By CHRISTINA BRECH & MANUELA DA SILVA SOUZA*
Revisiting the struggles, contributions and advances promoted by women in Mathematics in Brazil over the last 10 years gives us an understanding of how long and challenging our journey towards a truly fair mathematical community is.
The saying goes that one swallow does not make a summer. As difficult as it is to pinpoint the exact moment when a season begins, it is to determine when and where a collective struggle for greater representation and opportunities for minority groups begins. Pioneering initiatives often become confused, intertwined, and some suffer, intentionally or not, historical erasure.
But there is a moment when the existence of a movement is undeniable: spring has arrived! For the women's mathematics movement in Brazil, this milestone was the World Meeting for Women in Mathematics (WM)2, held in Rio de Janeiro in 2018.
Some initiatives to discuss gender issues in the area occurred in previous years, possibly driven by the feminist movement that occupied the streets of several Brazilian cities in November 2015, known as “Women's Spring”. However, it was the perspective of holding the (WM)2 and its direct and indirect consequences that marked the beginning of a broader and more plural discussion within Mathematics in the country. From then on, the agendas and initiatives were many and diverse, as were the fruits of this struggle. But life is not a bed of roses either. In what follows, we will tell the story of these struggles, achievements and challenges, from the point of view of those who took part in them.
Seeds of struggle
In 2014, the Fields Medal awarded to a Brazilian caused a great stir in the Brazilian mathematics community, since never before in history had a Latin American been awarded what is considered one of the most important awards in the field. But the achievement of Iranian Maryam Mirzakhani as the first woman to receive the same award that year resonated throughout the global mathematics community. Until that moment, the distinction, which had existed since 1936, had been awarded to 52 men.
Ten years later, we now have a total of 10 laureates, two of whom are women. It is worth noting that the vast majority of these people come from countries in the global north, which reflects an imbalance not only in gender, but also in socioeconomic background and educational and scientific opportunities. It is essential to mention that there is also a predominance of white men, with very few exceptions. This fact exposes the structural barriers that women, especially black, indigenous and/or developing country women, face in achieving recognition.
It is in the wake of Maryam Mirzakhani's unprecedented achievement that the first questions about the representation of women in mathematics in Brazil arise. The 2014st Brazilian Congress of Young Researchers in Pure and Applied Mathematics, conceived by young doctors from the Southeast region of the country, took place at the University of São Paulo (USP) in December XNUMX, as a space to encourage the exchange of ideas and propose a reflection on challenges and opportunities in the careers of young doctors in the area.
Despite the bold nature of the event, the scientific and organizing committees perpetuated quite traditional gender patterns, with 14 and six members, respectively, all men.
This fact was highlighted during the round table “Future of Young People in Mathematics”, in which representatives of the Brazilian Mathematical Society (SBM) and the Brazilian Society of Applied and Computational Mathematics (SBMAC) were asked about possible actions to address the problem of gender disparity in the area, opening a first opportunity to put the issue on the agenda.
The topic was also included in letters signed by the event organizers that were sent in early 2015 to the presidents of the societies (SBM and SBMAC) and to Brazilian funding agencies.
The letter sent to the companies[1] highlighted: “Finally, we request that the issue of gender in Mathematics be included in the agenda of societies, bringing debate and reflection on the topic to the Brazilian mathematical community. Once this debate has taken place, mechanisms should be studied and implemented with funding agencies to encourage the participation of women in scientific activities, aiming to reduce the imbalance between the number of men and women at all levels of the career and correct the current decline in the percentage of women observed throughout it.”
The following year, a small group of women working in the state of São Paulo mobilized to organize a regional scientific event by and for women, the Encontro Paulista de Mulheres na Matemática (EPMM),[2] which took place in March 2016 at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP).
The event had 120 participants, ten lectures given by women and a roundtable discussion on the theme “After all, is there a gender issue in Mathematics?”, as well as poster sessions. Although it created fertile ground for the discussion of gender issues in Mathematics, the lack of regional, racial and career stage diversity among the speakers, combined with the absence of a perspective that considered the different experiences of women mathematicians, limited the feeling of belonging to the discussion and the scope and depth of the proposed reflections.
Germinating new ideas
In late 2016, the article “The “Tostines Dilemma” of Women in Mathematics”[3] invited mathematicians to reflect on gender disparities, presenting data from the Brazilian community extracted from government sources. The data illustrated the so-called “scissors effect” in Mathematics – when the proportion of women decreases as one advances in one’s career – and indicated a picture of stability or worsening inequality over the previous two decades. Excerpts also pointed to regional differences and differences arising from the divide between teaching and research.
