Employment Opportunities for

WOMEN MATHEMATICIANS AND

STATISTICIANS

"Never before in the history of the world have there been such wonderful opportunities for mathematics and mathematicians." This statement was made by a representative of a manufacturer of electronic calculators at the first conference on training personnel for the computing-machine field, held in 1954. "In a few years," he

Figure 1.-A programer whose college major was mathematics operates a magnetic drum data-processing machine.

said, his company will have "as many opportunities for mathematicians with advanced training as the whole country could use a few years ago" (5).* And a Women's Bureau comparison of information from selected industrial firms in 1946-47 and in 1953 indicated that the number of women employed as mathematicians in industry had doubled between the two dates.

Evidence presented in this report backs the conclusion that mathematics is a flourishing field-and that its growth has made it an opportunity-filled area for women.

*Numbers in parentheses indicate references listed in the appendix. (See p. 36.)

Who ARE Mathematicians and Statisticians? **

The

Professional mathematicians work in higher mathematics. pure mathematician works with mathematical laws and principles, pursuing his "self-motivated progress along dimly discernible paths of growth toward intellectually satisfying goals" (12). The applied mathematician directs the results obtained by his colleagues in pure mathematics to problems in business, government, industry, engineering, and the natural and social sciences. The utility of mathematics as a tool in other fields of endeavor has given applied mathematics new emphasis. This is the area in which opportunities have developed most rapidly since the Women's Bureau published its first report on the Outlook for Women in Mathematics and Statistics. nearly 10 years ago (22). Programers who set up the problems for the new electronic calculators work in applied mathematics.

Statistics is described as a branch of applied mathematics (6). Mathematical statisticians who investigate and develop statistical theory and method are highly trained mathematicians. Other statisticians use statistics as a tool to further an ever-increasing range of activity in economics, sociology, finance, public health, the physical and biological sciences, personnel administration, advertising, opinion polling, education, and certain manufacturing industries like aircraft. Especially on higher levels, the same individual may function as both mathematical and applied statistician.

Formal professional standards are most specific for actuaries. Members of this rapidly growing profession apply the theory of probability to keep insurance plans, including employee-benefit and workmen's compensation plans, on a financially sound basis.

Assistants to professional mathematicians in these fields are usually college-trained workers, variously known as mathematical aids or assistants, statistical technicians, research assistants or clerks, or statistical machine operators; they are included in this report. Although their primary preparation has likewise been in mathematics, engineers and engineering aids are discussed in a separate bulletin on engineering (Women's Bureau Bulletin No. 254).

Teachers of mathematics, at the college and high-school levels, needed now more than ever to instruct future mathematicians and scientists, are of course included in this report.

Number of Women Mathematicians and Statisticians

There were about 20,000 mathematicians in the United States in 1955, according to a preliminary estimate of the National Science Foundation. Possibly 1 out of 8 or 10 were women. This includes

**See appendix for Dictionary of Occupational Titles definitions.

mathematical statisticians, but not other statisticians of whom there were possibly 20,000, including some 7,000 women. The Bureau of Labor Statistics uses an estimate ranging from 10,000 to 20,000. Among the 1,600 to 1,800 professional actuaries, there were fewer than 100 women. The National Science Foundation estimate also does not include approximately 29,000 high-school teachers who were instructing in mathematics full time and another 35,000 who were instructing in mathematics and other subjects as well, according to estimates of the United States Office of Education. Roughly 1 out of 3 of these high-school mathematics teachers were women.

Characteristics of Surveyed Groups

The characteristics of women mathematicians included in the National Register of Scientific and Technical Personnel in 1954-55 who reported their employment offer a clue to the specializations and functions of an experienced group of women mathematicians. This registered group are more highly trained than many of the younger women mathematicians who have not had as much opportunity to obtain a higher degree, and who are believed to be markedly underrepresented in the Register, which distributed its questionnaires for registration through professional societies. The median age of the

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women included in the Register was 40 years, and 8 out of 10 had received either the master's or the doctoral degree. (See table 1.)

Table 1.-Education of employed women mathematicians in the National Register of Scientific and Technical Personnel, 1954-55

Source: National Science Foundation (preliminary unpublished data).

Four out of ten of these women mathematicians reported themselves as general mathematicians (see table 2), most of whom teach undergraduate college mathematics. Roughly 1 out of 10 women mathematicians were in each of the following specialties: analysis; applied mathematics; statistics, probability, and stochastic processes; and algebra and number theory, with a somewhat smaller proportion in geometry and topology. The largest group among the women employed in private industry who reported their specializations were those in numerical analysis, classified under applied mathematics in table 2. This was the only group of specialists among women mathematicians in which the employment in industry was higher than it was in educational institutions. Algebra and numerical analysis provide important theoretical background for programing in electronic calculating.

Table 2.—Specialties of employed women mathematicians in the National Register of Scientific and Technical Personnel, 1954–55

Source: National Science Foundation (preliminary unpublished data).

The close relationship of mathematicians to physical scientists and engineers is indicated in an earlier survey in which mathematicians reported their second interests most often in physics, electronics, or engineering (19). Secondary-school mathematics teachers, too, are often expected to add general science to their schedule, with social studies the next most likely assignment (14).

Women statisticians covered in a 1952 survey of social scientists were similar to the women mathematicians reported in the Register in age, but different in educational level. Their median age was about the same, 41 years, but a much lower proportion of the statisticians had the doctoral degree and a much higher proportion had the bachelor's degree only. (Compare tables 1 and 3.)

Source: U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the U. S. Department of Defense (21)

Specializations of women statisticians were not reported separately in the study, but among men and women combined, there were almost no generalists and by far the leading specialty was methodological techniques, in which almost 60 percent were engaged. Business and management, economics and economic theory, and sociology and the social sciences followed, in that order. Only 4 percent worked in the physical sciences. Since the questionnaire mailing list used in this survey was compiled from societies in the social sciences and the humanities, including the American Statistical Association, however, there is probably a marked underrepresentation of physical scientists. A survey made in 1948, with a list compiled primarily from American Men of Science, found biology and psychology the most frequent second fields of statisticians, after statistics (19). A 1950 estimate set the number of public health statisticians in the country at 400, or about 2 percent of all statisticians (1).

Demand for Women Mathematicians and Statisticians in 1955

A woman mathematician employed as a consultant at the United States Bureau of Standards, and described by her male colleagues as