Abstract
This chapter will examine how key themes and questions from feminist theory can inform and enhance a deeper understanding of mathematics and its practices. A critical examination of ideas sourced in Women and Gender Studies reveals sites of connection between the human history of mathematical thinking and well-known frameworks from feminist theory created to provide structures for analyzing complicated social issues. How can these interdisciplinary intersections be explored and understood? Can they help provide the support needed to codify initiatives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM disciplines, in general, and mathematics, in particular?
The opening section serves to provide background and context for this line of inquiry, especially as linked to continuing efforts by educational institutions to pose and address questions of inclusion within the discipline of mathematics, specifically, and STEM, more broadly. Subsequent portions of the chapter will identify, survey, and discuss specific connections between feminist theory and the study of mathematics. These explorations suggest ways to consider the climate in which mathematics is done and its relation to identity, authority, power, and the body in society.
Themes considered include, but are not limited to, the implications and ramifications of gender essentialism, the influence of science and technology studies, how power moves through academic structures, how gender influences the identification and prioritization of “truths,” and representation and performance as modes for analyzing history and practice.
References
Acker J (2006) Inequality regimes: gender, class, and race in organizations. Gend Soc 20(4):441–464
Alker S, Davidson R (2012) Smart girls: the uncanny daughters of arcadia and proof. In: Sklar JK, Sklar E (eds) Mathematics in popular culture: essays on appearances in film, fiction, games, television and other media, McFarland and company, Jefferson, pp 172–186
American Association of University Women (AAUW) (2010) Why so few? Women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. https://www.aauw.org/research/why-so-few/. Accessed 25 Aug 2019
American Association of University Women (AAUW) (2015) Solving the equation: the variables for women’s success in engineering and computing. https://www.aauw.org/research/solving-the-equation/. Accessed 25 Aug 2019
Aronowitz S (1988) Science as power: discourse and ideology in modern society. University of Minnesota Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctttv7tb. Accessed 1 Aug 2019
Artiles A, Kozleski EB, Dorn S, Christensen C (2006) Learning in inclusive education research: re-mediating theory and methods with a transformative agenda. Rev Res Educ 30:65–108. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X030001065. Accessed 1 Aug 2019
Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) (2019). https://awm-math.org/about/history/. Accessed 25 Aug 2019
Bannier B (2017) Women learning mathematics: a qualitative study. J Adv Educ Res 2(1):19–26
Bart M (ed) (2016) Diversity and inclusion in the college classroom. Faculty Focus. Magna Publications, Madison, Wisconsin. http://www.facultyfocus.com/free-reports/diversity-and-inclusion-in-the-college-classroom/. Accessed 5 Aug 2019
Belenky MF, Clinchy BM, Goldberger NR, Tarule JM (1986) Women’s ways of knowing: the development of self, voice, and mind. Basic Books, New York
Bell LA (2010) Storytelling for social justice: connecting narrative and the arts in antiracist teaching. Routledge/Taylor & Francis, New York
Blackburn H (2017) The status of women in stem in higher education: a review of the literature 2007–2017. Sci Technol Libr 36(3):235–273. Routledge
Boaler J (2008) Promoting ‘relational equity’ and high mathematics achievement through an innovative mixed ability approach. Br Educ Res J 34(2):167–194
Boaler J (2018) Changing mathematical relationships and mindsets: how all students can succeed in mathematics learning. Presentation: Project NExT Lecture on Teaching and Learning, Joint Meetings of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America, January 2018
Boaler J, Staples M (2008) Creating mathematical futures through an equitable teaching approach: the case of Railside school. Teach Coll Rec 110(3):608–645
Borrego M, Henderson C (2014) Increasing the use of evidence-based teaching in STEM higher education: a comparison of eight change strategies. J Eng Educ 103(2):220–252
Braidotti R (2002) Metamorphoses: towards a materialist theory of becoming. Polity Press, London
Butler J (1988) Performative acts and gender constitution: an essay in phenomenology and feminist theory. Theatr J 40:519–531
Claro S, Dweck CS, Paunesku D (2016) Growth mindset tempers the effects of poverty on academic achievement. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 113(31):8664–8668
Clauset A, Arbesman S, Larremore D (2015) Systematic inequality and hierarchy in faculty hiring networks. Sci Adv 1(1):1–6
