Fifty Years of Women in Mathematics

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xx

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2. AWM Through the Decades: A Chronology of the First Fifty Years

   • Janet L. Beery, Sarah J. Greenwald, Cathy Kessel

   Pages 1-11

3. How AWM Began

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 13-13

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   2. When I Awoke: Reflections from AWM’s First President

      • Mary Gray

      Pages 15-23

   3. Mathematicians Action Group and the Founding of AWM

      • Chandler Davis

      Pages 25-30

   4. A Caucus Is Born: Women in Mathematics Find a Formula for Solidarity

      • Joanne Darken

      Pages 31-33

4. How It Was, How Should It Be? Inclusion, Diversity, Equal Opportunity

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 35-35

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   2. How It Was

      • Judith Roitman

      Pages 37-40

   3. My AWM Experience: A Lesson on The Relentless Pursuit of Inclusion

      • Elebeoba E. May

      Pages 41-46

   4. Reflection on Diversity from a Former National Science Foundation Program Officer

      • Lloyd Douglas

      Pages 47-48

   5. Mathematicians for Equal Opportunity

      • Alice Silverberg

      Pages 49-53

5. How AWM Grew: Membership, Meetings, and the Newsletter

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 55-55

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   2. How AWM Changed My Life

      • Judy Green

      Pages 57-65

   3. Starting and Early Days of AWM

      • Patricia Clark Kenschaft

      Pages 67-69

   4. A Brief History of the Association for Women in Mathematics: The Presidents’ Perspectives (The First Twenty Years)

      • Lenore Blum

      Pages 71-112

   5. Reflections from AWM’s Fourth President

      • Judith Roitman

      Pages 113-115

   6. This and That: My Times as AWM Newsletter Editor

      • Anne Leggett

      Pages 117-126

   7. Reminiscences: 30 Years as AWM Meetings Coordinator

      • Bettye Anne Busbee Case

      Pages 127-157

6. Organizing AWM Workshops, Panels, Regional Meetings, Research Networks, and Research Symposia

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 159-159

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   2. Trying to Make the Math World a Better Place

      • Sue Geller

      Pages 161-170

The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM), the oldest organization in the world for women in mathematics, had its fiftieth anniversary in 2021. This collection of refereed articles, illustrated by color photographs, reflects on women in mathematics and the organization as a whole. Some articles focus on the situation for women in mathematics at various times and places, including other countries. Others describe how individuals have shaped AWM, and, in turn, how the organization has impacted individuals as well as the broader mathematical community. Some are personal stories about careers in mathematics. Fifty Years of Women in Mathematics: Reminiscences, History, and Visions for the Future of AWM covers a span from AWM’s beginnings through the following fifty years. The volume celebrates AWM and its successes but does not shy away from its challenges.

The book is designed for a general audience. It provides interesting and informative reading for peopleinterested in mathematics, gender equity, or organizational structures; teachers of mathematics; students at the high school, college, and graduate levels; and members of more recently established organizations for women in mathematics and related fields or prospective founders of such organizations.

• Mary Gray
• Alice Schafer
• international meeting
• national meeting
• regional meeting
• research network
• research symposium
• workshop
• panel
• symposium
• mentoring
• outreach
• education
• career
• history of mathematics
• women
• women's history
• organizations for women in mathematics
• Association for Women in Mathematics
• International Mathematical Union Committee on Women
• Mathematicians Action Group

“This is a good book for anyone interested in the AWM, or in the experiences of women in mathematics over the last fifty years.” (Tricia Muldoon Brown, MAA Reviews, October 30, 2022)

• University of Redlands, Redlands, USA

  Janet L. Beery

• Appalachian State University, Boone, USA

  Sarah J. Greenwald

• Berkeley, USA

  Cathy Kessel

​Janet Beery is co-editor of Women in Mathematics: Celebrating the Centennial of the Mathematical Association of America (Springer, 2018) and is serving her second term as AWM Clerk on the AWM Executive Committee. Although trained as a group theorist, she is now a historian of mathematics specializing in early modern European mathematics. She edited Convergence, the MAA’s online journal on the history of mathematics and its use in teaching, from 2009 to 2019. Since earning the PhD in 1989, she has been a professor of mathematics at the University of Redlands, California.

Sarah Greenwald is co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Mathematics and Society (Salem Press, 2011), Women in Mathematics: Celebrating the Centennial of the Mathematical Association of America (Springer, 2018), and a number of special issues of PRIMUS (2004, 2007, and 2019). She has won several awards, most recently an AWM Service Award. She is an author or co-author of a number of articles related to the history of underrepresented groups as well as the history of AWM, including “The Association for Women in Mathematics: How and Why It Was Founded, and Why It’s Still Needed in the 21st Century” (The Mathematical Intelligencer, 2015). She is associate editor of the AWM Newsletter and a Faculty Affiliate of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies as well as a Professor of Mathematics at Appalachian State University.


Cathy Kessel was educated as a mathematician and has taught mathematics in various U.S. institutions of higher education, from Mills College to Ohio State University. During the 1990s, she made the shift from mathematics to mathematics education, auditing courses, and working on research projects at the School of Education at the University of California at Berkeley. This led to a career that has included editingreports, books, articles, and curriculum and standards documents. Recent projects are Progressions for the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and the National Academies report Mathematics Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and Supporting Policies in Korea and the United States. She is a past president of the Association for Women in Mathematics, recipient of AWM’s Hay Award for contributions to mathematics education, and fellow of the AWM.        

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