Quantifying Inequities and Documenting Elitism in PhD-granting Mathematical Sciences Departments in the United States
Published in arXiv, 2024
Recommended citation:
Buckmire, R., Diaz Eaton, C., Hibdon Jr., J.E., Kauba, J., Lewis, D., Ortega, O., Pabon, J., Roca, R., & Vindas-Melendez, A.R. (2024). Quantifying Inequities and Documenting Elitism in PhD-granting Mathematical Sciences Departments in the United States. https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.13750
Abstract
In this paper we provide an example of the application of quantitative techniques, tools, and topics from mathematics and data science to analyze the mathematics community itself in order to quantify inequity and document elitism. This work is a contribution to the new and growing field recently termed “mathematics of Mathematics,” or “MetaMath.” Our goal is to rebut, rebuke, and refute the idea that the mathematical sciences in the United States is a meritocracy by using data science and quantitative analysis. Using research and data about PhD-granting institutions in the United States, we quantify, document, and highlight inequities in departments at U.S. institutions of higher education that produce PhDs in the mathematical sciences. Specifically, we determine that a small fraction of mathematical sciences departments receive a large majority of federal funding awarded to support mathematics in the United States and that women are dramatically underrepresented in these departments. Additionally, we quantify the extent to which women are underrepresented in almost all mathematical sciences PhD-granting institutions in the United States.