A booklet of Portraits of African Women Mathematicians

Dr Marie Françoise OUEDRAOGO and Prof. Schehrazad SELMANE

Title: African Mathematicians Women-A protrait Gallery

Authors:

  • Dr Marie Françoise OUEDRAOGO, AWMA President
  • Prof. Schehrazad SELMANE, AWMA Vice-President for North Africa

Date of creation: 2018

Background information:  AWMA was created in 2013 to promote mathematics and women in mathematics in Africa. The main goals are  to bring together women coming  from various countries in Africa, to give them a platform for presenting their work, discussing their own situations and the status of women in mathematics in their respective  countries and finally to update AWMA data.

It is well-known that promoting mathematics has an important role for scientific and industrial development. However the number of mathematicians in Africa is still small and unfortunately the ratio of women in mathematics is drastic. In short the role of AWMA is therefore to reverse this current trend.

Goals and Objectives:

  • highlight women mathematicians in Africa.
  • Create and update a database of role models of African Women Mathematicians for the AWMA website.
  • motivate and stimulate young girls for mathematical careers.
  • Promote AWMA by displaying posters and flyers of AWMA in various African universities.

Funding: the project has been funded by the International Mathematical Union Committee for Women in Mathematics (IMU CWM), see https://www.mathunion.org/cwm/eventscwm-sponsored-events/2018.