For example, the data indicated that women accounted for almost 50% of graduates in Mathematics undergraduate courses and less than 35% in Mathematics undergraduate courses. The situation was repeated in the teaching staff: women represented 40% of undergraduate courses in 2014 and 22% of postgraduate teaching staff.
The text highlighted the lack of policies related to maternity as one of the possible causes of these inequalities: “Those who want to have children are often faced with the need to make this decision and interrupt their research at the moment when it begins to bear more and better fruits. Despite the recent achievement of maternity leave in Brazilian study and research scholarships, there are practically no mechanisms that support women in resuming their professional activities.”
On the other hand, the article did not provide any data that included the racial issue and did not even point out the importance of including this item in the analyses. In a country with a slave-owning and racist past like Brazil, this omission is surely a consequence of our society's historical resistance to questioning official data that does not racialize individuals and therefore does not reflect the country's racial inequalities.
The year 2017 was marked by the prospect of carrying out the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in Brazil in 2018. Ordinary Law 13.358 of November 07, 2016, approved by the National Congress, established the period 2017-2018 as the Mathematics Biennium, with the support of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications and the Ministry of Education.
At the same time, the Committee for Women in Mathematics (CWM)[4] da International Mathematical Union (IMU), created in 2015, sought to stimulate gender debate in Brazil, with a view to holding the World Meeting for Women in Mathematics (WM)[5] in Rio de Janeiro, preceding the ICM in 2018. The CWM had already been financially supporting some initiatives in Latin America, such as the EPMM and the I Encuentro de Mujeres Matemáticas in Latin America, which took place in Mexico in 2016.
It was in this context that the group of women who organized the EPMM joined forces with some female mathematicians working in Rio de Janeiro to organize the debate series “Mathematics: feminine noun”.[6] The aim of the initiative was to foster debate on gender issues in a decentralized manner, taking into account the continental dimension of our country. In this sense, female mathematicians from several Brazilian universities were invited to organize round tables at their institutions. The inaugural round table was entitled “Challenges and perspectives on the issue of gender”.[7] took place at the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA), during the 31st Brazilian Mathematics Colloquium, in August 2017.
The “Mathematics: feminine noun” event, held from August 2017 to June 2018, expanded the scope of the discussion on gender in Mathematics in the country, engaging women from different regions and stages of their professional careers. In addition to the IMPA panel, 12 other panels were held at Brazilian universities, totaling six in the Southeast, three in the South, two in the Northeast, one in the North and one in the Central-West. This distribution by region points to the persistence of the concentration of the debate in the wealthiest regions of the country, which include the South, Southeast and the federal capital Brasília, in the Central-West, to the detriment of the North and Northeast regions, which have historically been disadvantaged.
The debates showed that the difficulties that female mathematicians faced in their careers and in the work and study environment in Brazil constitute a broad spectrum. Racial disparities, the difficulties in balancing motherhood and career, and the scientific community's tolerance of sexual harassment became topics of interest. These topics had already been discussed in universities, brought about by debates surrounding the Quota Law, which aims to guarantee access to higher education for black and indigenous people and has been in force since 2012, and by the influence of movements to combat gender violence such as the me Too.
In previous years, we had been witnessing a profusion of feminist collectives in universities. In 2015, the “Rede Não Cala” emerged,[8] a group of teachers who came together to fight against sexual and gender-based violence at USP. The collective “Parent in Science"[9] emerged in 2016 with the aim of discussing parenthood within academia and science. However, these discussions had until then found little permeability in the Brazilian mathematical community, especially due to the false idea of neutrality widely disseminated and accepted in STEM areas.
The arrival of spring
On July 31, 2018, the day before the ICM, the (WM) brought together mathematicians from several countries around the world to think about and discuss the gender agenda in Mathematics, with special attention to the demands of female mathematicians in Latin America. The (WM) program included research lectures, discussion groups on gender in mathematics, a panel discussion, poster presentations and a tribute to the only Fields Medal winner to date, Maryam Mirzakhani, who died prematurely the previous year.
