Maths to award the Fields Medal, its Nobel Prize equivalent, but is there a numbers problem?

The 2022 Fields Medal winners will be announced at a ceremony in Finland on July 5, with the medal widely regarded as the maths equivalent of a Nobel Prize. However, only one female mathematician has won it in 86 years. Experts say redressing the gender imbalance will require work at multiple levels, beginning in schools, reports ABC News.

“From schools to the Fields Medal, maths currently has a numbers problem: female under-representation,” writes ABC News journalist, Daniel Keane.

Keane references AMSI’s recent report card on year 12 participation that found only 37.8% of students undertaking higher mathematics were female, and that overall participation had actually declined compared to the previous year.