<p>I just read the latest math department newsletter:</p>
<p>The faculty and student accomplishments are very impressive but the department looks overwhelmingly male. There are almost no women mentioned or pictured in the 8-page newsletter. Is this what the department is like?</p>
<p>There are a lot of female math undergrads at MIT (I'm sure there are stats somewhere on the percentage), though upper level classes are still mostly male. Professional academic mathematicians are still almost all white and Asian men, and not for lack of trying to reverse that...</p>
<p>The sad truth is that if one ends up at any top math department, it'll be 70/30 at best. I wouldn't choose a university (or a career) based on gender ratios, though, because that's part of what generates the problem. Also, I'd be surprised if the gender of one's colleagues in a particular major is really a major determinant of quality of life.</p>
<p>Just a few random thoughts... (full disclosure: I'm a Caltech undergrad. eeeevil)</p>
<p>Hi, mathmama:</p>
<p>Granted there are not many women mentioned in the newsletter but I believe that will be changing. DD is a freshman Course 18 major. The department is very receptive to women as evidenced by my visit there this fall and also by the interactions that DD has had with the department thus far. There are female Course 18 majors. I will raise this issue with DD. I know that she knows of a few female upperclassmen Course 18 majors.</p>
<p>According to the Registrar's stats [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/registrar/www/stats/womenfinal.html%5Dhere%5B/url">http://web.mit.edu/registrar/www/stats/womenfinal.html]here[/url</a>] and [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/registrar/www/stats/yreportfinal.html%5Dhere%5B/url">http://web.mit.edu/registrar/www/stats/yreportfinal.html]here[/url</a>], this year there are 49 women who are math majors (plus 8 who are math + computer science) out of 177 students total (plus 31 who are math + CS).</p>
<p>I can guarantee you that it doesn't matter. According to the registrar stats, 135/695 of the people in my major are female - I had no idea the numbers were that low. I mean, sure there were some pretty interesting class ratios I've seen - one of my labs last year had 2 women out of 21, and another class had about 6 out of 40. We did just as well as the men - better, in some cases.</p>
<p>I have a couple of female friends majoring or minoring in math, and discrimination has never been an issue.</p>
<p>Thanks for the stats. The newsletter left the impression that the male-female ratio is closer to 90/10 than 72/28. With 40% of the tenured professors over 65 and close to retirement, the faculty is certainly overwhelmingly male. I'm glad the student ratio is not that lopsided but it would have been nice to see a few women among the Putnam top finishers.</p>
<p>When I attended grad school (in computer science) 20 years ago, the ratio was 90/10. I never felt uncomfortable being one of just a handful of women but it did feel unnatural. DD is planning to major in math and is seriously considering MIT (accepted EA last week). It's good to know there would be plenty of female math majors around.</p>
<p>I had a friend in college who was the only woman math major. Still some of the professors in her advanced classes never bothered to learn her name. :( Glad the times have changed, even if the newsletters haven't!</p>
<p>mathmama,</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm glad the student ratio is not that lopsided but it would have been nice to see a few women among the Putnam top finishers.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I will advise DD to work on that over the next few years! ;)</p>
<p>Congrats to your daughter on her acceptance.</p>
<p>mathmama,</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm glad the student ratio is not that lopsided but it would have been nice to see a few women among the Putnam top finishers.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I will advise DD to work on that over the next few years! ;)</p>
<p>Congrats to your daughter on her acceptance.</p>
<p>This is somewhat off topic, but does any one know of a red sox player who taught math at MIT in the 60's?</p>