The Women's Committee of the Iranian Mathematical Society proposed during the event that May 12, Maryam's birthday, be established as a day to celebrate women in mathematics. The proposal received wide acceptance among the participants and the date was chosen to be widely publicized as a commemorative date, giving rise to the independent May 12 initiative.[10]
During the (WM), the African Women in Mathematics Association (AWMA)[11] celebrated five years of its founding, marked by the participation of several black African women from different countries in the event. Marie Françoise Ouedraogo, who was at the time the president of AWMA and was the first woman from Burkina Faso to obtain a doctorate in mathematics,[12] highlighted in an interview[13]: “When I arrived at the ICM, I was a little disappointed not to see many Brazilians who looked like me. I have the impression that there are many more white people at this congress than black people.”
Although black people make up 55,5% of the Brazilian population according to the 2022 IBGE Census,[14] Black women do not make up 3% of the total number of postgraduate professors in the country, according to data from 2016.[15] This reality contributes to the underrepresentation (or even absence) of this group in major scientific events, particularly in Mathematics, which occur predominantly in the Southeast region, where travel costs can be a barrier. In the case of ICM 2018, registration alone, which guaranteed participation in the WM, cost around US$500.
In this context, an emblematic scene would mark the (WM): 14 black Brazilian female mathematicians, from different regions of the country, came together to take a photo. The presence of these female mathematicians at the (WM) and the ICM was made possible by funding from the Serrapilheira Institute, a private funding agency, the result of a project developed exclusively by white female researchers, as a result of a demand from the Institute to promote inclusion and diversity in science.
This situation highlights a critical problem: inclusion and diversity initiatives that target underrepresented groups often do not effectively include them in decision-making processes. This perpetuates the false idea that these groups depend on the actions of privileged groups, when, in fact, their lack of representation in decision-making spaces is due to a process of marginalization that is also present within institutions.
Still as a result of financing from Serapilheira, and with ICM as a backdrop, the mini-doc “Power N"[13] was produced by the digital magazine Gênero e Número with the aim of highlighting how the intersection of institutional racism and sexism are barriers in the careers of black female mathematicians. The emblematic photo taken at (WM), which can be seen at[16], gave rise to a WhatsApp group called “Grupo de Matemáticas Negras”.
Originally a welcoming space for (self-declared) black students, teachers and researchers who work or are interested in Mathematics, the group gradually brought together participants from all regions and naturally evolved into an important space for political articulation in the mathematical community.
After the (WM) and the ICM, it was clear that it was urgent to organize a national event for women mathematicians in Brazil. Held in 2019 in Rio de Janeiro, at IMPA, one of the most respected research centers in Mathematics in Brazil with international prestige, the XNUMXst Brazilian Meeting of Women Mathematicians (EBMM)[17] brought together 348 participants who work in Mathematics.
With an organizing committee and a group of supporters who were regionally, racially and career-stage diverse, the event promoted the presentation of scientific works by women, seniors and young researchers, as well as discussions on gender issues in Mathematics. We highlight the round tables: “Motherhood and Career”,[18] with reflections on motherhood, productivity and institutionalization policies of the agenda, “Diversity in Brazilian Science”,[19] composed exclusively of black women in Mathematics and related areas, and “Initiatives for Inclusion”, which brought together seven initiatives or projects from different regions of the country that welcome and encourage girls and women in Mathematics.
Among the initiatives was the event, “Women in Mathematics Workshop” (WMM)[20] held months earlier in the Northeast region, as a partnership between the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG) and the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE). During the EBMM, the exhibition “A unique look: contributions of women to Brazilian mathematics”[21] drew attention to female mathematicians from all over the country who contributed to the construction, maintenance and development of Mathematics courses and departments in Higher Education Institutions – women who are often invisible in the field. The EBMM and the WMM symbolize the new directions of the women's movement in Mathematics in Brazil.
Gaps in the asphalt
Since its founding in 1969, SBM has had only three women as president, including the current management.[22] SBMAC, in turn, founded in 1978, has had only one woman in this position throughout its history.[23] This reality suggests that these institutional spaces are resistant to change and reserve their highest leadership positions for privileged groups.
Questioned since 2015, these societies began to form committees to address the gender issue only in 2018. The SBMAC Women's Thematic Committee[24] and the joint Gender Commission between the two societies[25] began almost simultaneously. The first meeting of the SBM/SBMAC Gender Commission took place in April 2019 and the commission included its first black representative two months later, gaining the composition that would be in effect until August 2021, with 11 women.
In terms of region, the committee had two women from the Northeast, two from the South and seven from the Southeast. These numbers highlight the aforementioned underrepresentation of historically disadvantaged groups in decision-making spaces and reflect a possible interest of these institutions in conducting a controlled discussion on gender in Mathematics.
