Women in Maths Day at Bangkok Prep

This week in the Mathematics faculty we celebrated International Women in Maths Day on the 12th May. This is a day to celebrate and honour women in the Mathematics community that takes place on the birthday of Maryam Mirzakhani, the first female to win the Fields Medal.

Women in Mathematics needs to be celebrated, not only to give credit where credit is due, but to also encourage young girls to want to pursue careers in Math. Based on questionnaire results by UNESCO, Bangkok, in the seven Asian countries of focus, girls reported higher rates of anxiety regardless of whether they performed higher or lower than their male counterparts in Maths or Science. Whether in education or the workplace, the proportion of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) decreases dramatically at the highest levels.

This is why under Miss Saghir’s direction we decided to highlight women in Maths day: our students took part in various activities to teach students about famous female mathematicians and their contributions to the field. And after researching many female mathematicians, the students found that being a female comes with many challenges when pursuing a Mathematical education or career. The students made posters to create awareness about female mathematicians and how to improve gender equality in the future.

“Girls are capable of doing everything men are capable of doing. Sometimes they have more imagination than men.”

Katherine Johnson