Cornwall J, Graham-Matheson (eds) (2012) Leading on inclusion: Dilemmas, debates and new perspectives. Routledge/Taylor and Francis, New York
DaCosta C (2017) Feministing films: hidden figures. http://feministing.com/2017/01/30/feministing-films-hidden-figures/. Accessed 1 Aug 2019
Damarin S (2008) Toward thinking feminism and mathematics together. Signs J Women Cult Soc 34(1):101–123
Dasgupta N, Stout J (2014) Girls and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics: STEMing the tide and broadening participation in STEM careers. Policy Insights Behav Brain Sci 1(1):21–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732214549471. Accessed 25 Aug 2019
Derr H (2016) Feminist theatre: what does it do and how does it do it?, Hollywood Theatre Commons, September 14, 2016
Devlin K (2019). https://www.mathvalues.org/masterblog/2019/1/26/what-is-mathematical-creativity-how-do-we-develop-it-and-should-we-try-to-measure-it-part-2. Accessed 5 Aug 2019
Dweck CS (2012) Mindsets and human nature: promoting change in the Middle East, the schoolyard, the racial divide, and willpower. Am Psychol 67:614–622
Dzubinski LM, Diehl A (2018) The problem of gender essentialism and its implications for women in leadership. J Leadersh Stud 12(1):56–61
Eagly AH, Wood W (2011) Feminism and the evolution of sex differences and similarities. Sex Roles 64L:758–767
Elrod S, Kezar A (2016) Increasing student success in STEM: a guide to systematic institutional change. American Association of Colleges and Universities, Washington, DC
Feder M (2012). https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/12/18/one-decade-one-million-more-stem-graduates. Accessed 3 Aug 2019
Fennema E, Carpenter TP, Jacobs VR, Franke ML, Levi LW (1998) A longitudinal study of gender differences in young children’s mathematical thinking. Educ Res 27(5):6–11. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X027005006. Accessed 1 Aug 2019
Figueiras L, Healy L, Skovsmose O (2016) Difference, inclusion and mathematics education: launching a research agenda. https://doi.org/10.17921/2176-5634.2016v9n3p15-35. Accessed 5 Aug 2019
Flaherty, C (2017) Hidden figures: women’s studies meets mathematics in a new book arguing for a more inclusive cultural notion of numeracy, Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/01/womens-studies-meets-math-new-book-arguing-more-inclusive-cultural-approach-numeracy#.XTynb-HkVVQ.link. Accessed 1 Aug 2019
Fouad NA, Chang WH, Wan M, Singh R (2017) Women’s reasons for leaving the engineering field. Front Psychol 8(875). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00875
Fox Keller E (1992) Secrets of life secrets of death: essays on language, gender and science. Routledge, New York
Fox Keller E, Longino H (eds) (1996) Feminism and science. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York
Foyn T, Solomon Y, Braathe HJ (2018) Clever girls’ stories: the girl they call a nerd. Educ Stud Math 98(1):77–93
Gilbert S, Rader K (2001) Revisiting women, gender, and feminism in developmental biology. In: Creager A, Lunbeck E, Schiebinger L (eds) Feminism in twentieth-century science, technology and medicine. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 73–97
Greenwald SJ, Leggett AM, Thomley JE (2015) The association for women in mathematics: how and why it was founded, and why it’s still needed in the 21st century. Math Intell 37(3):11–21
Gupta N (2015) Rethinking the relationship between gender and technology: a study of the Indian example. Work Employ Soc 29(4):661–672
Gutiérrez R (2002) Enabling the practice of mathematics teachers in context: towards a new equity research agenda. Math Think Learn 4(2&3):145–187
Gutiérrez R (2017) Why mathematics (education) was late to the backlash party: the need for a revolution. J Urban Math Educ 10(2):8–24
Gutiérrez R (2019) Presentation: What’s at stake in rehumanizing mathematics? MAA James R. C. Leitzel lecture, Mathematical Association of America MathFest, Aug 2019
Hall W, Schmader T, Aday A, Inness M, Croft E (2018) Climate control: the relationship between social identity threat and cues to an identity-safe culture. J Pers Soc Psychol 115(3):446–467
Hannum K, Muhly S, Shockley-Zalabak P, White J (2014) Stories from the summit trail: leadership journeys of senior women in higher education. Higher Education Resource Services (HERS), Denver. http://hersnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/StoriesfromtheSummitTrail.pdf. Accessed 4 Aug 2019
Haraway D (1978a) Animal sociology and a natural economy of the body politic, part 1: a political physiology of dominance. Signs 4:21–36
Haraway D (1978b) Animal sociology and a natural economy of the body politic, part II: the past is the contested zone: human nature and theories of production and reproduction in primate behavior studies. Signs 4:37–60
Haraway D (1988) Situated knowledges: the science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Fem Stud 14:575–599
