey/deptprofile.,
Show rawAMSref
\bib{AMS}{techreport}{ title={The Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Annual Survey}, institution={American Mathematical Society}, date={2018}, url={https://www.ams.org/learning-careers/data/annual-survey/deptprofile}, } [ 4] - Personal correspondence, Michelle Snider, 2024.,
Show rawAMSref
\bib{MS}{misc}{ title={Personal correspondence, Michelle Snider}, date={2024}, } [ 5] - Maria Basterra, Kristine Bauer, Kathryn Hess, and Brenda Johnson (eds.), Women in topology: collaborations in homotopy theory, Contemporary Mathematics, vol. 641, American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 2015, https://doi.org/10.1090/conm/641. MR3380547,
Show rawAMSref
\bib{WIT1}{proceedings}{ editor={Basterra, Maria}, editor={Bauer, Kristine}, editor={Hess, Kathryn}, editor={Johnson, Brenda}, title={Women in topology: collaborations in homotopy theory}, series={Contemporary Mathematics}, publisher={American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI}, date={2015}, volume={641}, isbn={978-1-4704-1013-1}, url={https://doi.org/10.1090/conm/641}, review={\MR {3380547}}, } [ 6] - Maria Basterra, Kristine Bauer, Kathryn Hess, and Brenda Johnson, Virtual special issue—Women in topology II: Further collaborations in homotopy theory, Topology Appl. 235 (2018). MR3760185,
Show rawAMSref
\bib{WIT2}{article}{ author={Basterra, Maria}, author={Bauer, Kristine}, author={Hess, Kathryn}, author={Johnson, Brenda}, title={Virtual special issue---{W}omen in topology {II}: {F}urther collaborations in homotopy theory}, date={2018}, issn={0166-8641}, journal={Topology Appl.}, volume={235}, url={https://doi.org/10.1016/j.topol.2017.12.003}, review={\MR {3760185}}, } [ 7] - Kristine Bauer, Erin Wolf Chambers, Brenda Johnson, Kristin E. Lauter, and Kathryn Leonard, Research networks for women, EMS Magazine 126 (2022), 41–50.,
Show rawAMSref
\bib{EMS}{article}{ author={Bauer, Kristine}, author={Chambers, Erin~Wolf}, author={Johnson, Brenda}, author={Lauter, Kristin~E.}, author={Leonard, Kathryn}, title={Research networks for women}, date={2022}, journal={EMS Magazine}, volume={126}, pages={41--50}, url={https://euromathsoc.org/magazine/articles/92}, } [ 8] - Alessandra Celletti and Stanislawa Kanas, Underrepresentation of women in editorial boards of scientific and EMS journals, EMS Newsletter 126 (2020), 60–62.,
Show rawAMSref
\bib{CK}{article}{ author={Celletti, Alessandra}, author={Kanas, Stanislawa}, title={Underrepresentation of women in editorial boards of scientific and EMS journals}, date={2020}, issn={1027-488X}, journal={EMS Newsletter}, volume={126}, pages={60--62}, url={https://ems.press/content/serial-issue-files/12537#page=62}, } [ 9] - Alina-Carmen Cojocaru, Kristin E. Lauter, Rachel Pries, and Renate Scheidler (eds.), WIN—women in numbers: research directions in number theory, Fields Institute Communications, vol. 60, American Mathematical Society, 2011, https://bookstore.ams.org/fic-60/.,
Show rawAMSref
\bib{WIN1}{book}{ editor={Cojocaru, Alina{-}Carmen}, editor={Lauter, Kristin~E.}, editor={Pries, Rachel}, editor={Scheidler, Renate}, title={{WIN}---women in numbers: research directions in number theory}, series={Fields Institute Communications}, publisher={American Mathematical Society}, date={2011}, volume={60}, isbn={978-0-8218-5226-2}, url={https://bookstore.ams.org/fic-60/}, } [ 10] - Tatyana Deryugina, Olga Shurchkov, and Jenna E. Stearns, Covid-19 disruptions disproportionately affect female academics, Technical Report 28360, Working Paper Series, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2021, http://www.nber.org/papers/w28360.,
Show rawAMSref
