EDGE Program Helps Women Complete Graduate Math Programs

The EDGE Class of 2013 at the New College of Florida in Sarasota.Women have made major advancements in post-secondary education the past few years, yet there are disciplines where they are still severely underrepresented. According to the National Center for Education, in 2010, although women represented about 52 percent of all Ph.D.s, they earned fewer than 30 percent of math and statistics Ph.D.s. Average drop-out rates for all graduate students are between 40 and 50 percent, and women are even more likely to drop out than men.

To address these discouraging issues, Sylvia Bozeman of Spelman College and Rhonda Hughes of Bryn Mawr College teamed up in 1998 to launch the Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education program, which aims to help women flourish in and complete their graduate math programs.

Each year, EDGE, a four-week-long summer session, accepts a handful of female students who have completed undergraduate courses in analysis and abstract algebra and have been accepted to graduate programs in math. EDGE partners with eight schools, including Bryn Mawr College, Florida A&M University, Morehouse College, New College of Florida, North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina State, Pomona College and Spelman College.

According to Dr. Ami Radunskaya, co-director of EDGE and professor of mathematics at Pomona College, one of the biggest problems for women in mathematics graduate programs is an absence of support. She says that, often when women enter this field of study, “there’s a lack of role models for women in the research university faculty, which is where they have Ph.D. programs … so you feel immediately that you don’t belong.”

Women also experience familial pressures and expectations that men simply do not face. A study conducted by Cornell University states that the high number of women’s attrition in graduate programs “appears to have less to do with discrimination or ability than with fertility decisions and lifestyle choices.” In short, women are biologically required to choose between family and career in a way that men are not, and many choose a family over finishing their Ph.D.s.

During their time in EDGE, students take courses in analysis and linear algebra, mini-courses in pure and applied mathematics and complete problem-solving sessions with faculty. Instructors include four math professors, the program’s two national directors, its co-founder and two graduate mentors. Jessica De Silva, a participant in EDGE’s class of 2013, endures long days and nights studying and collaborating with her classmates.

“We’re being pushed beyond our limits and actually beyond what really graduate school is going to have for us,” she says. “So, our mentality here is if we can make it through this program, then we can make it through our graduate program.”