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Dream job mathematics! Occupational histories of women and men in mathematics. (Traumjob Mathematik! Berufswege von Frauen und Männern in der Mathematik.) (German) Zbl 1058.01018

Basel: Birkhäuser (ISBN 3-7643-6749-0/pbk). ix, 192 p. (2004).
In the book the authors present results of their project about “Women in mathematics. Determinants of careers in mathematics from a sex-specific perspective”. The aim of the project was to carry out a comparative investigation into mathematical careers in the past and in the present. For that the authors analysed on the one hand the career of 3040 persons who graduated in mathematics in the years from 1902 till 1940 and of 1400 persons who obtained their doctorate between 1907/08 and 1944/45. On the other hand the description of the present state of affairs was based on the questioning of about 1100 graduates in mathematics of 1998 and of 170 mathematicians who received a doctorate between 1988 and 2000.
The authors give an overview of the quantitative development of the mathematical studies of men and women in the decade between 1925 and 1935 as well as in the last quarter of the 20th century. The professional life of the graduates became a second aspect of the investigations. A special focus was put on the careers of male and female mathematicians working as schoolteachers and university researchers, describing a lot of individual careers. In addition, much statistical material is presented as a basis for answering questions about the social backgrounds of the students, the educational systems, the choice of subsidiary subjects, the duration of the studies, how many of the students did a doctorate, the job satisfaction of the graduates in their profession etc. A comparison of the German development with the international one is also given and shows some surprising information, e.g. the fact that the proportion of female students amongst the students of mathematics has the highest rate in the Gulf states. Some historical remarks in the context of the modern development since 1988 have not been taken into account neither the development in Eastern Germany nor the analysis of the progress and the problems of the subject in the four decades after World War II.
All in all, the book offers many interesting and helpful information about the studies of mathematics and the occupations of mathematicians. It is supplemented by a detailed list of references and a name index.

MSC:

01A80 Sociology (and profession) of mathematics
01-02 Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to history and biography
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