One of the first concrete actions of the SBM/SBMAC Gender Commission, currently the SBM/SBMAC Gender and Diversity Commission, was the preparation of a document containing Guidelines for Diversity in Events,[26] based on a document from the London Mathematical Society,[27] in 2019. One of the excerpts highlights a questionable emphasis on gender to the detriment of other underrepresented groups: “Diversity has many forms. In the context of the mathematical community, it includes gender, race, ethnicity and skin color, age and career stage, geographic origin, type of institution and school of training. The good development of Mathematics depends on the exchange of ideas, at scientific events, between people with different mathematical perspectives. Thus, events should include the participation of women and other underrepresented groups among invited speakers, members of organizing and scientific committees and participants in general. (…) For the sake of brevity, we will often refer, in what follows, to women, but the guidelines also apply to other underrepresented groups in mathematics”.
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the frequency of meetings has become more regular and the committee has started to work in a more structured way. For the commemorative date of May 12, 2020, the committee produced a special edition of the SBM News, also published in the SBMAC Newsletter, with the title “Celebrating women in Mathematics in times of pandemic”.[28] bringing reflections on the topic and interviews with seven researchers who worked on different fronts to combat the pandemic or contributed to related topics.
One of the passages in the text emphasizes the challenges of balancing motherhood and an academic career in times of social isolation:
“Although men may also face the impacts of the lockdown, it is women who will pay the brunt of this bill, as they are the ones who take on the responsibility of childcare. For those who are still struggling to stay productive, these months of increased workloads may widen the gap between them and their peers. The effects of social distancing may be even worse for graduate students who have children, as this group faces the challenges of working from home and taking care of children, financial vulnerability and the pressure to meet deadlines.”
In this same text, data on gender and race in undergraduate and graduate mathematics appear for the first time: “…for undergraduate studies, according to data presented in Enade 2017 (INEP & MEC, 2018), black women represented 24,5% and 10,5% of graduates in Mathematics who pursued a bachelor's and undergraduate degree, respectively. In graduate studies, data from Capes show that, in 2017, black women represented only 2,46% of students and were predominantly concentrated in professional and academic master's degrees, with around 88% of them in one of the two modalities”.
Rainbow between clouds
The initiative of producing texts by the SBM/SBMAC Gender Commission in commemoration of May 12 was repeated in the following years. In 2021, the chosen theme was “May 12: reasons to celebrate, reasons to fight”,[30] featuring interviews with 12 women whose trajectories highlight aspects of the achievements and challenges faced in the area, as well as Lives on YouTube with some of the interviewees.
Many of the women interviewed addressed issues that highlighted limitations of the women's movement in mathematics, highlighting the urgency of expanding the discussion of gender beyond the experiences of cisgender women in order to reach more people.
One of the interviewees, Professor Daniela Cardozo Mourão, from São Paulo State University (UNESP), highlighted barriers faced by trans women: “For trans people, the main advance was the recognition of their social name in universities. However, there are still many cases of discrimination and disrespect for gender identity, including by teachers and institutionally.”
The commission also interviewed Eliene dos Santos Rodrigues Putira Sacuena, an indigenous member of the Baré ethnic group and a PhD student at the time. She now holds a PhD in Bioanthropology from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA) and is currently the director of the Department of Primary Care for Indigenous Health (DAPSI) at the Ministry of Health. She drew attention to the racism faced by indigenous people in Brazilian universities and the invisibility of indigenous women and mathematics produced by the indigenous peoples of Brazil: “It is regrettable to be in an academy with such a diversity of peoples living in the Amazon and yet not have any indigenous people teaching. At UFPA, we only have one indigenous professor on the Altamira campus, and he has already been assassinated in defense of indigenous peoples. (…) I want to participate in academia as a teacher of who we are and to train professionals who understand how to live in humanity and that the sciences of both worlds, indigenous and non-indigenous, can dialogue.”
During that period, the Gender Commission also produced documents to pressure federal agencies regarding women's demands. In 2020, it sent a letter to CNPq, one of Brazil's main funding agencies, expressing support for the “Maternity in Lattes” campaign, launched in 2018 by the “Parent in Science” as a demand from the scientific community for the inclusion of the maternity leave field in the Lattes Curriculum platform, the most used to evaluate academic productivity in Brazil.
After almost three years since the start of the campaign and much pressure from the academic community, in 2021 the CNPq implemented a specific field that is not mandatory to fill out for the registration of maternity leave, which in the country can reach six months.[31] The inclusion of this field represents the possibility that career breaks due to maternity may be considered when applying for and/or maintaining scholarships, financing and (re)accreditation in postgraduate programs.
