Sophie is one of the great woman mathematicians who had to go through many obstacles to be able to study math. She was born in 1776, when women were not college students, especially mathematicians. Even though no one accepted her passion to study math she managed to teach herself in her fathers library. Thinking about how difficult it has been for me to understand the mathematics I have been taught, I could only imagine how difficult it could be to become a mathematician by teaching yourself and not being to go to others for help. As I have said before, group work and discussion is one of the best ways to learn, but Sophie Germain discovered a proof that later led to the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem when n=5. Sophie's proof is important due to the door she opened to solving the problem. I know, you're thinking 'what problem'. Sophie shows for certain values of n, n must divide x, y, or z. I do not think it is right that Fermat's Theorem seems to have no recognition of Sophie's achievement and how it helped develop the proof. Sophie is one of many other great women mathematicians who do not get as much recognition as they deserve.
Another great woman mathematician is Hypatia. She is one of the first women to study and teach math, astronomy and philosophy. It is believed that she was born between 350 and 370 in Alexandria, Rome. The story is that a mob of Christian zealots led by Peter the Lector accosted a woman’s carriage and dragged her from it and into a church, where they stripped her and beat her to death with roofing tiles. They then tore her body apart and burned it. Her father was a well known astronomer and mathematician as well. It was known that Hypatia had a difficult life growing up due to the culture she grew up in. Hypatia big mathematical achievement was the design of an astrolabe, a kind of portable astronomical calculator that was used until the nineteenth century.
Now, if you are like me I know you are thinking so what, this all happened so long ago it doesn't affect me. But it does. Even in today's society women are strongly discouraged to achieve highly in mathematics, and even if a woman does make an achievement they are not recognized on the same level as the males. This happens in the classroom, media, even family. There have been studies that show in our subconscious, even women teachers do not give female students the same amount of time or encouragement as they do to male students. We need to be aware of the difficulties of our previous female mathematicians and notice how important their accomplishments in order to keep moving forward to improve our society.
(Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/womens-history/hypatia-ancient-alexandrias-great-female-scholar-10942888/#OrAyij9ujIfgRul2.99)
Another great woman mathematician is Hypatia. She is one of the first women to study and teach math, astronomy and philosophy. It is believed that she was born between 350 and 370 in Alexandria, Rome. The story is that a mob of Christian zealots led by Peter the Lector accosted a woman’s carriage and dragged her from it and into a church, where they stripped her and beat her to death with roofing tiles. They then tore her body apart and burned it. Her father was a well known astronomer and mathematician as well. It was known that Hypatia had a difficult life growing up due to the culture she grew up in. Hypatia big mathematical achievement was the design of an astrolabe, a kind of portable astronomical calculator that was used until the nineteenth century.
Now, if you are like me I know you are thinking so what, this all happened so long ago it doesn't affect me. But it does. Even in today's society women are strongly discouraged to achieve highly in mathematics, and even if a woman does make an achievement they are not recognized on the same level as the males. This happens in the classroom, media, even family. There have been studies that show in our subconscious, even women teachers do not give female students the same amount of time or encouragement as they do to male students. We need to be aware of the difficulties of our previous female mathematicians and notice how important their accomplishments in order to keep moving forward to improve our society.
(Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/womens-history/hypatia-ancient-alexandrias-great-female-scholar-10942888/#OrAyij9ujIfgRul2.99)