Women’s Contributions to the Progress of Mathematics: Lights and Shadows

We deal with many of the notable women whose mathematical accomplishments are best appreciated through an understanding of the societies and the problems that shaped their lives. Women have participated in many of the greatest and most enduring intellectual achievements in mathematics and have enjoyed its powerful satisfactions and its aesthetics values. Not only were their intellectual investments remarkable as those of male mathematicians, but they needed an extra dimension of stamina and fortitude to cope with the prejudice against women working in hard sciences. We enjoy talking about them , because none of their lives were dull and indeed some of them were so unusual they have been romanticized. Their rich personalities and their remarkable personal lives deserve to capture our attention.