Dr. Jeanne LaDuke: Leading and Supporting Women in Mathematics

Why did you decide to include a gift in your will to the AMS?

I decided to include the AMS in my estate plan largely because it has been so supportive of my scholarly interests and provided a warm community in which to participate. I am especially pleased that they published our book and continue to support the supplementary material for the book.

How and when did your interest in mathematics develop?

My interest in mathematics was encouraged by my father and an elderly aunt. I grew up on a farm in southern Indiana and my country grade school had “opening exercises” which were often arithmetic problems. My father would practice with me on a very large slate board at home. His much older sister, my Aunt Mabel, had graduated from Indiana University with a major in mathematics in 1914. I still remember when she told me, “Someday you will be able to take ‘The Calculus’.” Thus, my interest in mathematics was encouraged and supported very early by my family.

Tell us about your mathematical studies.

I did my undergraduate work at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, where I was able to spend my junior year abroad in Germany. After I graduated as a mathematics major, I was a graduate student at the University of New Hampshire and an instructor at the University of Connecticut before receiving my PhD from the University of Oregon in 1969, focusing on abstract harmonic analysis. Soon thereafter, I was again at the University of New Hampshire and then Smith College, where there was little support for those in my area.

I joined the American Mathematical Society and very much appreciated the opportunity to meet other people interested in mathematics, but especially women. I learned that there were very few women who received PhD’s in mathematics in the 1960s. In fact, the last woman I ever had a mathematics class from was my freshman algebra teacher in high school. In 1978, at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Atlanta, I met my future co-author, Judy Green, who was giving a talk on American women who had earned PhD’s in mathematics before 1911. At the meeting, we decided that she and I would focus on American women who earned PhD’s in mathematics before 1940. Thus, I began the major thrust of my work with Judy for the next thirty years.

Tell us about your involvement in the AMS and the mathematical community.

As we gathered more information on our project, Judy Green and I prepared talks and papers, many about our women, which we presented over the years, including at AMS Special Sessions at Joint Mathematics Meetings. The AMS also published several of our works related to our research about women in mathematics. I attended many other joint meetings, where I was involved in activities of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and the Association of Women in Mathematics (AWM), as well as the AMS. For example, over the years I attended meetings of the MAA Spectrum Editorial Board, the Joint Committee on Women in the Mathematical Sciences, the Mathematicians and Educational Reform Network, the Executive Committee of the AWM, and the meeting of the MAA Committee on Archives of American Mathematics. At one meeting I was a Project NExT mentor.

What challenges did you face in your career as a mathematician?

Among challenges in my career were at least two instances where I was paid less than a male colleague with less experience and fewer credentials. Also, I was not considered for a position, even though my credentials were appropriate, where I was told by a colleague that it was because I was a woman.

What are your interests outside of mathematics?

Outside of mathematics, I have long had an interest in music, especially opera and theater. Now, living in Chicago, there are numerous opportunities to indulge these interests. Also, Santa Fe Opera has been a destination for nearly twenty years. I have over the years enjoyed travel in Europe and the Middle East, Alaska, Australia, Kenya, India, and Nepal.

And finally, what do you value about the AMS?

For the last forty-seven years I have lived in Chicago and am now retired from DePaul University. Because of the scholarly support of AMS, I was able to have an extremely satisfying career in a university, where I very much enjoyed teaching and engaging in many other activities that were available.