Women in the history of mathematics

Women in the History of Mathematics
Before the twentieth century, mathematics as a science was largely closed to women. From ancient times to the present time, few women have been successful to this field of science. Mathematics has been viewed as the subject for men. However, women have shown confidence and worked so well in this field. According to Patricia Rothman (1997),”Mathematics is not only for men”.
The first woman to have an impact on the science of Mathematics was known as Hypatia of Alexandria (370-415). She was a Greek- philosopher, astronomer and a mathematician. Hypatia was the only salaried head teacher in Neoplatonic School in Egypt. The students of Hypatia were both Christian young men and pagans from Alexandria. She was ruthlessly murdered by a mob of Christians, who were incited by the bishop of Alexandria, Cyril.
Winifred Edgerton (1862 -151) became the first American woman to get a PHD in Mathematics. Born in Wisconsin, Winifred received her PHD from Columbia University.
Florence Nightingale (1820 – 1910) also contributed to the history of Mathematics, she made a revolution on how statistics are gathered and displayed. Caroline Herschel (1750 – 1848) discovered the comet but never went beyond learning her time table. Mary Everest Boole (1832 – 1916) was most interested in teaching mathematics and science to children by using string geometry to help in depicting shapes.
Sophie Germain (1776 – 1831) was a French woman – mathematician. During the French revolution, she studied geometry to relieve herself from boredom, at the time she was confined to her family’s home; she did some important work in mathematics and developed a theorem for proving Fermat’s Last Theorem. “Sophie Germain Primes” Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718 – 1799), an Italian (Milan) woman, she studied languages and mathematics, she contributed by writing a textbook to explain math to her brothers which later became a noted textbook on mathematics. She also wrote a book on calculus and an equation that when graphed is known as the “Witch of Agnesi”. Agnesi was the first woman to be appointed a university professor of Mathematics.
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) was a British- mathematician. She worked with Charles Babbage on his counting machines. Her work included translation of articles on Babbage’s Analytical Engine that included notations (three- fourths of the translation) which was later known as a computer and software. Possibly, she was the first person to think about computer programming. The Ada computer language was named after her in 1980. Grace M...