During the pandemic, the committee drafted an open letter to the mathematics community to express concern about the exclusively male composition of the CNPq Advisory Committee for Mathematics and Statistics. In December 2023, the CNPq became aware of a report that contained a gender bias, attributing a possible difficulty in a researcher's career to her pregnancies.
As a result of this discussion, it was included in the evaluation of CNPq Productivity Grants in the 2024 Call (also valid for 2025 and 2026)[32] the following criterion: “Proponents who had children or adopted minors during the evaluation period will have the productivity evaluation period extended, beyond that provided for in the notices, by two years in cases of maternity or adoption. This guideline results from a determination of the CNPq Executive Board, published on 06/01/2024”.
Towards the sun
Affected by the mobilizations that took place in 2020 in several countries around the world against the genocide of the black population, several scientific societies in Brazil found themselves pressured to speak out on the subject. Faced with this opportunity, the Black Mathematics Group wrote a manifesto addressed to the mathematical community entitled “Anti-racism? Black mathematics on the agenda”[33] which warned about the need for effective practices and policies that demonstrate commitment to combating racism in the area. Endorsed by the SBM/SBMAC Gender Commission, later by the SBM and SBMAC Boards, and later published in English on the CWM-IMU website, the manifesto proposes actions towards racial justice, not only in Mathematics: “(…) we offer below some possibilities for action without the pretense that they will solve all the problems, but as a warning that we can no longer hide behind the illusion that 'we do not know what to do to change'.
Genuine and constant engagement in individual reflections and collective discussions to understand our role in perpetuating racism, patriarchy, elitism, homophobia, and other systems of oppression; eliminate selection processes at various levels that ignore the collective reality of the black population in Brazil; implement academic, financial, social, and emotional support services to meet the specific needs of black students; implement professional and student development programs to educate teachers, students, and staff on the vast literature that denounces racism, sexism, and other “isms” in Brazil; make it possible to report moral and sexual harassment of black students (anonymously), as well as provide specialized psychological care and support; implement punishment systems for all those who perpetuate racial, gender-based violence, etc.; use mathematical knowledge as a tool against the oppression – economic, physical, social, and others – of black people, whether by developing technologies, teaching mathematics for social justice, among others; use mathematical knowledge as a tool to preserve black lives in the areas of health, work, education, leisure and others”.
One of the themes addressed in the manifesto is the invisibility of the history and legacy of black women in Mathematics, a theme that is reflected in the trajectory of professor Eliza Maria Ferreira Veras da Silva.[34] The first professor at the Institute of Mathematics (currently the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics) of the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) to obtain a doctorate, she is also considered the first black Brazilian woman to hold a doctorate in Mathematics, obtained in 1977 at the University of Montpellier, in France.
Her pioneering work remained forgotten until 2019, when it began to be widely publicized and recognized nationally. As a tribute to Professor Eliza, the “Support Program for Projects and Scientific Initiation in Mathematics Prof. Dr. Eliza Maria Ferreira Veras da Silva” (PAPIC-EF) was created.[35] The initiative was conceived by black teachers from UFBA to finance Basic Education and Scientific Initiation projects, developed in public institutions based in the city of Salvador in Bahia, which present Mathematics as an ally in the anti-racist struggle as a work approach.
The period of remote activities due to the pandemic in Brazil lasted about two years and led to the production of a large amount of digital content. The projects “Science with the Caboclas Kirimbaua Auaeté”,[36] from the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM); “Potimatics”,[37] from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN); and “Girls in Mathematics: Looking for Arletes” [38] (which resulted, among others, in the event “Girls in the Exact Sciences: by them for everyone”), from the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) were created in 2019 to promote the inclusion of girls in areas of exact sciences, and began, from 2020, to organize online activities.
The research group “MathQueer"[39] Created in 2020 at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), it aims to study the relationships between genders, sexualities and mathematics, and has been producing videos and podcasts on the subject ever since. The following year, during Black Awareness Month (November), the 1st National Meeting of Black People in Mathematics (EN^2M) [40] took place remotely, with the aim of encouraging the development of scientific research in Mathematics and on Mathematics produced by the black community.
The event "Celebrating women in mathematics“promoted at UFRJ as an offshoot of the web page”Dynamic women"[41] had online editions even after the Pandemic, with the participation of mathematicians from all over the country.