Heinrich A, Lawrence E, Pons M, Taylor D (eds) (2019) Living proof: stories of resilience along the mathematical journey. AMS/MAA: https://www.maa.org/press/ebooks/living-proof-stories-of-resilience-along-the-mathematical-journey-2. Accessed 7 Aug 2019
Hersh R (1991) Mathematics has a front and a back. Synthese 88:127. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00567741. Accessed 3 Aug 2019
Hersh R (2013) What do we do when we do mathematics? American Mathematical Society, Providence
Hill Collins P (1986) Learning from the outsider within: the sociological significance of black feminist thought. Soc Probl 33(6):14–32
Hill Collins P, Bilge S (2016) Intersectionality. Polity Press, Cambridge, UK
Hottinger SN (2016) Inventing the mathematician: gender, race and our cultural understanding of mathematics. State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
Hu J (2016) Why are there so few women mathematicians? The Atlantic, November 4, 2016
Hyde JS, Mertz JE (2009) Gender, culture, and mathematics performance. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106(22):8801–8807. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0901265106. Accessed 3 Aug 2019
Jacobs JE (2010) Feminist pedagogy and mathematics. In: Sriraman B, English L (eds) Theories of mathematics education. Advances in mathematics education. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg
Jimenez M, Laverty T, Bombaci S, Wilkins K, Bennet D, Pejchar L (2019) Underrepresented faculty play a disproportionate role in advancing diversity and inclusion. Nat Ecol Evol 3:1030–1033
Jones K, Ante A, Longman K, Remke R (eds) (2018) Perspectives on women’s higher education leadership from around the world, MDPI, Basel, Switzerland
Kelkar S (2019) Post-truth and the search for objectivity: Political polarization and the remaking of knowledge production. Engaging Sci Tech Soc 5:86–106
Klarreich, E (2019) Karen Uhlenbeck, uniter of geometry and analysis, wins abel prize. Quanta. https://www.quantamagazine.org/karen-uhlenbeck-uniter-of-geometry-and-analysis-wins-abel-prize-20190319/. Accessed 4 Aug 2019
Laursen SL, Rasmussen C (2019) I on the prize: inquiry approaches in undergraduate mathematics. Int J Res Undergrad Math Educ. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40753-019-00085-6. Accessed 4 Aug 2019
Leyva LA (2016) An intersectional analysis of Latin@ college women’s counter-stories in mathematics. J Urban Math Educ 9(2):81–121
Leyva LA (2017) Unpacking the male superiority myth and masculinization of mathematics at the intersections: a review of research on gender in mathematics education. J Res Math Educ 48(4):397–452
Loury L, Garman D (1993) Affirmative action in higher education. Am Econ Rev 83(2):99–103. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2117647. Accessed 3 Aug 2019
Luttenberger S, Wimmer S, Paechter M (2018) Spotlight on math anxiety. Psychol Res Behav Manag 11:311–322
Marino P (2005) Dialogue in mathematics: is it important? Math Sch 34(2):26–28. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30215787. Accessed 5 August 2019
Martin DB (2013) Race, racial projects, and mathematics education. J Res Math Educ 44(1):316–333
Martin DB, Gholson M, Leonard J (2011) Mathematics as gatekeeper: power and privilege in the production of knowledge. J Urban Math Educ 3(2):12–24
National Science Board (2018). https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2018/nsb20181/assets/nsb20181.pdf. Accessed 1 Aug 2019
National Science Foundation (2017). https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/data.cfm. Accessed 1 Aug 2019
National Science Foundation (2019). https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf19304/digest/field-of-degree-women. Accessed 1 Aug 2019
Nosek BA, Smyth FL, Sriram N, Lindner NM, Devos T, Ayala A, Greenwald AG (2009) National differences in gender-science stereotypes predict national sex differences in science and math achievement. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106(26):10593–10597. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0809921106. Accessed 3 Aug 2019
Nye A (1990) Words of power: a feminist Reading of the history of logic. Routledge, London
Ong M, Wright C, Espinosa L, Orfield G (2011) Inside the double bind: a synthesis of empirical research on undergraduate and graduate women of color in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Harv Educ Rev 81(2):172–209
Oppland-Cordell S (2014) Urban Latina/o undergraduate students’ negotiations of identities and participation in an emerging scholars calculus I workshop. J Urban Math Educ 7(1):19–54
Penner A, Willer R (2019) Men’s overpersistence and the gender gap in science and mathematics. Socius Sociol Res Dyn World 5. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2378023118821836. Accessed 25 Aug 2019
Plumwood V (1993) Feminism and the mastery of nature. Routledge, London
Pollack E (2013) Why are there still so few women in science? The New York Times, October 3, 2013. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/magazine/why-are-there-still-so-few-women-in-science.html. Accessed 25 Aug 2019
