Female mathematician wins prize, despite sexism of universities

[EcclesThePeacock]

So, here's a genuine role model for mathsy girls:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/maths-genius-karen-uhlenbeck-turns-the-tables-on-chauvinists-to-win-500-000-prize-m5dslpllc?shareToken=723961083b555966f2c0efac42a67ac4

Winning a prestigious prize (not to mention half a million) must be very sweet after battling decades of institutional sexism.

I'm glad someone has mentioned this.

As someone who did a maths degree 30 odd years ago, I am now struggling to remember whether any of my lecturers were female. The 'memorable' ones certainly weren't.

Though I do remember that in the first year, half were left handed. The students were also predominantly male, maybe only 10-20% were female. Mind you it was good practice for working in software / electronics.

Congrats to Karen Uhlenbeck. But I hate the fact that - after Google's Emma last week - my first thought was, is she a woman or is she a "woman"? As she was recognised at age 76, I assume it is less likely her employers (if she is even beholden to an employer) are using her as a pawn.

But I hate the fact that - after Google's Emma last week - my first thought was, is she a woman or is she a "woman"?

That was my thought, too. I had to Google her to find out if she was a woman or a TW.

Now that I know she is female - congratulations to her! I am just sorry that it took so long for her accomplishments to be recognised.

Congratulations to her!

I also googled. A year ago it would never have crossed my mind to do so.

I remember looking around lecture theatres and estimating the proportion of left-handers too :) Maths / physics - near 50%. Medicine- 10-20%

Love the comments below the article. "But this doesn't happen anymore..." I got asked in a PhD interview "So, I noticed you've recently got married, are you sure you can commit to studying?". That was five years ago.

I was the same, googling to check whether Karen Uhlenbeck had always been a woman. How awful that we have to do this, to check what we are being told is truth.

Twitter has been celebrating her over the past couple of days, really interesting to read about her work.