Gender and Mathematics: affirmative actions from an international Olympiad

Abstract

Introduction: Costa Rica hosted the third Pan American Women's Mathematics Olympiad in 2023, which was organized and carried out in response to the need to visualize the work of women in solving mathematical problems at the national and international level. The objective of this article is to visualize, through a systematization of experience, the affirmative actions that were articulated by the organizing committee through a women's competition in favor of reducing the gender gap in Mathematics. Methodology: The experience was systematized by collecting documentary data, interviewing participants and reviewing newspaper articles to identify the affirmative actions and reconstruct the experience. Results: Five affirmative actions developed by the commission were detected; request for women in roles of head or tutor of delegation, selection of head and tutor of Costa Rica, coordination of multiple informative notes, invitation to collaborating university students, Enriqueta González Baz award. Conclusions: As a result of some of the affirmative actions, an international jury composed mostly of women was achieved, university students were impacted; future mathematics teachers on the importance of a scientific community with greater female participation.