Quoted: Nationwide, roughly 30 percent of PhDâ??s in mathematical sciences are awarded to women compared with 5 percent in the 1950â??s, according to Janet Mertz, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and co-author of the June study “Gender, Culture, and Mathematics Performance.”But while that may sound like a success, todayâ??s figure isnâ??t a lot higher than the period between 1890 and World War II, when 15 to 20 percent of top math degrees went to women, Mertz said. After the war women were told to give up their “Rosie the Riveter” jobs doing “menâ??s workâ??”to returning veterans ,and the volume of women continuing in these jobs and pursuing degrees in math plummeted.
Office of Strategic Communication