Women's Representation in Mathematics Subfields: Evidence from the arXiv

TL;DR

This study analyzes women's representation in mathematics research using arXiv data, revealing under-representation compared to academic employment, with significant variation across subfields.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed quantitative analysis of gender disparities across mathematics subfields on arXiv, highlighting areas of higher participation.

Findings

Women are under-represented as authors on arXiv mathematics papers.

Some subfields have notably higher female participation.

Women's representation is lower than their proportion in mathematics faculty.

Abstract

We use data from papers posted to the Mathematics section of the arXiv to explore the representation of women in mathematics research. We show that women are under-represented as authors of mathematics papers on the arXiv, even in comparison to the proportion of women who hold full-time positions in mathematics departments. However, some subfields have much greater participation than others.