Although women and men, girls and boys, and, for that matter, gentlemen and ladies, have all contributed to mathematics, it cannot be denied that women have contributed less than men, and that girls have contributed less than boys. However, this is not because of any difference in mathematical ability between women and men, or between boys and girls. Rather, the reason women have not contributed as much to mathematics as men, and the reason girls have not contributed as much to mathematics as boys, is simply because they have not had the same opportunities to do so, and, to some extent, still do not. Where this intersects with Christianity is that Christianity has helped women and girls to acquire some of those opportunities.
Opportunities to contribute to mathematics that women and girls have been denied or given less access to than men and boys, which is the reason they have not contributed as much to mathematics as men and boys, are as follows: Schools being closed to women and girls (of course, some schools have been and are open only to women and girls, but historically men have had more schools open only to their sex); women and girls having to do more of the housework and childcare than men and boys; women and girls being discriminated against due to being female in mathematical activities (jobs, internships, etc.); women and girls being educated unequally with men and boys at home (for example, through homeschooling or preparation at home for formal schooling); and women and girls having less access to money and property than men and boys, thus impeding their ability to attend school, devote time to learning mathematics rather than taking a job, etc.
Now consider Christianity’s righteous opposition to these oppressions. If a person wishes to attend school in Afghanistan, she or he will find that her or his ability to do so past sixth grade is entirely dependent on whether the person in question is female or male. The fate of her or his educational opportunities entirely depends on that. Conversely, Christian schools have long either welcomed women or, if all-male, had all-female counterparts that do.
In regard to women and girls having to do more of the housework and childcare than men and boys, Christianity’s embrace of cloistered nuns has helped with this, as it shows the value of women refusing housework and childcare in pursuit of something more meaningful to them. As shown in “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?” by Edmund Lee Gettier III, justified true belief is not always or necessarily knowledge. Rather, it is only knowledge if the reason the belief is justified is the reason it is true. Now, the reason the belief that female and male people deserve an equal chance to contribute to mathematics is justified is that female and male people are of equal worth, which is the reason that belief is true. Here, Christianity has also contributed by advancing the correct belief that female and male people are of equal worth, as the Bible makes clear in Galatians 3:28, which, as written in the King James Bible, reads, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Regarding childcare, one must also note that there have been cases where women have been pressured into motherhood by the idea that a woman without children, and/or without a husband, is unnatural and wrong. Here, again, we can count on Christianity to oppose this incorrect and insulting idea. Not only through the example of nuns, though that is certainly part of such opposition, but through the knowledge that God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and Saint Paul are asexual because they, with the exception of Jesus and Saint Paul, never had a human body to feel sexual desire with, and because they, including Jesus and Saint Paul, are not described as feeling sexual desire in the Bible, which would have been noted if it occurred, as a way of emphasizing Jesus and Saint Paul having some things in common with ordinary humans. This then shows that asexuality is not a sin, unnatural, or something that ought to be opposed, as it is part of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and Saint Paul themselves, and something that is part of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit can never be a sin.
As well, the idea that a husband may expect his wife to do housework and childcare for free, but that same wife hiring a maid, nanny, or both so that she can do other things is being oppressive, is rightly opposed not only by the plain observation that it makes no sense but by the Christian idea of having some people devote themselves to worldly things (much of the laity) to leave others, such as nuns, free to contemplate God (or mathematics, as the case may end up).
The cause of the oppression of women is that women are, on average, physically weaker than men, which allowed, and to some extent still allows, men to oppress women directly through violence, and allowed and to some extent still allows men to control women through sexist laws and customs, as men were able to set up those laws and customs due to being physically stronger (think of a king’s army conquering a province and changing its laws), and sinful greed caused them to set them up in their own favor.
Because of this, the cure for the oppression of women, mathematically and otherwise, is the acknowledgment that female and male people are of equal worth, which, as already stated, is made clear in the Bible, and the acknowledgment that might does not make right, which is also made clear in the Bible; for example, as written in the King James Bible in Proverbs 3:35, “The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools,” where we see that people ought to be given glory based on their wisdom and not their might.
As for the concept of the utility monster, a creature that receives much more utility from each unit of a resource that it consumes than anyone else does, it is correctly noted that in utilitarianism one would have to give more resources to such a creature than to others to satisfy the greatest good for the greatest number; however, Christianity rightly opposes this by turning our attention instead to the least of these, as written in the King James Bible in Matthew 25:40, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me [Jesus].” Utilitarianism can still work in places such as Earth where there is no utility monster, but the point remains that Christianity makes a full opposition to might making right, even when might is construed as the ability to receive utility from a resource.
These ideas have been borne out by the contributions many Christian women have made to mathematics, such as the famous mathematician Maria Gaetana Agnesi. Christianity is thus a way for women and men to live equally and have equal opportunities in mathematics and all other endeavors.
