Interviews with Members

AWM member Elizabeth Allman interviewed about a dozen women mathematicians, mostly recent Ph.D.s, for this article. These women were eager to discuss the positive impact of AWM on their career. Their experiences with AWM have been “exciting” and “inspiring”, and they are “exceedingly grateful” for financial support from AWM. Some of their comments have been incorporated into other parts of this article

Several common themes emerged during these interviews. AWM’s programs to support, encourage, and help young women mathematicians are among its most important services. AWM workshops give young women the opportunity to present their research to an interested and encouraging community beyond their graduate math departments. Recent Ph.D.s and finishing graduate students establish professional contacts and enlarge their circle of colleagues. Each interviewee mentioned the positive influence of role models and the inspiration and encouragement from well-established female mathematicians at these events.

Cheryl Grood’s first contact with AWM came in 1991 when she attended the Mathfest in Orono and received an honorable mention certificate for the Schafer Prize. Grood felt welcomed into the mathematical community, and she learned that AWM was working to help and encourage her and other young women who were beginning careers in mathematics. Grood's participation in the AWM Julia Robinson conference at MSRI in 1996, while a graduate student at Wisconsin, was a pivotal experience for her. She realized that well-established mathematicians and younger mathematicians were interested in the work she presented, and that she enjoyed answering their questions about her research. Most recently, Cheryl presented her research at a poster session of the AWM workshop at the joint meetings in Baltimore in 1998 where she met “another group of talented women”.

While many female mathematicians lauded the financial support and reasoned advice of AWM, they also made suggestions for AWM. Many undergraduates are unaware of AWM and, surprisingly, even many female graduate students are unacquainted with AWM programs. One woman urged increasing the number of institutional memberships to the AWM—if students read the AWM Newsletter, they would “become acquainted with a network of mathematicians and opportunities well before facing the first year of a full time job.”

Gail Ratcliff (University of Missouri, St. Louis) mentioned that AWM might expand its programs to serve mid-career women. AWM boasts excellent programs to aid women in establishing their careers, gives prizes like the Louise Hay Award for contributions to mathematics education, and offers the Emmy Noether lecture to highlight contributions of stellar, well-established women researchers, but mid-career women could also benefit from the aegis of AWM. A mentoring program is even more important now with a tight job market causing increasing numbers of Ph.D.s to leave academic mathematics. Tamara Kolda (Householder Postdoctoral Fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TN and AWM web page editor) suggested that AWM might work to strengthen its contacts with industry. Finally, Ratcliff remarked that AWM should continue to make the mathematical community “aware that the underrepresentation of women in mathematics is still a problem.” Gail’s hope is that “one day AWM won’t be necessary”.

There is tremendous enthusiasm and gratitude for AWM on the part of female mathematicians at the start of their careers. Those involved in organizing AWM workshops display an eager readiness, a deep commitment, and tireless energy to ensure that the goals of AWM are met.

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