Against All Odds

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxi

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2. Institutions

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-8

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   2. Internationality: Women in Felix Klein’s Courses at the University of Göttingen (1893–1920)

      • Renate Tobies

      Pages 9-38

   3. Academic Education for Women at the University of Würzburg, Bavaria

      • Katharina Spieß

      Pages 39-71

   4. Women and Mathematics at the Universities in Prague

      • Martina Bečvářová

      Pages 73-111

3. Couples

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 113-119

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   2. Grace Chisholm Young, William Henry Young, Their Results on the Theory of Sets of Points at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, and a Controversy with Max Dehn

      • Elisabeth Mühlhausen

      Pages 121-132

   3. Emma S. and Wladimir S. Woytinsky: An Unusual Couple in Statistics

      • Annette B. Vogt

      Pages 133-150

   4. Stanisława and Otton Nikodym

      • Danuta Ciesielska

      Pages 151-175

4. Approaches

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 177-183

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   2. Arithmetic and Memorial Practices by and Around Sophie Germain in the 19th Century

      • Jenny Boucard

      Pages 185-230

   3. Dorothy Wrinch, 1894–1976

      • Marjorie Senechal

      Pages 231-248

   4. Living by Numbers: The Strategies and Life Stories of Mid-Twentieth Century Danish Women Mathematicians

      • Lisbeth Fajstrup, Anne Katrine Gjerløff, Tinne Hoff Kjeldsen

      Pages 249-277

5. Perspectives

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 279-279

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   2. Hearsay, Not-So-Big Data and Choice: Understanding Science and Maths Through the Lives of Men Who Supported Women

      • Paola Govoni

      Pages 281-314

6. Back Matter

   Pages 315-319

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This book presents an overview of the ways in which women have been able to conduct mathematical research since the 18th century, despite their general exclusion from the sciences. Grouped into four thematic sections, the authors concentrate on well-known figures like Sophie Germain and Grace Chisholm Young, as well as those who have remained unnoticed by historians so far. Among them are Stanisława Nidodym, the first female students at the universities in Prague at the turn of the 20th century, and the first female professors of mathematics in Denmark. Highlighting individual biographies, couples in science, the situation at specific European universities, and sociological factors influencing specific careers from the 18th century to the present, the authors trace female mathematicians’ status as it evolved from singular and anomalous to virtually commonplace.

The book also offers insights into the various obstacles women faced when trying to enter perhaps the “most male” discipline of all, and how some of them continue to shape young girls’ self-perceptions and career choices today. Thus, it will benefit scholars and students in STEM disciplines, gender studies and the history of science; women in science, mathematics and at institutions, and those working in mathematics education.

• Socio-cultural Issues in STEM
• Felix Klein on Göttingen University
• Beginnings of Women Studying at Universities
• Sophie Germain on the École Polytechnique
• Gender Studies of Female Mathematicians in Present Day
• Gender Studies and the History of Science
• first known female mathematics professor

“The book is a pleasant read and should appeal to a wide audience across disciplines. There are no mathematical prerequisites to full comprehension and as an introductory text the meta discussions contain robust citations to the past century of the historiography of women in science. … I strongly recommend the adoption of this book for individual or classroom use.” (Jeema Lorenat, MAA Reviews, July 4, 2022)

“Against All Odds: Women’s Ways to Mathematical Research Since 1800 offers various historiographic strategies as it ambitiously attends to centering the lives and experiences of women among the vanguard of professional transformations. … the collection is most commendable for incorporating and advocating for ways of examining the past that will likely prove more effective in encouraging students of mathematics to ask and explore questions of historical, as well as contemporary, significance about their chosen discipline.” (K. G. Valente, Metascience, Vol. 30, July 13, 2021)

• Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Mainu, Germany

  Eva Kaufholz-Soldat

• Department of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany

  Nicola M.R. Oswald

Eva Kaufholz-Soldat studied Mathematics and the History of Science at Hamburg University. Having earned her Ph.D. from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz with a dissertation on the reception of the Russian mathematician Sofya Kovalevskaya (1850–1891), she is now both head of the Writing Center for the Natural Sciences and Mathematics and a researcher, focusing on women in mathematics at the turn of the 20th century, at Goethe University, Frankfurt.


Nicola Oswald graduated from the University of Wurzburg with a dissertation in Number Theory. She is currently investigating the history of modern mathematics, in particular with regard to Adolf Hurwitz, at the University of Wuppertal. In 2017/18 she was a Guest Professor for Mathematics and Gender at the University of Hannover.  

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