Analysis of Mode: Math Opens Doors Everywhere.

Since 1975, the Mathematical Association of America has been sponsoring the secondary school lectureship program WAM-Women and Mathematics-designed to encourage young women to seek adequate preparation in mathematics. Throughout its five consecutive years of operation, WAM has received primary funding support from the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). By conservative estimates as of January 1980, WAM visits had reached more than 500 schools, 42,000 students, and 4,300 parents, teachers, and counselors. Requests thus far have exceeded 650 from secondary schools alone. The idea for WAM was sparked when IBM representatives held a reception for top scorers in the U.S.A. Mathematical Olympiad and noticed that no women were among the winners. The U.S.A. Olympiad is an annual mathematics contest begun in 1972 for invited high school students who have excelled in previous mathematics competitions. From among the high achievers in the U.S.A. Olympiad, a special team is selected for participation in the International Olympiad held each summer. Since 1974, American teams have entered the international competition, which started in 1959. No women have yet been members of the American team, although two participated for the first time in the 1978 training sessions, and, in all, it is believed that since 1967 not more than four or five women from other countries have participated each year in the international contest [7, p. 807]. The absence of women from the Olympiad symbolized their absence from a host of fields which today require sound mathematical preparation-traditional fields like engineering and the physical sciences, and areas like business, the social and biological sciences, psychology, and medicine, which increasingly involve mathematical applications. To encourage 9th and 10th graders to keep career doors open by electing to take more than the minimum school mathematics requirement and to acquaint teachers, counselors, parents, and other influential individuals with the importance of mastering mathematics, WAM was created. Visits to schools for a half to one full day are designed to enable WAM speakers to converse formally and informally with students, teachers, and counselors, on why mathematics is needed for both college and non-college bound students regardless of sex. In addition to such visits, WAM also arranges presentations to professional societies, elementary school teachers, civic organizations, parents groups, and legislative leaders. Programs are held within WAM regions, which currently include New York/New Jersey, Connecticut, Boston, Chicago, the San Francisco Bay area, Southern California, South Florida, and Oregon. Plans are under way to open new regions. Since guidance and career counselors exert such a profound influence on students, as documented by studies in [1] and [4], WAM speakers endeavored to meet with the counselors during the regular school visits. Unfortunately such discussion sessions rarely took place. Counselors were often unavailable because of heavy demands on their time for student interviews and administrative responsibilities. WAM was also unsuccessful in repeated attempts to seek an opportunity to explain the "women and mathematics" issues at regional and national meetings of the American Personnel and Guidance Association, the professional society for counselors. Nevertheless, after those few school meetings which did take place, the evaluations by both