Reuben E, Sapienza P, Zingales L (2014) How stereotypes impair women's careers in science. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111(12):4403–4408. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1314788111. Accessed 5 Aug 2019
Richardson S (2008) When gender criticism becomes standard scientific practice: the case of sex determination genetics. In: Schiebinger L (ed) Gendered innovations in science and engineering. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, pp 22–42
Richardson S (2010) Feminist philosophy of science: history, contributions, and challenges. Synthese 177(3):337–362
Richardson S, Daniels C, Gillman M, Golden J, Kukla R, Kuzawa C, Rich-Edwards (2014) Society: Don't blame the mothers. Nature 512:131–132. Accessed 25 August 2019
Rincón BE, George-Jackson CE (2016) Examining department climate for women in engineering: the role of STEM interventions. J Coll Stud Dev 57(6):742–747
Rodd M, Bartholomew H (2006) Invisible and special: young women’s experiences as undergraduate mathematics students. Gend Educ 18(1):35–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540250500195093. Accessed 3 Aug 2019
Roos H (2019) Inclusion in mathematics education: an ideology, a way of teaching, or both? Educ Stud Math 100:25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-018-9854-z. Accessed 1 Aug 2019
Rothstein E (1997) The subjective underbelly of hardheaded math. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/20/books/the-subjective-underbelly-of-hardheaded-math.html. Accessed 1 Aug 2019
Saygin PO (2019) Gender bias in standardized tests: evidence from a centralized college admissions system. Empir Econ https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-019-01662-z. Accessed 5 Aug 2019
Schafer C (2006) David Auburn’s proof: taming Cinderella. Am Drama 15(1):1–16
Sismondo S (2010) An introduction to science and technology studies, vol 1. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester
Sklar JK, Sklar ES (2012) Mathematics in popular culture: essays on appearances in film, fiction, games, television and other media. McFarland, Jefferson
Smith, I (2017) Intersectional feminism triumphs in ‘hidden figures,’ Cherwell, March 2017. https://cherwell.org/2017/03/30/intersectional-feminism-triumphs-in-hidden-figures/. Accessed 5 Aug 2019
Steele, C (2010) Whistling Vivaldi: and other clues to how stereotypes affect us. 1st ed. Issues of our time. W.W. Norton, New York
Steiger K (2013) Family-friendly university policies don’t work as well as they should. The Atlantic, May 31, 2013
Straehler-Pohl H, Fernández S, Gellert U, Figueiras L (2014) School mathematics registers in a context of low academic expectations. Educ Stud Math 85. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-013-9503-5. Accessed 5 Aug 2019
Su F (2015) Mathematical microaggressions. President’s message, MAA Focus, October/November, 36–37
Sue DW, Capodilupo C, Torino G, Bucceri JM, Holder A, Nadal KL, Esquilin M (2007) Racial microaggressions in everyday life: implications for clinical practice. Am Psychol 62(4):271
Topaz CM, Sen S (2016) Gender representation on journal editorial boards in the mathematical sciences. PLoS One 11(8). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161357. Accessed 5 Aug 2019
Treisman U (1992) Studying students studying Calculus: a look at the lives of minority mathematics students in college. Coll Math J 23(5):362–372
Tsui L (2007) Effective strategies to increase diversity in STEM fields: a review of the research literature. J Negro Educ 76(4):555–581
Valente KG (2010) Giving wings to logic: Mary Everest Boole’s propagation and fulfilment of a legacy. Br J Hist Sci 43(1):49–74
Wajcman J (2009) Feminist theories of technology. Camb J Econ 34(1):143–115. https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/ben057. Accessed 3 Aug 2019
Walton GM, Logel C, Peach JM, Spencer SJ, Zanna MP (2015) Two brief interventions to mitigate a “chilly climate” transform women’s experience, relationships, and achievement in engineering. J Educ Psychol 107(2):468–485. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037461. Accessed 1 Aug 2019
Yaftian N (2015) The outlook of mathematicians’ creative processes. Procedia Soc Behav Sci 191(2):2519–2525
Yong D, Levy R, Lape NK (2015) Why no difference? A controlled flipped classroom study for an introductory differential equations course. PRIMUS 25(9–10):907–921
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
McGuire, L. (2020). Feminist Theories Informing Mathematical Practice. In: Sriraman, B. (eds) Handbook of the Mathematics of the Arts and Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70658-0_77-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70658-0_77-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70658-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70658-0
eBook Packages: Springer Reference MathematicsReference Module Computer Science and Engineering