\bib{covid21}{techreport}{ author={Deryugina, Tatyana}, author={Shurchkov, Olga}, author={Stearns, Jenna~E.}, title={Covid-19 disruptions disproportionately affect female academics}, type={Working Paper}, series={Working Paper Series}, institution={National Bureau of Economic Research}, date={2021}, number={28360}, url={http://www.nber.org/papers/w28360}, } [ 11] - LERU, Implicit bias in academia: A challenge to the meritocratic principle and to women’s careers - and what to do about it, League of European Universities 23 (2018).,
Show rawAMSref
\bib{implicitbias}{article}{ author={LERU}, title={Implicit bias in academia: A challenge to the meritocratic principle and to women's careers - and what to do about it}, date={2018}, journal={League of European Universities}, volume={23}, url={https://www.leru.org/publications/implicit-bias-in-academia-a-challenge-to-the-meritocratic-principle-and-to-womens-careers-and-what-to-do-about-it}, } [ 12] - Meijun Liu, Ning Zhang, Xiao Hu, Ajay Jaiswal, Jian Xu, Hong Chen, Ying Ding, and Yi Bu, Further divided gender gaps in research productivity and collaboration during the Covid-19 pandemic: Evidence from coronavirus-related literature, Journal of Informetrics 16 (2022), no. 2, 101295.,
Show rawAMSref
\bib{covid22}{article}{ author={Liu, Meijun}, author={Zhang, Ning}, author={Hu, Xiao}, author={Jaiswal, Ajay}, author={Xu, Jian}, author={Chen, Hong}, author={Ding, Ying}, author={Bu, Yi}, title={Further divided gender gaps in research productivity and collaboration during the Covid-19 pandemic: Evidence from coronavirus-related literature}, date={2022}, issn={1751-1577}, journal={Journal of Informetrics}, volume={16}, number={2}, pages={101295}, url={https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751157722000475}, } [ 13] - Sarah Reznicoff and Maria Grazia Viola, Women in Operator Algebras II Final Report, BIRS, Banff, AB Canada, 2021, https://www.birs.ca/workshops/2021/21w5199/report21w5199.pdf.,
Show rawAMSref
\bib{WiOAII}{techreport}{ author={Reznicoff, Sarah}, author={Viola, Maria~Grazia}, title={Women in {Operator} {Algebras} {II} {Final} {Report}}, institution={BIRS}, address={Banff, AB Canada}, date={2021}, url={https://www.birs.ca/workshops/2021/21w5199/report21w5199.pdf}, } [ 14] - Chad M. Topaz and Shilad Sen, Gender representation on journal editorial boards in the mathematical sciences, PLOS ONE 11 (2016Aug), no. 8, e0161357.,
Show rawAMSref
\bib{qsideeditorstudy}{article}{ author={Topaz, Chad~M.}, author={Sen, Shilad}, title={Gender representation on journal editorial boards in the mathematical sciences}, date={2016Aug}, issn={1932-6203}, journal={PLOS ONE}, volume={11}, number={8}, pages={e0161357}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161357}, }
Kristine Bauer is a professor of mathematics at the University of Calgary. Her email address is bauerk@ucalgary.ca.
Erin Chambers is a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Notre Dame. Her email address is echambe2@nd.edu.
Brenda Johnson is a professor of mathematics at Union College. Her email address is johnsonb@union.edu.
Kristin Lauter is senior director of FAIR Labs North America, Meta. Her email address is klauter@meta.com.
Kathryn Leonard is a professor of computer science at Occidental College. Her email address is kathryn@awm-math.org.
Michelle Snider is a senior data analyst at Service Robotics and Technologies and an adjunct research staff member at the IDA/Center For Computing Sciences. Her email address is michelle@srtlabs.com.
Article DOI: 10.1090/noti3143
Credits
Figure 1 is courtesy of Erin Chambers.
Figures 2, 3, and 5–7 are courtesy of the authors.
Figure 4: copyright Banff International Research Station, 2013.
Photo of Kristine Bauer is courtesy of Jodi Oosterlee.
Photo of Erin Chambers is courtesy of Erin Chambers.
Photo of Brenda Johnson is courtesy of Paul Buckowski.
Photo of Kristin Lauter is courtesy of Kristin Lauter.
Photo of Kathryn Leonard is courtesy of Kathryn Leonard.
Photo of Michelle Snider is courtesy of Michelle Snider.