OK it is almost winter break so now is an opportunity to do some action
to advance the situation for women in mathematics. Let's each try to
do three actions selected from the following:
1) choose a woman mathematician with recent excellent work or a
lifetime of good work, and promote her by suggesting her as a speaker
at a few key conferences in your field or at an AMS or SIAM meeting. A
similar letter describing her recent work can be sent to multiple
people. You may also send notes to seminar organizers. Choose someone
whose mathematics you know well yourself. Remember to promote her at
the appropriate level without over exaggerating. You might also wish
to recommend her as a member of a scientific committee for a conference
or the editorial board of a journal, but perhaps ask her if she would
be interested in such an activity first.
2) contact a number of senior men in your field of study and ask if
they can recommend some excellent young women at the tenure track
level. This will give you a sense both of the upcoming women in your
subfield for future actions like (1) and also give you a sense of who
notices strong young women mathematicians. These are the men to go to
for support later on. Some of these young women might be worthy of a
Sloan nomination next Spring so, it would be good to hunt around for
possible letter writers and then contact her chair with suggestions.
Remember Sloan candidates must be within five years of there PhD but
years on maternity leave do not count.
3) contact your university and/or your student newspaper as in the
posting entitled "enlist the undergrads" regarding leaves of absense,
stop the clock etc if your university does not live up to the standards
mentioned there.
4) contact a few young women in your fields and ask how things are
going and just provide general mentoring support. Ask what men seem
most supportive of their careers.
5) post something here with another suggestion for effective action.
