Women in Statistics through History
Dr Altea Lorenzo-Arribas
This website is associated to the poster “Women in Statistics through History” exhibited at the Royal Statistical Society International Conference 2021 in Manchester.. It aims to provide further information on the lives and careers of these trailblazing statisticians (go to links below pictures) and more details on the statistics presented (see plots below).
The poster aims to share brief overviews of some of the hidden histories of women in statistics worldwide and their essential contributions to the development of the discipline despite exclusions, challenges, and prejudices. By presenting biographical sketches, anecdotes, and associated statistics the poster increases the visibility of these figures and goes some way to redress systematic underrepresentation, exemplified by the lack of Wikipedia entries for many of these important scientists. The selection includes elected fellows of the society, international figureheads and also many failing to gain recognition or even fulfil their career potentials. From data visualisation to social statistics and epidemiology, the women shown here have overcome the odds to enrich their chosen fields. How much greater might those achievements have been had society granted a level playing field?
You can download it here:
Y en castellano:
2020
2000
1980
1972
2003
1998
1975
1965
1957
(1917-1988) proposed correction
formula to Scott Effect
in astronomy
1953
(1894-1972)
started pioneering work
for WHO
1952
1897-1986)
published
Charting Statistics
1949
(1900–1978)
1st woman elected
into the International Statistical Institute
1946
(1901 – 1991)
1st woman Acting Commissioner at US Bureau of Labor Stats.
1944
(1891-1983)
1st woman president
of the ASA
1930
(1905–1952)
joined Australian
CSIR(O) as its 1st
statistician
1918
(1864 – 1938)
1st female fellow of the ASA
1915
(1883 – 1919)
1st female member
of the RSS Council
1912
Lane-Claypon
(1877 – 1967)
published 1st
cohort study
1888
(1860 – 1948) researched women’s work
in Booth’s survey
“Life and Labour of
the People of London
1858
Nightingale
(1820-1910) 1st female
fellow
of the RSS
Approximately 2500 women graduated in mathematics from universities in Britain and Ireland before 1940, according to the Davis historical archive.
Between 1904 and 1940 a total of 73 women graduated from the University of Manchester with a BSc Mathematics constituting a 29% of the graduates in the field at Manchester (see figure below).
Out of the 387 obituaries in the Journals of the Royal Statistical Society Series A and D between 1920 and 2021 (up to July, made freely available by Wiley: https://rss.org.uk/news-publication/news-publications/2020/general-news/rss-fellow-obituaries-now-open-access/), 13 are about women (see figure below; including of Frances Wood, Stella Cunliffe and Gertrude Cox) and 24 have been written by women. (N.B.: obituaries written in the journals must be of fellows of the society).
In 2021, 26.4% of Royal Statistical Society fellows (including CStat and GradStat) recorded their gender as women (58.0% identified as men and 15.6% did not record their gender).
A total of 5 women have presided the society since 1834:
| Stella V Cunliffe | 1975-1977 |
| Professor D Lievesley CBE, FAcSS | 1999-2001 |
| Professor Valerie Isham | 2011-2012 |
| Deborah Ashby | 2019-2020 |
| Sylvia Richardson | 2021-2022 |
Women In Statistics through History 