09-15-2026, 04:09 PM
The article “Women mathematicians on screen” by Paolo Bellingeri examines how female mathematicians—both real and fictional—have been represented in cinema and television. Bellingeri emphasizes that they remain rare, but films such as Agora, Hidden Figures, Proof, Gifted, and documentaries about Maryam Mirzakhani and Julia Robinson demonstrate a gradual change. Agora presents Hypatia as a symbol of science confronting fanaticism, although it takes considerable historical and mathematical liberties.
Hidden Figures focuses on Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, using their achievements at NASA to address both mathematics and racial and gender discrimination. Documentaries such as Secrets of the Surface offer a more authentic picture by connecting mathematical achievement with the personal lives, communities, and social contexts of women mathematicians.
The article also explores recurring stereotypes in fictional portrayals: female mathematicians are often depicted as socially awkward, emotionally troubled, isolated, or exceptionally gifted. However, newer films increasingly give them greater psychological depth and make mathematics an important part of their identity rather than merely a narrative decoration. Proof, for example, explores questions of mathematical authorship, mental illness, gender, and recognition, while Gifted examines the education of a mathematically gifted child.
Bellingeri concludes that cinema's representation of mathematics is becoming more sophisticated and that female mathematicians provide particularly powerful opportunities to discuss discrimination, scientific recognition, community, and the relationship between rationality and emotion. Nevertheless, the scarcity of films about real women mathematicians—and the continuing underrepresentation of women as film directors—shows that equality in both mathematics and cinema remains far from achieved.
ARTICLE [PDF]
Hidden Figures focuses on Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, using their achievements at NASA to address both mathematics and racial and gender discrimination. Documentaries such as Secrets of the Surface offer a more authentic picture by connecting mathematical achievement with the personal lives, communities, and social contexts of women mathematicians.
The article also explores recurring stereotypes in fictional portrayals: female mathematicians are often depicted as socially awkward, emotionally troubled, isolated, or exceptionally gifted. However, newer films increasingly give them greater psychological depth and make mathematics an important part of their identity rather than merely a narrative decoration. Proof, for example, explores questions of mathematical authorship, mental illness, gender, and recognition, while Gifted examines the education of a mathematically gifted child.
Bellingeri concludes that cinema's representation of mathematics is becoming more sophisticated and that female mathematicians provide particularly powerful opportunities to discuss discrimination, scientific recognition, community, and the relationship between rationality and emotion. Nevertheless, the scarcity of films about real women mathematicians—and the continuing underrepresentation of women as film directors—shows that equality in both mathematics and cinema remains far from achieved.
ARTICLE [PDF]
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