{"id":77,"date":"2020-02-05T23:20:10","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T23:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/livingproof\/?p=77"},"modified":"2020-02-05T23:20:10","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T23:20:10","slug":"helping-other-women-helping-myself-by-amy-prager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/livingproof\/2020\/02\/05\/helping-other-women-helping-myself-by-amy-prager\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping other women, helping myself, by Amy Prager"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

One of the most important topics to me in academia and industry is that of gender discrimination. To discuss this problem in the abstract is one thing, however, to actually live through it and have personal experience is quite another. I view this issue through a rare lens, as I am a postoperative transgendered woman.<\/p>\n

When I was younger, and assumed to be a cis-gendered male, I let my eyes and ears be my guide to what those around me thought about what the proper role of women and their education should be. My grandparents\u2014on both sides\u2014would actually say things like, \u201cIt\u2019s OK for a boy to be bookish or nerdy, but for a girl its very bad, of course.\u201d My mother\u2019s father was actually proud of the fact that he wanted\/allowed his daughters to be educated, too, as if this was an unusually progressive attitude for him to take. I remained silent, but I vowed in my mind to investigate further exactly how normative these prejudicial attitudes were when I was older, hoping someday that information would become easier to come by (through a worldwide, interconnected computer system of \u201cwebpages,\u201d perhaps?). When I looked at undergraduate colleges, there were still some good universities, most notably Columbia College, that would not admit women. We have come a long way, but in many respects, not nearly far enough.<\/p>\n

When I attended university, I took further notice of potentially sexist and other discriminatory attitudes all around me. Some in my family actually said if I did not marry a member of my ethnic group, I would be disowned or worse. These statements are clearly not supportive of an LGBT identity, especially when they were expressed before the legalization of same sex marriage. But these attitudes went far beyond romantic or reproductive relationships\u2014they affected every aspect of my daily life. Dismayed by what I saw happening back \u201chome\u201d and vowing to myself that that place will never be considered my \u201chome\u201d again, I approached my advisor and colleagues about these ideas. My advisor, trying his best to be supportive, told me that, horrifyingly, some women attend college with the goal of obtaining their \u201cMRS degree.\u201d I then queried my female STEM friends and students about their experiences. I was genuinely saddened by what was self-reported. One of my own students lamented that her mother told her she was destined to be a housewife like her and, therefore, did not need an expensive education.\u00a0 When I tried to intercede on her behalf, I actually got branded as a villain. Tales of parental, familial and societal disapproval were the norm, not the unfortunate rare exception. What was even worse was that the academy, whose very job it was to encourage their students, acted in an even more discouraging fashion. However, I felt more than sadness. I was in disbelief, as I could not have imagined\u2014from my unknowingly privileged vantage point\u2014that such institutionalized discrimination could exist against an entire class, indeed the majority of people on earth. However, all of that was about to change dramatically once I began transitioning.<\/p>\n

When I first sought out therapy to help me through my transition, I did not realize that there are religious therapists who believe that their role is to encourage heteronormativity and cis-normativity, and they know that the only way they can do this is by removing the patient (or victim) from other sources of more neutral help. I had my work cut out for me! I had one encounter in my search for a therapist that is amusing in hindsight. A therapist yelled at me that if I did not show up in a business suit, pressed dress shirt, and perfectly tied tie, he would throw me out of his office. His rationale was simple: only these clothing choices would make me at all employable. (He apparently has never been to a tech company office or university campus.) He told me to grow up and get a job, pointing out that he didn\u2019t want to have to pay increased taxes to pay for my welfare my entire life. Oddly enough, he and others like him have inadvertently taught me a great lesson. They made me more sensitive to others\u2019 needs and instilled in me a desire to help.<\/p>\n

And it is my need to help others\u2014and especially those who need help strictly because they come from some marginalized group\u2014that has altered the course of my life, my career, and my research. When helping others becomes something you are disrespected and degraded for, you know you know you are dealing with people that have a lot to hide and a lot to lose. These are people that have too much to lose from a fair world, and too much to hide about themselves. As a result of negative experiences, both directed at me personally and those I observed out in the world, my work transitioned from research mathematics and computing to STEM education and, in particular, math education, with a focus on helping women achieve their fullest potential in these fields. In the course of my research and my work in these areas, what I have learned and experienced has been absolutely astounding. I have found that there is a powerful community that uses threats involving educational expenses as leverage to realize their vision for the next generation. It has both encouraged me to continue onward, and it has depressed me so much that I have had difficulty doing exactly that.<\/p>\n

I cope and manage to keep going by observing the success stories of my students and mentees. I see the effects on those who have been hurt and those who I am trying to help. Despite the challenges I face on the path I\u2019ve chosen, the positive change I am able to contribute to makes it worthwhile.<\/p>\n

\"\"Amy Beth Prager is an applied mathematician and computational scientist who has\u00a0become a STEM Education researcher and passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion,\u00a0encouraging young women and underrepresented groups in STEM, sharing her love of science\u00a0and technology to inspire the next generation of scientists and technologists, and people\u00a0everywhere to embrace learning and education.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the 20th century, she graduated Johns Hopkins University in applied mathematics and\u00a0theoretical chemistry, and studied postgraduate level quantum chemistry for 1.5 years beyond\u00a0her bachelor\u2019s degree, and successfully worked on scientific projects in a wide variety of\u00a0locations, within Nothern America and Europe.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the 21st century, her research interests turned towards the disproportionate barriers\u00a0and resultant income inequality in countries with high education costs such as the USA and UK,\u00a0that fall on women and underrepresented groups. She entered the doctoral programs in math\u00a0education and mathematics at Columbia University, featuring additional coursework at\u00a0Princeton University and IAS, and after becoming ABD at Columbia, completed over a calendar\u00a0year of post-ABD study at MIT.<\/em><\/p>\n

She currently devotes herself to these issues in a number of capacities. She serves on the\u00a0NCWIT Aspirations Team in her native Massachusetts, lectures in mathematics education at\u00a0Cornell University and other universities in New England, and is an active member and\u00a0participant of SACNAS, and the Mathematics Alliance. She has served on panels , led\u00a0discussions, and given keynotes at SWE conferences and similar organizations, and contributed\u00a0to books and book chapters on encouragement of women and underrepresented groups in\u00a0STEM.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most important topics to me in academia and industry is that of gender discrimination. To discuss this problem in the abstract is one thing, however, to actually live through it and have personal experience is quite another. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gender-discrimination","category-lgbtq"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbnYs7-1f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/livingproof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/livingproof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/livingproof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/livingproof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/livingproof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/livingproof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/livingproof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions\/79"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/livingproof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/livingproof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/livingproof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}