Women in mathematics: an international perspective, eight years later. Association for women in mathematics panel (Q1092028)

The author, founder and president of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM), reports the problems taken up at the panel organized by the Association during the 1986 International Congress of Mathematicians. First of these problems is the inveterate habit of the Executive Committee only to invite male speakers (4 invited women from 1932 through 1978!). Second is a changed system of recruitment for the French Écoles Normales Supérieures (which provide a large part of French research mathematicians), which has cut down the number of admitted women drastically; both the old and the new system are described, and reasons why a seemingly egalitarian system is heavily discriminatory (in the French context as well as generally) are set forth. Four boxes contain documentary material and information on the AWM. A final section asks for contacts for the creation of a more international network.