Why is gender and diversity important in mathematics and physics?
Tomas Brage, Lund University
Mathematics and physics are often seen, by practitioners not the least, as objective, and we believe we are surrounded by a “culture with no culture”. At the same time, our history, classes, and board rooms are often dominated by certain groups of men. This is a paradox that should awaken the curiosity of anyone. In this talk, I will give some examples of how you can approach the question in the title. There have been several studies, and I will combine a discussion of these with some general theory and personal experiences, to paint a picture of how gender and diversity transgresses mathematics and physics, like all other fields. By using the levels of change introduced by Schiebinger, I refer to studies of e.g. Anthropologists, Sociologists and Psychologists. The bias against women and minorities, since Science is stereotypically male, combined with the myths surrounding excellence and meritocracy, could be key to understanding the lack of women and minoritized groups in the field.
The talk is intended as a translation of results from recent (and historical) progress in Gender Science to an audience of non-experts in the field. The aim is to give some answers to the question in the title, but also to show that this is an extremely interesting and active field of research.
We would like to express our gratitude to Tomas Brage for the enlightening, inspiring and informative presentation he delivered at the QMATH16 Conference as well as to the Association of Women in Mathematical Physics for the organization of the talk.
Here, his presentation which includes an extensive bibliography on the final pages is available as a PDF for you to download.
Further, we inform you on further websites and publications mentioned in the talk, with the according links:
DORA: San Francisco Declaration on Research
The Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) recognizes the need to improve the ways in which the outputs of scholarly research are evaluated. The declaration was developed in 2012 during the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in San Francisco.
CoARA
The Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) is a collective of organisations committed to reforming the methods and processes by which research, researchers, and research organisations are evaluated.
LERU
The League of European Research Universities (LERU) is a well-established network of research-intensive universities. We develop and disseminate our views on research, innovation and higher education through policy papers, statements, meetings and events helping to shape policy at the EU level.
LERU Publications:
- Implicit bias in academia: A challenge to the meritocratic principle and to women's careers - And what to do about it: https://www.leru.org/publications/implicit-bias-in-academia-a-challenge-to-the-meritocratic-principle-and-to-womens-careers-and-what-to-do-about-it
- LERU- Equality, diversity and inclusion at universities: the power of a systemic approach: https://www.leru.org/publications/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-at-universities
- Gendered Research and Innovation: https://www.leru.org/files/Gendered-Research-and-Innovation-Full-paper.pdf