The numbers don’t lie.
That’s especially true of Wofford College’s Department of Mathematics, where women hold 50% of the tenure- track faculty positions and represent nearly 68% of majors. Both figures are well ahead of national averages.
According to the American Mathematical Society’s Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Annual Survey, women held 37% of the tenure-track positions at undergraduate schools in 2018. About 42% of mathematics majors were women in 2018.
The department has eight tenure-track positions. Dr. Rachel Grotheer became the department’s fourth woman when she came aboard this past fall as an assistant professor.
Dr. Charlotte Knotts-Zides, professor, says it has been exciting to see the growth in the number of women in the department.
“I think there is a different perspective that women bring to the math field,” she says. “I definitely think our numbers are impressive. It is certainly a reflection of the women in the department as being capable of mathematics. I’m excited that our female students find themselves with these role models.”
Dr. Deidra Coleman, who is in her fourth year as an assistant professor at Wofford, says a bias against women in STEM education is a by-product of age-old stereotypes. She says that as a Black woman she has felt discouraged at times as she pursued her career path.
“I get the layer of being a woman and the layer of being a minority in a white-male-dominated field,” she says.
Coleman says Wofford provides a more supportive atmosphere for women.
“For us, it’s exciting that we are encouraging students who might be underrepresented on a national level to stay in the program,” Coleman says. “A lot of times they are majoring in another program, and we will convince them to add math.”
When Dr. Joseph Spivey, the chair of the department, arrived at Wofford in 2008, there were only two women in the department: Knotts-Zides and Dr. Angela Shiflet, professor emeritus of computer science. Shiflet also split her time as chair of the computer science department.
Hiring women for the sake of parity was never Spivey’s goal. His objective was the candidate from a broad, diverse pool of applicants.
“We know people are likely to be more successful in mathematics if they have a teacher who looks like them,” says Spivey. “Women, people of color and other under-represented groups are more likely to see themselves as mathematicians if they have a mentor who looks like them. And the more diverse faculty you have, the more attractive you are to people of all walks of life.”
Mathematics has not always been a welcoming field for women. There are some in the field, Spivey says, who still consider women to be inferior at math.
“Hundreds of years ago, women were not even allowed to be educated in mathematics,” Spivey says. “That sort of heritage stays with us today. There are a lot of under-represented people who are not mathematicians today because of that. We’re losing talent to other fields.”
Knotts-Zides says she was never discouraged from pursuing a career in mathematics. But she says she knew there was a difference.
“If there are 12 people in a class and only two or three are women, you knew that you were the unusual,” she says.
Caroline Sargent ’21 of Easley, S.C., is one of 21 current female mathematics majors, out of a total of 31. She discovered her love for mathematics while taking calculus to fulfill requirements for chemistry, her other major. Spivey encouraged her to continue taking classes in mathematics. She says having female role models in the department is helpful.
“They see the concerns that female students have,” Sargent says. “And I get to see how they’re balancing things outside of work, and it gives me hope when I see that.”
By Robert W. Dalton