A woman finally wins the Fields Medal after 50 years. Why did it take so long?

By Sam Howison. Almost half of maths undergraduates are now women, but winning recognition at the very top of the profession has been a battle. Finally, after more than 50 male winners, a Fields Medal goes to a woman mathematician, Maryam Mirzakhani. If you tossed a coin 51 times, your probability of 50 tails then a head would be less than one in 2,250,000,000,000,000; but nowadays close to half of maths undergraduates are women. That is a pretty stark juxtaposition. Does Mirzakhani’s success mark a turning point in the battle for women to gain more recognition in mathematics? Read more...