FRANCE: Gautami BHOWMIK and Colette GUILLOPÉ

EWM members and activities

The involvement of French members in EWM is often influenced by the existing national
association femmes et mathématiques (Women and Mathematics, abbreviated hereafter as FetM)
which has about 120 members, most of them women, three-fourth of whom are mathematicians or
scientists, the others being mathematics teachers in high schools or in higher educational
institutions. The head office of FetM is located at the Institut Henri Poincaré (IHP) in Paris where
together with other French learned societies of mathematics hosted on the premises, the association
participates in the running of the IHP. A member of the Executive Board of FetM was elected to the
Council of Administration of the IHP for two years in 2019 and still occupies the seat in 2022.

There are about a dozen subscribing members of EWM in France, and a few other women
mathematicians are or have been associated to EWM activities in 2021 and 2022.

All the activities concerning women in mathematics in France are in fact organised or coorganised
either by or under the auspices of the association FetM (see below for some details of activities). An
interview of Sylvie Benzoni, professor at Université Lyon 1 and director of the Institut Henri
Poincaré in Paris was published in the EWM Newsletter, Issue 35 (2022/1).

FetM has taken part in the EWM working group, installed by Maria Westdickenberg, which sent an
open letter to institutions and universities to alert people in positions of responsibility of the
difficulty of young mathematicians in Europe during the pandemic and suggest to help them, for
example by extending their doctoral grants and providing them with teaching help.

Information about the activities of EWM, including its e-letter is circulated on the mailing list of
members and friends of FetM. Moreover the association’s own newsletter in French, published 3 or
4 times a year, resumes information about EWM and other European associations such as the
European Platform of Women Scientists (EPWS).

Activities of the French association femmes et mathématiques from 2020 to 2022

During almost all of 2020 and the first half of 2021 most activities were held as videoconferences because of the COVID-19 lockdown. Some events scheduled in the beginning of 2022 have been delayed or cancelled for the same reason. Among the more important activities of this period there were the following.

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. Some recent forums:
– a half-day videoconference in December 2020, with a talk for a general audience by the science
historian Isabelle Lémonon about women scholars of the French Enlightenment;
– in Besançon in December 2021 with its featured theme “Probability, Statistics and Applications”, and a conference for a general audience by the mathematics historian Anne Boyé on the statistical work of Florence Nightingale. There was a participative theater show about women whom the Nobel prize ignored.

Math days for high school girls and beginning students. Begun in 2009, these one-day conferences aim at attracting high school girls towards mathematics and increasing their awareness of stereotypes of women in mathematics. This activity is also geared towards beginning women students in science in general to encourage them to continue their studies in mathematics. For this FetM is partly funded since 2017 by a grant from the public Foundation Blaise Pascal, which is hosted at the Université de Lyon. The grant has been substantially increased under the auspices of a non-profit organisation Femmes@numérique created by private companies in Computer Science, in Artificial Intelligence or in Big Data, to increase the number of women in these fields. There have been between 9 and 16 of these days organised per year though we now receive more than 30 requests a year! In 2022 we established several videoconferences for high school girls in the format of speed-meetings with women professionals about jobs in mathematics and computer science which turned out to be very successful. In spring 2020, we published a booklet about the stereotypes about women and mathematics aimed at the parents of the girls, to enable the latter to discuss their eventual choice of scientific orientation with their family. In spring 2021 we published another booklet on the same subject, this time for a general audience.

Math week-ends for high school women students interested in mathematics. These 2 to 3-day sessions have been organised several times a year in France since 2016. Young mathematics students interact with high school girls to help them feel comfortable in their future studies. This is actually organised by the association Animath, and is a common activity to both associations, as are the Math Days.

Presentation of statistics on the presence of women mathematicians in France. These statistics are regularly maintained on the website of FetM. The contribution of these statistics form an important aspect of the « Journée Parité » (Parity Day in Mathematics) whose next edition is scheduled at Sorbonne Université in Paris in July 2022 in which our association will continue to participate similarly.

Acting as a member of CFEM. A national reform of secondary education in 2019 has resulted in numerous high school students being able to opt out of mathematics in the last 2 years of their programme. Many girls in particular stop learning mathematics and science at an early age which will jeopardize their future chances to study science at university and consequently to have a science related job. As a member of CFEM (the French counterpart of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction – ICMI), the association has been a partner of numerous professional associations in mathematics, statistics, computer science, and other sciences in lobbying at the ministry in charge of education to fight against this reform.

New photography exhibition “Mathématiques, Informatique… avec elles” (Mathematics, Computer Science… With Her). This a series of 20 portraits of women professionals who have studied mathematics and/or computer science. The exhibition was inaugurated on May 14, 2022, at the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris, in the presence of partners of the association. Several of the young women featured were present as well. This was an activity on the occasion of May 12, birthday of Maryam Mirzakhani, now a day to celebrate women in mathematics.

Other activities. In collaboration with other French or European associations such as Femmes & Sciences (Women & Science), Femmes Ingénieurs (Women Engineers), Réussir l’Égalité Femmes Hommes (Succeed in Equality Between Women and Men) and the European Platform of Women Scientists (EPWS), we organised or coorganised:
– Visits to high school classes to propagate information about careers in STEM;
– Organisation or co-organisation of colloquia about diverse topics like the place of women in science and society or gender-based violence in higher education and research;
– Lobbying actions for promoting women in STEM in France and in Europe; the association FetM is a member of the EPWS, and was elected in 2019 and again in 2021 to its Board of Administration; Laurence Broze is the deputy representative of FetM, Colette Guillopé is vice president since June 2021;
– Publication of a booklet in April 2021 about jobs that students might consider taking up after studying mathematics, statistics or computer science. The work, done in collaboration with the French professional associations in Mathematics, in Statistics or in Computer Science, is entitled « Zoom sur les métiers des mathématiques, de la statistique et de l’informatique » (Zoom on Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Jobs), includes portraits of about as many professional women (11) as men (10).