Serving women and gender minorities in mathematics at Yale.

Dimensions

HI THERE. WE’RE GLAD YOU’RE HERE.

Dimensions is Yale’s only student group dedicated to serving women and gender minorities in mathematics.

We’re also an official chapter of the AWM and a non-profit organization.

Why do we matter?

According to a report from from the National Science Foundation, less than 30% of all U.S. doctoral degrees in mathematics and statistics are awarded to women. From 2006 to 2016, the percentage of mathematics and statistics doctorates obtained by women actually fell from 29.6% to 28.5%.

Source: Forbes

From degrees awarded…

To hiring and evaluation…

Furthermore, negative stereotypes may lead to unconscious bias in faculty members. Studies have found that faculty – both men and women – tend to favor men in STEM fields by, for example, being more likely to select them for research positions (Moss-Racusin, 2012). Science faculty have also been found to use different language to describe female versus male students in letters of recommendation, focusing more on ability and using more effective language for male than for female students (Schmader, Whitehead and Wysocki, 2007). A number of other manifestations of unconscious bias in academia have been well documented, such as a tendency to hold women to higher standards and judge them more harshly for opportunities for advancement (Easterly and Ricard, 2011).

Source: MIT Women in Math

To the workplace…

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published its Annual Report: Women in STEM (FY2019) which states “Overall, women accounted for 29.3 percent of STEM federal workers. Science occupations had the most (49,546), while math occupations in the federal sector had the fewest number of women (6,469). There were significantly fewer women in Technology and Engineering than expected.”

Source: AWM and US EEO

… But it starts at birth.

Mathematics majors at Group 1 Private Institutions were asked: “On a scale of 1 to 5, how much would you say your parents/guardians emphasized STEM education in your upbringing? 1 corresponds to did not emphasize STEM and 5 to highly emphasized STEM.”

At the five institutions, female mathematics respondents had an average above 3.5 indicating parental STEM emphasis of moderate to high degree. This level of emphasis indicates that female mathematics majors/concentrators had at least a medium amount of parental STEM emphasis in their upbringing. At each of these universities except Princeton, female mathematics majors/concentrators had a higher degree of parental encouragement (and lower standard deviation in responses) than their male counterparts.

Source: MIT Women in Math

What do we do?

In an effort to cultivate a supportive and safe community for underrpresented minorities in mathematics, Dimensions holds weekly study sessions. Members can meet each other, ask for advice, get homework help, and more.
Dimensions holds panels, Q&As, and workshops each semester. From intro to LaTeX to advice on landing mathematics research, these events seek to bridge the gap in information, encouragement, and resources for minorities in math.
Dimensions works closely with the Yale Math Department Climate Committee to hold colloquiums on DEIB and social issues in mathematics each year.