World pi record smashed by female mathematician with help of google

There is a thread about Karen Uhlenbeck at www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3538127-female-mathematician-wins-prize-despite-sexism-of-universities

Women and girls can celebrate the achievements of mathematician Karen Uhlenbeck who, in 2019, is the first woman to be awarded the Abel Prize, which can be regarded as the mathematics equivalent of a Nobel Prize. I think her biological sex was observed at birth (in 1942) to be female.

www.newscientist.com/article/2196755-karen-uhlenbeck-is-first-woman-to-win-prestigious-maths-abel-prize/

"Andy Murray has corrected a journalist after he said Sam Querrey, who knocked the British player out of Wimbledon earlier, was "the first US player to reach a major semi-final since 2009".

The newly-deposed Wimbledon champion reminded the reporter he was only talking about male players, as there had, of course, been considerably more success for the US on the female side of the sport.

Since 2009, Serena Williams has won 12 Grand Slam tournaments."

Love him for that.

Yes!

And then them all saying OH but TP was first official astronaut blah blah excuses.

That tennis player chap who kept calling it out when interviewers did this was awesome. Andy Murray.

And OTOH, horse's question re "first woman to walk on the moon" reminds me of Tim Peake having to correct people calling him the first British Astronaut, or calling Helen Sharman the first British woman astronaut.... insidious assumptions which do have to be challenged.

Itsallgoingtobefine

The one where a complaint about the first women directors of a trilogy of mainstream films had the article changed to make them the second. Lilly and Lana Wachowski were added as the first for the matrix. Even though when they made the films they were "identifying as " (ie were) men).

Loads of this shit going on.

Yes it matters.

Krazy because science is all about trying to find the answers to stuff, to push the boundaries, to satisfy curiosity etc

In this case the achievement is in managing to get a system to compute this >
The actual answer isn't so relevant it was HOW it was done that was a first.

Pi is used as it's the only irrational number (going on forever) that most people are familiar with so if they manage to do whatever with it, it's more newsworthy.

Krazy - I gave an answer on a similar question somewhere upthread. In this case it's largely a test of cloud technology. Apparently it's also of some use to mathematicians interested in statistics of random numbers, that sort of thing.

Sorry i havent rtft, disregarding the persons gender, for what purpose is knowing that many trillion decimal places helpful? Like in RL what can be done better or differently now "we " know those extra trillion places?

It reminds me of all of the "first woman on the front line" stuff, although worse as at least in that case they didn't forget to mention that the first woman was a man.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37391807

I don't think that people are as obsessed by trans issues

You actually mean obsessed by preserving rights for and equality for women. And yes, I am. It's more under threat now than it has been for a century. With no time for people wittering about 'oooh it's just you on your own being silly' aka 'oooh you'll be in the wrong gang you know?/you won't look cool'

I'm not twelve, that stuff ceased working on me decades ago.

I like to hear from time to time those Woman's Hour items about first-woman-to.

Question: if in the future I hear "first woman to walk on the moon" is it wrong for me wonder if it is a trans woman?

(And then think, well that doesn't count..)

Bolding fail bet there's women on here who could fix that

Well... most people maybe don't give a toss about the underrepresentation of women in STEM in general and computing in particular, that much may be true. But computing wasn't ** historically a male-dominated field, there's no reason at all why it should be now....it isn't in all countries.

Female role models for girls do matter - it's a matter of record that they're put off tech nowadays by the perception that it's not for 'people like them'. That's why the thread was started, and my interest in it.

Now when women achieve in traditionally male areas people will shrug and think 'probably a bloke'

I don't think they will. I don't think that people are as obsessed by trans issues as posters on here or so determined to distinguish things as traditionally male areas.

I would like to share in the celebration.

Me too. I'm very fond of prime numbers and felt the article piqued my interest but was a bit lacking.

Bloody beeb. Falling out of love with them more and more these days.

Yy

The outcome is a hardening of gender role/stereotype.

Society is sexist.

Now when women achieve in traditionally male areas people will shrug and think 'probably a bloke'.

So sex stereotypes are not challenged any more.

It's really bad.

All this means in reality is people will read headlines and go 'so is this a woman or it is a 'woman'?' And people are getting increasingly programmed to be cynical about it, to check and to then be pissed off.

Yes this

Men are vastly over represented in tech.

Achievements in these fields, reported in the news, are usually men.

Which is why when there is a woman who has been in the news its exciting/interesting/unusual. That's why this thread exists in the first place. To flag and celebrate a woman achieving in a male dominated area, to give hope that things are changing, to see someone who can act as an inspiration for young women and girls etc

Then. Oh no actually it's a transwoman.

Put the bunting away and go home.

These things should be celebrated as trans achievements or we (women and girls) have such a lot to lose.

All this means in reality is people will read headlines and go 'so is this a woman or it is a 'woman'?' And people are getting increasingly programmed to be cynical about it, to check and to then be pissed off.

In terms of winning hearts and minds for inclusion, bit of a major own goal.

Since I have learnt that Emma is not female, I have asked MN to withdraw my original post.

I meant really that men are vastly over represented in tech I suppose. Also the team thing is interesting. I read that Emma did t achieve this alone - there were a team of them but google decided to frame it as Emma's achievement.

The other day I was reviewing a pile of CVs of senior staff for a project. It was very noticeable that the women talked about 'we' when discussing their and their team's achievements, whereas men typically referred to their team success in the first person. This is by no means atypical.

Except the reason that everyone thought Emma was male is because Emma looks male

I clicked on the picture and thought that, because the name is Emma, that is a trans woman. Had the name been Eric I would have thought man.

and it's a very male achievement

No- that played no part at all for me.

Dpwm - it's ok, I was joking at my own expense.

Except the reason that everyone thought Emma was male is because Emma looks male and it's a very male achievement

Maybe I got it wrong in part because I don't see it as a very male achievement.
Hm, though maybe us women coders tend to prefer doing something a bit more interesting but without a record to make it newsworthy.