In March we celebrate women’s history and highlight the contributions of women of all races and nationalities to mathematics. Every woman exists at the intersection of her gender, race, sexual orientation, ability, and other factors of her identity. With this in mind, we encourage you to visit the other pages at the SABES site that celebrate aspects of identity and read about the women celebrated on those pages, too. You’ll find them on the SABES Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Math page. You also might want to check out this set of mathematician profile cards that includes 19 biographies of important mathematicians from around the world, including several mathematicians who are women.

GENERAL RESOURCES

• Women's History Month—The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance, and celebration of the vital role of women in American history.
• National Women's History Alliance—This organization is a leader in promoting Women’s History and is committed to the goals of education, empowerment, equality, and inclusion.
• Smithsonian American Women's History Museum—This museum expands the story of America through the often-untold accounts and accomplishments of women—individually and collectively—to better understand our past and inspire our future. Their mission is to inspire the next generation to create a more equitable world through new scholarship, diverse viewpoints, and innovative forms of exhibition, storytelling, and participation.
• Story Corps—This is a rich collection of videos to through which you can hear the stories and voices of inspiring women, giving insight into their unique and diverse perspectives on life and their work. Each video features powerful real-life stories and personal insights from the women themselves.
• Students and Educators | National Women's History Museum—This includes resources for educators (biographies, activities for writing, a variety of topics to choose, virtual field trips, and digital classroom resources).
• National Council for History Education: Women's History—This includes resources to support history educators.
• We Teach NYC: Celebrate Women's History Collection—This collection highlights texts, primary sources, lesson plans, and videos to use with your students as they learn about the key figures, events, and legislation related to women's struggle for equal rights for the past 150 years. The resources listed first are lessons, tasks, and online exhibits, the components of which can be used directly with students. You will also find primary sources and classroom activities to further the understanding of the first wave of feminism, including the fight for the right to vote. The collection ends with interviews with contemporary women and articles to raise awareness about gender inequalities that still exist.
• Black Girls Code—Since 2011, Black Girls Code has engaged girls of color with computer programming education to nurture their careers in tech. They partner with schools, local organizations, and dedicated volunteers to offer in-person and virtual learning opportunities for girls and women of color aged 7–25.

• National Education Association's Women's History Month for the Classroom—Learn about the challenges and accomplishments of women throughout history with these lessons, activities, background reading, and more.

DATA

• Solving the Equation report—This report is a rich analysis of the degree to which women participate in STEM fields and the factors affecting women’s participation. Of particular interest may be the list of “figures” on pages 6 and 7, which provides an index of the graphs and charts in the report.

• By the Numbers: Women in STEM: What do the statistics reveal about ongoing gender disparities?—This list of statistics about women’s participation in STEM fields includes information about how women of color are represented.

• Why STEM Equity Must Address the Experiences of Women of Color—An article by The Education Trust.

WHO DOES MATH

• Scientificwomen.net—Biographies of women in math and science from antiquity through present day.
• The movie Hidden Figures portrays three Black women who were among many hired by NASA as “human computers” to support the space program in the days when all the computations necessary to send astronauts to space and bring them safely home had to be done by hand. These women were educated and skilled and did important and difficult work under conditions of segregation and broader racism and sexism. The movie gives the women’s stories a Hollywood treatment, but more accurate information about these women can be found here:
  • Katherine Johnson
  • Mary Jackson
  • Dorothy Vaughn
• Joan Clarke worked with code-breakers at Bletchley Park in England during World War II. She was the only woman on the team of mathematicians who broke the German codes and enabled Allied ships to avoid being sunk by German U-boats. In spite of doing the same work as the men on the team, and even being the head of the team at one point, she was paid less than her male counterparts because she was a woman. Her story is told (with some fictionalization) in the movie The Imitation Game.
• Maryam Mirzakhani was the first woman ever to win the prestigious Fields Medal in mathematics. She immigrated to the United States from Iran. According to one of her colleagues, “Maryam embodied what being a mathematician or scientist is all about: the attempt to solve a problem that hadn’t been solved before, or to understand something that hadn’t been understood before.” Maryam Mirzakhani died of cancer in 2017 at age 40.
• Ruth Gonzalez was the first Hispanic woman known to have been awarded a Ph.D. in mathematics in the United States.
• Celebrate These Awesome Mathematicians Today—This article contains biographies of female mathematicians.
• The Association for Women in Mathematics holds an annual essay contest in which students interview contemporary women mathematicians and write biographies of them. The winning essays going back to 2001 can be found here. 
• Sophie Wilson is an English trans woman computer scientist who designed a microcomputer and a microprocessor that is the basis for most smartphones, tablets, and other computers used today.

MATH LESSONS & ACTIVITIES

The following resources from the SABES page on cross-discipline resources contain ideas for math lessons and activities related to women’s history and women’s participation in STEM:

• Data About the Gender Pay Gap—Contains information and activities about Equal Pay Day, a day that symbolizes the number of days, on average, that women have to work past the end of the previous year to have earned the same amount of money as men in that year.
• 2020 Women's Vote Centennial Initiative—Contains math lessons and activities related to the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote. 
• Christa McAuliffe's Lost Lessons—Contains videos of science lessons filmed in zero gravity. These lessons were planned by Christa McAuliffe who was meant to be the first educator in space and who died in the Challenger disaster before she could do them. In tribute, other astronauts filmed the lessons in 2017–2018.

Slow Reveal Graphs provide a format for mathematical discussions of issues related to social justice. The website slowrevealgraphs.com has the following classroom-ready graphs related to women and women’s history:

• How comfortable are people with women as leaders of government or major companies? (by country)
• The Number of Female CEOs is Rising.
• Sex Ratio by Industry
• Pay Gap (by Gender, by Degree)

RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS

• Encouraging Girls in Math and Science—This guide provides teachers with specific recommendations that can be carried out in the classroom without requiring systemic change. Other school personnel having direct contact with students, such as coaches, counselors, and principals, will also find the guide useful.