After the resumption of in-person activities in 2022, the production of digital content continued. A group of students, teachers and mothers from universities in the South region came together around the project “Mathematics and Statistics for Girls”, MaEs das Gurias,[42] to discuss implicit gender bias in Mathematics and produced a series of lives on Instagram.
Events such as EBMM and WMM have already resumed in-person editions. WMM, which has a major impact on the Northeast region, had an online edition in 2020,[43] and in-person editions in 2023[44] and 2024[45]. The last two editions of EBMM were held in Belém[46] and in Salvador,[47] shifting the centrality of the movement to historically marginalized regions of the country.
The capillarity of independent initiatives has given strength to several minority movements in Mathematics in different parts of the country, affecting scientific societies and government agencies. Since 2023, the SBM has had a committee whose focus is to discuss ethnic-racial diversity in Mathematics, the SBM Ethnic-Racial Relations Committee (CRER-SBM).[48] Its composition includes representatives from all regions of the country, four women and two men, all black. The Elas na Matemática award,[49] a partnership between SBM, IMPA and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) was created with the proposal to recognize the work of Women Mathematicians with a prize worth R$10.000,00 in three categories.
The 1st prizea. edition took place in 2024 during the “SBM Workshop on Women in Mathematics”,[50] in the southern region of the country, at the State University of Maringá (UEM), where the first in-person meeting of the Mentoring Program also took place. This SBM Program, which has a partnership with the Brazilian Physics Society (SBF), aims to provide training and guidance for undergraduate and graduate students in Mathematics and Physics who are at the beginning of their careers, with the aim of encouraging women to remain in these areas.
We highlight here just a few of the many initiatives – independent and institutional – that exist today throughout Brazil and that discuss issues related to the oppression experienced by women in mathematics and its intersections. We recognize that many have not been mentioned, and there are many others that we do not even know about. We tell the story based on what we have observed firsthand, but we are fully aware that, however well-intentioned we may be, our perspective has many limitations.
Resistance roses
Revisiting the struggles, contributions, and advances made by women in Mathematics in Brazil over the past 10 years gives us an understanding of how long and challenging our journey towards a truly fair mathematical community has been. This retrospective highlights not only the strength of women's collective struggle, but also the historical and structural barriers faced by underrepresented groups in an academy founded on sexism, racism, elitism, LGBTQIAP+phobia, etc.
As Marielle Franco, elected councilwoman of Rio de Janeiro, who was assassinated in 2019, said in her last speech at the Rio de Janeiro City Council [51] on International Women's Day: “The roses of resistance grow on the asphalt. We receive roses, but we will be there with our fists clenched, speaking of our existence against the orders and mismanagement that affect our lives.”
Just like Marielle's words, the Spring of Women in Mathematics in Brazil is about resisting, challenging and transforming. The path towards the sun is tortuous and full of thorns. We are inspired by the educator and philosopher Paulo Freire, who states that 'to hope' is to join with others to do things differently.[52] May we 'hope' for better days!
Translation: Christina Brech and Manuela da Silva Souza.
Originally published in the volume World Women in Mathematics 2022 – Proceedings of the II World Meeting for Women in Mathematics (WM)².
*Christina Brech is a professor of Mathematics at the University of São Paulo (USP).
*Manuela da Silva Souza is a professor of Mathematics at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA).
Notes
- Letter from the organizers of the 2015st Brazilian Congress of Young Researchers in Pure and Applied Mathematics addressed to the Presidents of the Brazilian Mathematical Society and the Brazilian Society of Applied and Computational Mathematics, XNUMX.
https://jovens.ime.usp.br/jovens/sites/all/themes/simplecorp/cartas/carta-sociedades.pdf - Paulista Meeting of Women in Mathematics – EPMM, Campinas, 2016.
https://www.ime.unicamp.br/mulheresnamatematica/ - Christina Brech, The “Tostines Dilemma” of Women in Mathematics, Journal of Mathematics Universitária 54, 2016.
https://rmu.sbm.org.br/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2018/08/kika_final.pdf - Committee for Women in Mathematics – CWM, International Mathematical Union – IMU.
https://www.mathunion.org/cwm - World Meeting for Women in Mathematics – (WM)2, Rio de Janeiro, 2018.
https://2018.worldwomeninmaths.org/ - Debate Series “Mathematics: feminine noun”, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Curitiba, Florianópolis, Manaus, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Santo André, São Paulo, Vitória, 2017/2018.
https://ciclomatematicasf.wordpress.com/ - Round table “Challenges and perspectives on the gender issue”, Debate Cycle “Mathematics: feminine noun”, 31st Brazilian Mathematics Colloquium, Rio de Janeiro, 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4IUJmeYy2g - Izabel Leão, Network of USP professors fights against sexual and gender violence, Jornal da USP, 2016.
