Women in maths (1)

Paola Elefante (applied math doctoral student at University of Helsinki, Finland): “When I was younger, math was a just a game to me. My mother was a middle-school math teacher and she signed me up to the national math competition for the first time. At the start of high school, I had lost my interest, but when I was sixteen I met a new teacher who changed things completely. Not only was he smart and had great communication skills, but he had what matters the most in teaching: passion for the subject. At first, I took studying math as a challenge and mostly wanted to impress him. Gradually, I grew my love for math and I became sure I wanted to go on studying it at the university.

While being an undergrad student in Italy, I met the first gender-based obstacles. People were only asking me if I was planning to become a math teacher, while keeping all options open when asking my male peers (“What would you like to do afterwards?”). It was happening systematically. Additionally, even though we started 50-50 on the first year, in the final years my class counted only myself and another girl. Jokes diminishing our logic skills because of us being women happened frequently. This fueled my disappointment, as well as my determination, over time.

In my master graduation year I travelled to Helsinki as an Erasmus student. There, I found a completely different environment in terms of gender equality. During my studying period, I never felt any different because of my gender, even though the class was still mostly men.

I had the chance to start my Ph.D. studies in applied math and inverse problems in Helsinki, and that is what I am doing to date. I love my research, because it is directly connected to biomedical problems and I feel I am doing something meaningful. Even though I studied abstract math, now I find myself dealing with problems in angiography, algorithms and medical imaging. My advisors are attentive to the themes of gender equality and the value of diversity, and this is a great encouragement for me when I feel like a minority.

Being a mathematician does not mean being less of a woman. Today, I am also a wife and a mother of a beautiful and smart daughter.

What I wish for the future generations is that every girl would believe she can do anything she sets her mind on and has the means to follow her dreams.
Don’t let anyone put a limit to your possibilities.