Ami Radunskaya, professor of mathematics at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., and president of the Association for Women in Mathematics, compares the gender ratio along the trajectory from math student to high-level mathematician to a “Pacman pie chart,” with the percentage of women diminishing as the level of difficulty and prestige rises. “[The percentage of women] cuts up in half, and half, and you look at who wins the big math prizes: it’s like zero [women]. The pie chart that completely closes up,” she says. “If you see women winning prizes at these contests, or being applauded as one of the top researchers, that might give you encouragement that you could [do] that as well.”
For aspiring young mathematicians, competitions can provide key visibility and lead to scholarships and other opportunities, Dr. Radunskaya and other observers say.
Thus, to narrow the STEM gap later in life, it’s important that girls engage in math contests early on, says Richard Rusczyk, co-author of “The Art of Problem Solving” textbook series.
“If you have an event that’s dominated by men or one ethnic group, they experience the culture earlier, they learn to navigate it sooner, they learn its mores and ways, and what obliquely stated things actually mean,” Mr. Rusczyk says. But, he adds, getting more girls involved in the world of competitive mathematics at a young age wouldn't just benefit women in STEM. “If [women] can experience this culture earlier ... they might also be able to improve it” by offering a new perspective, he suggests. “If you can bring in an outside group who comes at the problem from a different angle or help develop a group along different lines, that's really powerful.” Whether all-girls competitions are the best avenue for narrowing the STEM gap is up for debate in the math world. Events such as the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad, an international competition founded in 2012, have been criticized by some women mathematicians for promoting negative stereotypes about women in the field. Such a contest “only helps stigmatise all girls as being less talented and capable in mathematics,” argued Jana Madjarova, president of the Swedish Mathematical Contest, in an interview with The Guardian, a London-based newspaper. A better way to increase the number of women in the field, Dr. Madjarova suggested, is through sponsoring and publicizing unisex competitions.
An important tool
Megan, the first-prize winner at this year's Math Prize for Girls competition, says she understands the arguments against all-female contests, but sees them as an important tool for bringing more girls into mainstream unisex competitions, where some might feel discouraged by a lack of peers. “If you have a competition bringing 300 girls into practically the same room, then they automatically see that, 'Hey, these are a group of girls who I could hang out with,’ and that will motivate them to join the regular math competitions,” she says. “So I think that they're definitely necessary, and hopefully after girls become a bigger part of the mainstream competitions, then we won't need all-girls competitions anymore.” The social aspect of the competition was a big part of why Sara Rubin chose to participate in the first Math Prize for Girls contest as a high school senior in 2009. This year, Ms. Rubin, now a graduate student in the Health Sciences & Technology track of the MD-PhD program at MIT and Harvard University, was one of a handful of alumni who returned to offer wisdom and a helping hand.
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