Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!gatech!mcnc!ecsvax!jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov
From: tan@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov (Greer Hsing Tan)
Newsgroups: comp.society.women
Subject: Submission for comp-society-women
Message-ID: <6649@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: 1 Mar 89 19:08:28 GMT
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In article <6562@ecsvax.UUCP> sagpd1!eprice@uunet.UU.NET (Eric Price) writes:
>    I'm posting this after a debate I had with my mother.
>    We were discussing women and there mathematical abilities,
>    PLEASE NO FLAMES !!! . I was just wondering if in history
>    have there been any world caliber women mathematicians.
>    Kind of like Madam Curie was to Phisics and Chemestry only 
>    in the field of mathematics.

This sounds pretty metaphysical to me.  I mean, we are pretty aware of
the society we lived in for many many centuries.  Given that even
if there WAS a brilliant female mathematician ... she also would have
had to fight pretty darn hard to be recognized, right?  I mean,
was Madam Curie the ONLY female who understood Physics and Chemistry?
The metaphysical part is like the question "When a tree falls in a
forrest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" ...
"If a woman was brilliant in mathematics, but made no big tadoo about
it (fearing the contempt of society), and therefore no one ever really
knew about it, does that mean she never existed?"

Greer

PS ... this isn't a flame.  I just think your question needs to be seen
in a different light.  It's sort of hard to answer, you know?