Okay kiddo, let me tell you about the timeline of women in mathematics.
A long, long time ago, women weren’t allowed to study math or even go to school. But then, in the early 19th century, some brave women started to break through that barrier.
One of these women was Mary Somerville. She loved math and science, and taught herself everything she could about them. In 1835, she wrote a book called “The Mechanism of the Heavens,” which explained complex ideas in astronomy in a way that regular people could understand it. Mary Somerville became really famous for her book, which showed that women could be just as smart as men in math and science.
Jumping ahead to the late 19th century, there was a woman named Sofia Kovalevskaya. She was born in Russia and loved math, but she had to go to another country, Germany, to study it. She became a famous mathematician and even won a prize for her work. Her story showed people that women should be allowed to study math and science just like men.
Fast-forward to the 20th century, and the number of women in math started to grow. Women like Emmy Noether, who worked on algebra, and Grace Hopper, who helped create early computers, made major contributions to math and science. More and more women started going to college to study math, got jobs as mathematicians or scientists, and even started their own companies, like Ada Lovelace, who’s considered the first programmer in the world.
Today, women are still making big strides in math and science. There are lots of women studying to become mathematicians and scientists, and they’re making new discoveries and solving important problems every day. They’re following in the footsteps of those brave women who came before them, and showing that there’s nothing holding girls back from being just as good at math as boys.