Women and mathematics in Europe

In Italy the percentage of women among the university professors of mathematics (including research assistants) is around 35,4%, which is higher than that of female professors of physics, chemistry or geology. In Portugal the percentage is even higher, almost 50%. In the Nordic countries instead, the last available statistics give the following percentages of women mathematicians: Denmark 9,7%, Finland 14,5%, Germany 14,6%, Netherlands 9,8%, Norway 11,9%, United Kingdom 17,9%. The percentages further decrease if we restrict ourselves to considering full professors only. These data can sound very strange if we are used to see those countries as the cradle of the emancipation of women. In the last years the problems of analysing the reasons of this difference and of studying what actions could contrast it have been tackled by the association EWM - European Women in Mathematics, and by the Committee “Women and Mathematics” of the European Mathematical Society.