Reviewed by Rosslyn Ives
Published by Fourth Estate, London, 1997. Paperback RRP $16.95
This book explores why men 'wear the trousers' of power and authority in the mathematical sciences. Its central thesis is that since their beginnings, mathematics and physics have been quasi-religious practices shaped as the prerogative of men. As a consequence involvement by women has been both discouraged and at times forbidden. In addition, Wertheim argues that funding research projects of little practical use to humanity, are a continuing testament to the influence of this transcendent tradition.
Does any of this matter very much? Well yes, if you believe that women who are excited by mathematics and physics should be accepted as equal and full participants, and yes if you think that these sciences will be practiced differently if more women are involved, and yes if you believe that research money could be allocated in more socially useful ways.
Margaret Wertheim, a graduate in mathematics, computing and physics, became disillusioned with the anti-human focus of research, and turned to a career path in science writing. Initially this book was planned as a history of the mathematical sciences for the non-specialist reader. However as work progressed an unforeseen theme emerged which radically changed her view of science. Instead of an objective, gender neutral activity, as she had believed the sciences to be, Wertheim noted, 'That a major psychological force behind the evolution of physics has been the a priori belief that the structure of the natural world is determined by a set of transcendent mathematical relations.' Convinced of the validity of this new perspective of science as shaped by social and cultural forces, Wertheim rewrote her research material into Pythagoras's Trousers.
The book begins historically with the Greeks around 6 BC, skirts through the Middle Ages and then covers in more detail the period from the Renaissance to present times. Wertheim cites ample evidence that through the ages men have associated mathematics and physics with magical and religious thinking. Moreover, men have considered themselves more capable of activities to do with thinking, the mind and 'transcendence', compared to women who were thought to have weaker minds and to be more 'grounded' or embodied.
To flesh out her argument Wertheim examines the work of deeply religious men of science, among them, Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday and Albert Einstein. All were motivated, at least in part, by a search for a single unified theory, an idea absorbed from the dominant cultural tradition of Judeo-Christian monotheism. Among current physicists she notes references to God, e.g. 'The mind of God', 'God's theorem', and cites Stephen Hawking who behaves as though he is God's equivalent, and Paul Davies, whose writings appeal to a public hunger for religion and science to be reconciled. Wertheim hypothesises that the quasi-religious tradition fuels the desire of physicists to find TOE -- the Theory of Everything -- and drives the justification for huge research grants, to the disadvantage of more modest and socially useful projects.
With recent research showing ability differences between the sexes to be little more than statistical variations explainable by socialisation, it continues to be of concern that outstanding women scientists lack the recognition and rewards their contributions merit. Wertheim has drawn on many sources to give examples of how social actions like, restriction of access, denial of prizes, failure to give employment, support promotions, and denigration of contributions, serve to keep women out of the mathematical sciences.
Wertheim concludes by suggesting that as women are differently acculturated they would probably bring a more 'grounded', i.e. socially concerned focus to physics, but to get them fully involved will require more than the ‘add and stir method’. To enable women to wear 'Pythagoras’s trousers', Wertheim presents a compelling case for affirmative action to redress the culturally created gender imbalance.