Women who count: Honoring African American women mathematicians

The importance of encouraging and supporting young people from underrepresented populations to study science, mathematics, technology, and engineering (STEM) is perhaps as great today as at any time in modern society. It is a sad reality – despite all that we have at our disposal today to address (and potentially eliminate) this ubiquitous problem, particularly in primary and secondary education – that it still remains in the twenty-first century. In her ‘Message to Teachers’ (p. xii), Shelly Jones shares:

I am deeply concerned that many children from underrepresented groups do not see themselves as mathematicians. This is partly because they are not exposed to mathematicians that look like them, and therefore they lack the necessary models.

Her book provides a useful tool for teachers to introduce pupils to ‘role models that have the potential to significantly impact their lives’ (p. xii). It also serves as a meaningful resource for pupils that brings ‘attention to the positive narratives of African American women in mathematics, including their contributions to mathematics and glimpses into their personal lives as well’ (p. xi).

To offer teachers and pupils these glimpses, Jones has written short biographies of 28 African American mathematicians, and included either a portrait of the person, expertly done by Veronica Martins, or a photograph. They are organized into four chapters correpsonding to time periods of sorts: The Firsts, The Pioneers, The Un-Hidden Figures, and The Contemporary Firsts. As the chapter titles suggest, Jones has highlighted a strong collection of ‘firsts’ and pioneers, as well as current stars in STEM. For example, in Chapter 1, Jones presents the first three African American women to earn doctorates in the United States (Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes, Evelyn Boyd Granville, and Marjorie Lee Browne). Jones next highlights the contributions of early pioneers, including Etta Zuber Falconer, Genevieve Madeline Knight, and Argelia Velez-Rodriguez. Perhaps a majority of readers will be most familiar with the four women who are the focus of Chapter 3: Christine Mann Darden, Mary Winston Jackson, Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson, and Dorothy Johnson Vaughan. These women and their accomplishments were the subject of the popular film based upon the book Hidden Figures (by Margot Lee Shetterly, published in 2016). Finally, in Chapter 4, readers are introduced to a collection of contemporary African American women in STEM: women working in institutions of higher learning, including some of the most prestigious historically Black colleges and universities, and agencies such as the National Science Foundation in the United States. I was also pleasantly surprised to note that Jones included mathematics education researchers throughout the book, including Carol Malloy (Chapter 2) and Erica Walker (Chapter 4).

In her biographies, Jones helps to situate the women’s personal and professional lives, and in doing so she shines a subtle light on their accomplishments, particularly prior to (and, in some cases, just after) the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. In these examples, Jones is able to tell the stories of women pursuing STEM fields during a time rife with civil, racial, and social unrest, which again, in a subtle way, signals to young women and children from traditionally underrepresented populations how much is actually possible, despite such challenging obstacles and seemingly insurmountable barriers. Readers may be especially shocked by several of the biographies presented in Chapter 4 that remind us that these barriers still persist in the twenty-first century. For example, in Raegan Higgins’ biography, we learn that she was ‘one of the first two African American women to earn doctoral degrees in mathematics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2008’ (p. 76). Perhaps it is best to let that sink in: the year was 2008. Such revelations can support teachers and parents in their discussions and mentoring, and help women of color to see themselves – as Jones shares in her message to teachers – in these successful mathematicians, scientists, astronomers, statisticians, and educators.

In addition to the biographies of African American female firsts, pioneers, and now-unhidden figures in STEM, Jones includes a variety of puzzles and activities appropriate for upper primary and lower secondary (perhaps most appropriate for pupils aged approximately 10 to 13). Although the mathematical puzzles and activities are for the most part engaging, their selection and magnitude could be improved, and in particular, teachers using Women who count may need to do additional work to connect the different activities to the STEM work of the particular figure. For example, most of the decoding puzzles spell out some term relevant to the work of the person, or word search puzzles ask for readers to find terms relevant to a certain field or that describe one of the women or their interests. The decoding puzzles merely present pupils with a computational exercise, and though the decoding itself may be appealing to younger pupils, some teachers and teacher educators may find themselves looking for more challenging tasks for pupils which might provide a gentle glimpse into the foundations of what doing mathematics in the discipline might look like. Whereas it is of course not appropriate to ask pupils for whom this resource is intended to calculate the terminal velocity of some object, perhaps the inclusion of more age-appropriate aspects of the content pertinent to the individuals highlighted in the book would have been possible – at least for some of the 28 examples in the collection.

Finally, there are a few errors in the book, of which teachers, teacher educators, and parents should be aware. In Evelyn Boyd Granville’s biography, the sentence, ‘In 1984, she married Edward V. Granville and moved to Tyler, Texas, where she embarked on a 30-year career as a professor at Texas College’ (p. 7), is a clear error, since Granville retired in 1997. With regard to Etta Zuber Falconer (pp. 20–21), it is an unfortunate oversight that her biography does not mention the highly-esteemed ‘Etta Zuber Falconer Lecture’, established by the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) in 2004 and which takes place as part of the annual MathFest of the Mathematical Association of America. The annual lecture commemorates Falconer’s ‘profound vision and accomplishments in enhancing the movement of minorities and women in scientific careers’ (AWM). Next, on page 51, Pluto is still recognised as a planet; however, in 2006 Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet. As a final example, in Chapter 3, the titles ‘West Computing section’ (p. 65) and ‘West Area Computers’ (p. 69) are used, but the title should be used consistently, or it should be noted for readers that these are the same.

I agree with Jones’ own assessment, in her message to parents and students: ‘There is something for everyone in this book’ (p. xiii). Importantly, what Women who count offers is a view into the lives and mathematical contributions of 28 African American women in STEM, all of whom have the potential to serve as motivating and enlightening role models for children from underrepresented populations.