- “Parent in Science” Collective
https://www.parentinscience.com/ - May12 Initiative
https://may12.womeninmaths.org/ - African Women in Mathematics Association – AWMA
https://africanwomeninmaths.org/ - Léa Nacache and Marie Françoise Roy, From pioneer to leader: paving the way for African women in mathematics, International Science Council Blog, 2024.
https://council.science/blog/from-pioneer-to-leader-paving-the-way-for-african-women-in-mathematics/ - Mini-documentary “Potência N”, Gender and Number, 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=untetrh5MyM - Caio Belandi and Irene Gomes, Census 2022: for the first time since 1991, the majority of the Brazilian population declares itself brown, IBGE News Agency, updated in 2024.
https://agenciadenoticias.ibge.gov.br/agencia-noticias/2012-agencia-de-noticias/noticias/38719-censo-2022-pela-primeira-vez-desde-1991-a-maior-parte-da-populacao-do-brasil-se-declara-parda - Lola Ferreira, Less than 3% of postgraduate professors have black female doctors challenging racism in academia, Gender and Number, 2018.
https://www.generonumero.media/reportagens/menos-de-3-entre-docentes-doutoras-negras-desafiam-racismo-na-academia/ - Brazilian Group of Black Women Mathematicians anti-racism manifesto, Committee for Women in Mathematics, International Mathematical Union, 2020.
https://www.mathunion.org/cwm/news-and-events/2020-06-14/brazilian-group-black-women-mathematicians-anti-racism-manifesto - Brazilian Meeting of Women Mathematicians – EBMM, Rio de Janeiro, 2019.
https://impa.br/en_US/eventos-do-impa/eventos-2019/encontro-brasileiro-de-mulheres-matematicas/ - Round table “Motherhood and Career”, Brazilian Meeting of Women Mathematicians, Rio de Janeiro, 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1NPZrOF69Y - Round table “Diversity in science”, Brazilian Meeting of Women Mathematicians, Rio de Janeiro, 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37sHemuaHYg - I Workshop of Women Mathematicians – I WMM, Campina Grande, 2019.
https://mat.ufcg.edu.br/1-wmm/ - Exhibition “A Singular Look – Contributions of Women to Brazilian Mathematics”, Brazilian Meeting of Women Mathematicians, Rio de Janeiro, 2019.
https://smoraes2000.wixsite.com/simonemoraes/umolharsingular - Previous Boards of Directors of the Brazilian Mathematical Society. https://sbm.org.br/diretorias-anteriores/
- Previous boards of directors of the Brazilian Society of Applied and Computational Mathematics.
https://www.sbmac.org.br/diretoria/ - Thematic Committee Women in Applied and Computational Mathematics, Brazilian Society of Applied and Computational Mathematics.
https://www.sbmac.org.br/comite-mulheres-na-matematica-aplicada-e-computaciona/ - Gender and Diversity Committee, Brazilian Mathematical Society/Brazilian Society of Applied and Computational Mathematics.
https://sbm.org.br/comissao-de-genero-sbm-sbmac/
https://www.sbmac.org.br/comissao-de-genero-e-diversidade-sbm-sbmac/ - Guidelines for Diversity in Events, Brazilian Mathematical Society/Brazilian Society of Applied and Computational Mathematics.
https://sbm.org.br/diretrizes-para-diversidade-em-eventos/
https://www.sbmac.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diversidade-em-Eventos02julho2019.pdf - Advice on Diversity of Speakers at Conferences and Seminars, London Mathematical Society.
https://www.lms.ac.uk/adviceondiversityatconferencesandseminars - Adriana Neumann, Ana Shirley Ferreira da Silva, Christina Brech, Cydara Cavedon Ripoll, Dayse Haime Pastore, Helena Judith Nussenzveig Lopes, Manuela da Silva Souza, Maria Aparecida Diniz Ehrhardt, Maria do Socorro Nogueira Rangel, Priscila Pereira, Sueli Costa, Celebrating women in mathematics in times of pandemic, News of the Brazilian Mathematical Society/Bulletin of the Brazilian Society of Applied and Computational Mathematics, Special Edition, 2020.
