EWM members and activities

The situation in France is special because there exists a French association femmes et mathématiques (Women and Mathematics), founded in 1987. This association has about 150 members, most of them women, they are mathematicians or scientists or teachers in mathematics in high schools or in higher education institutions.

There are 7 members of EWM, who have paid the membership fee, and 5 other women mathematicians are or have been associated to EWM activities in 2011-2013. One of the French members, Marie-Françoise Roy, is the present convenor of EWM.

All the activities concerning women in mathematics in France are organized either by or under the auspices of the association femmes et mathématiques (see below for some details about the activities). Information about the situation in France has been made known to EWM members through the EWM Newsletter. Issues 19 (2011/2), 21 (2012/2) and 22 (2013/1) contain reports about the yearly forum which is organised in France for young women mathematicians. Issue 21 (2012/2) has published an article describing the situation of women mathematicians in France and the activities of the French association femmes et mathématiques.

The association femmes et mathématiques is also financially contributing to the next EWM general meeting in Bonn, by paying for the stay of the French coordinator.

Information about the activities of EWM are spread on the electronic list of members and friends of femmes et mathématiques. The e-letter of EWM is sent on this list, as well as news about EWM local or international meetings.

The situation of women mathematicians in France

Although girls in France have a slightly higher success rate than boys in high school for over 47% of students in the standard scientific track, attrition becomes significant in higher education. Throughout undergraduate and graduate university studies, the proportion of female students in fundamental sciences is constant, around 28%. In the selective parallel track for entering Engineering Schools (a French peculiarity), women account for 30% of the students, but 18% in mathematics – and physics – oriented disciplines.

Other French distinctive features include a favorable – although not perfect – social situation (low-cost public daycares, school all day long for young children, paid maternity leave), and the fact that a large portion of women mathematicians are civil servants, hired for a permanent position in the public research system in their late twenties or early thirties, after a short postdoctoral period.

Women account for 21% of mathematics faculty at French universities and 15% of mathematics researchers at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS, the major public research institution in France, and the largest in Europe). Although these numbers might seem high compared to other countries such as USA, Canada or mostly everywhere in Europe, they remain unsatisfying and there is no progression, actually a noticeable decrease (20% women in mathematics at CNRS in 1989, the percentage being about constant since 1992, 16 to 17%, now 16%). The number of mathematicians employed by CNRS has increased from 250 to 375 in the past 20 years, though the number of women mathematicians has stayed constant, about 50 or 60. Women Phd’s account for about 27% of all Phd’s in mathematics, which is comparable to the number of associate professors at universities: there is no male advantage at this entry level. Note that there are very few women entering the most prestigious institution CNRS (zero to two a year, which amounts to about 0 to 10%).

However, the so-called glass ceiling remains very real. In mathematics, at universities, 27% of associate professors, but only 11% of full professors are women (respectively 30% and 10% in 1996) and the male advantage (ratio of the proportion of senior researchers –or full professors– among men over the proportion of senior researchers –or full professors– among women) is as high as 2.2. At CNRS, the situation is more favorable, with the same ratio of women among junior and senior researchers, say 15.5%, and without a male advantage (which means that the ratio is 1). The male advantage for mathematics is much lower than the overall male advantage at CNRS including all disciplines, which is 1.4. These figures give an idea of the thickness of the glass ceiling women find when they look for a promotion: in mathematics, men have 2.2 more chances to be promoted than women at the university. Note that the number of women at CNRS (60 in 2012) is much lower than the number of women at universities (669 in 2013), where the male advantage is huge; moreover, male mathematicians very often prefer to become full professors at university rather than continue their career at CNRS. A finer study of the population of mathematicians shows that it is in the 30-40 age category that the thickness of glass ceiling is the largest: in other words, men mathematicians tend to get promoted between 30 and 40, whereas women tend to stay blocked in their career at that age. Moreover, women mathematicians in the so-called fields of « pure » mathematics, such as algebra, geometry or theoretical analysis, are becoming rarer every year as older ones retire (this part is extracted from EWM Newsletter 21, 2012).

Activities of the French association femmes et mathématiques in 2012 and 2013

Celebration of its 25th birthday in Novembre 2012. This one-day meeting took place during the 12th forum for young mathematicians. A round table was organised with the topic « Which future for women mathematicians ? », in the presence of the minister for Women’s Rights.

After the meeting, a number of propositions have been made by the person in charge of mathematics at CNRS, setting attention to non-balanced recruitement committes, and encouraging in particular directors of laboratories to help promoting the career of women mathematicians.

Forum for young mathematicians.

The forum consists of a series of lectures by senior women mathematicians, talks by doctoral students and young mathematicians, and mentoring activities for young mathematicians. The 12th Forum was held in November 2012 in Paris, with the theme of Algebra and Geometries. A few European mathematicians also participated. The 13th forum will take place in November 2013 in Lyon and will concentrate on Mathematics and Computer Science in Interaction. The four-year agreement, signed in 2010 with the CNRS to organise a forum every year, will probably be renewed this year. The CNRS in particular subsidises the mentoring activities.

Math days for high school girls.

These aim to attract high school aged girls towards the pleasure of mathematics and show them the stereotypes in the field of women in mathematics. This activity is being amplified and is now organized in different cities in France, since it is part a huge contract with the French State called Cap’Math.

Presentation of statistics on the presence of women mathematicians in France.

This presentation was given at a conference in June 2013 about parity in mathematics in France, subsidised by the CNRS and some mathematical institutes, as well as professional associations in mathematics.

Other activities.

In collaboration with other associations such as Femmes & Sciences (Women & Science) and Femmes ingenieurs (Women Engineers), we organised:

• Visits in high school classes to give information about careers in STEM, in particular the action “1000 women ambassadors for science” in high schools of the SouthEast suburbs of Paris in 2013.
• Publication of a booklet about stereotypes; organisation of colloquia about the place of women in science and in the society.
• Actions towards the State which nominated jurys or committees with too few women.
• Actions towards the State about the recent catastrophic reform of the training of teachers and actions for years to implement gender training for teachers.
• Lobbying actions for promoting women in STEM in the public universities.

After the vote of a law for parity in politics in 2000, the situation in France in 2011 seems to be a little more favorable to parity in universities in general and in mathematics in particular.

After publicizing the statistics showing that there are too few women in the higher positions in enterprises (a law was voted in January 2011 to require 40% of each sex in boards of directors in 2017) and in public enterprises such as universities (a law was voted in March 2012 to require 40 % of each sex in all non-elected committees in public institutions by January 2015), some universities are taking decisions to improve the place of women at the highest decision level.

After the change of president of France in May 2012, a ministry for Women’s Rights was created, and the culture of equality between women and men is being implemented in every aspect of life in France through new laws. For example, a new law for elementary and high school education was voted in June 2013, with articles about the education of all children on the rôle of strereotypes. A new law for higher education and research was voted in July 2013 with measures for more equality in central committees of universities, as well as parity in State committees for Research or for Research Evaluation. A new law for equality between men and women is under discussion and should be voted on before the end of 2013, with articles about equality between women and men in their personal as well as professional life.

In mathematics, the associations tend to have a lesser role because younger professionals do not take over and do not recognise themselves in these structures; mathematicians, both women and men, are organising conferences on a much more individual basis.