https://sbm.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Noticiario_SBM_202005_espe_mulhers.pdf - https://sbm.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/2023/Noticiario_SBM_05nroedicao_especial.pdf
- Adriana Neumann, Ana Shirley Ferreira da Silva, Christina Brech, Cintya Wink de Oliveira Benedito, Jaqueline Godoy Mesquita, Maité Kulesza, Manuela da Silva Souza, Simone Leal, Sueli Costa, May 12: reasons to celebrate, reasons to fight, News of the Brazilian Mathematical Society/Bulletin of the Brazilian Society of Applied and Computational Mathematics, Special Edition, 2021.
https://sbm.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Noticiario_SBM-Boletim_SBMAC_202105_ed_12maio.pdf - CNPq announces inclusion of the maternity leave field in the Lattes Curriculum, National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, 2021.
https://www.gov.br/cnpq/pt-br/assuntos/noticias/cnpq-em-acao/cnpq-anuncia-inclusao-do-campo-licenca-maternidade-no-curriculo-lattes - Call No. 18/2024 Research Productivity Grants, National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, 2024.
http://memoria2.cnpq.br/web/guest/chamadas-publicas?p_p_id=resultadosportlet_WAR_resultadoscnpqportlet_INSTANCE_0ZaM&filtro=abertas&detalha=chamadaDivulgada&idDivulgacao=12605 - Black Mathematics Group, Manifesto “Anti-racism? Perspectives of Black women mathematicians”, 2020.
https://www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/CWM/Newsatachements/Anti-racism_%20Perspectives%20fo%20Black%20women%20mathematicians%20.pdf - Simone Maria de Moraes, A little about the trajectory of Eliza Maria Ferreira Veras da Silva, probably the first black Brazilian woman to obtain the title of Doctor in Mathematics, 41st News of the Brazilian Mathematical Society, 2022.
https://sbm.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Noticiario_SBM_202203_nro041-1.pdf - Support Program for Projects and Scientific Initiation in Mathematics Prof. Dr. Eliza Maria Ferreira Veras da Silva, Federal University of Bahia.
https://papicelizaferreira.ufba.br/ - Project “Caboclas Kirimbaua Auaeté in Science”, Federal University of Amazonas.
https://kirimbauaauaete.wixsite.com/workshop - “Potimáticas: Potiguar Girls in Mathematics” Project, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte.
https://sites.google.com/view/potimaticas/ - Project “Girls in Mathematics: Looking for Arletes”, Federal University of Paraná.
https://docs.ufpr.br/~ewkaras/extensao/extensao.htm - “MatematiQueer” Project, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
https://sites.google.com/im.ufrj.br/matematiqueer/ - National Meeting of Negres in Mathematics – EN2M, online, 2021.
https://sites.google.com/uem.br/ennm/p%C3%A1gina-inicial - “Dynamic Women” Project, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
http://www.dinamicas.im.ufrj.br/ - “Mathematics and Statistics of Girls” Project, Federal University of Rio Grande, Federal University of Pelotas, Federal University of Pampa, Federal University of Santa Maria, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Sul, Farroupilha Federal Institute.
https://linktr.ee/maesdasgurias - Women in Mathematics Workshop – WMM, online, 2020.
https://sites.google.com/view/wmmon-line - II Workshop of Women in Mathematics – II WMM, Campina Grande, 2023.
https://mat.ufcg.edu.br/2-wmm/ - III Workshop of Women in Mathematics – III WMM, Campina Grande, 2024.
https://mat.ufcg.edu.br/wmm/ - 2nd Brazilian Meeting of Women Mathematicians – 2nd EBMM, Belém, 2022.
https://sites.google.com/view/iiebmm/ - 3rd Brazilian Meeting of Women Mathematicians – 3rd EBMM, Salvador, 2024.
https://sites.google.com/view/ebmm-3 - Ethnic-Racial Relations Commission – CRER, Brazilian Mathematical Society.
https://sbm.org.br/comissao-de-relacoes-etnico-raciais-da-sbm-crer/ - “Women in Mathematics” Award, Brazilian Mathematical Society, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics.
https://sbm.org.br/elas-na-matematica/ - I SBM Workshop on Women in Mathematics – I SBM WMM, Maringá, 2024.
https://sites.google.com/uem.br/iwmm-sbm/p%C3%A1gina-inicial - Video “I will not be interrupted – 08/03/2018”, Marielle Franco Institute, 2022.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl8czAgJGUE - Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Hope: a reunion with the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Editora Paz & Terra, 2020.
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