This episode was recorded in July 2026. Gudrun speaks with Chiara Sabadin.

She is currently a researcher in Mathematics Education, with a focus in Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) in Mathematics and founder and co-lead of the Women in Mathematics group of the University of Regensburg. Previously, she has completed a PhD in Pure Mathematics in June 2026 at the University of Regensburg, supported by the SFB 1085 “Higher Invariants” and the DFG, with a work on "A cohomological version of Ribet's Method" under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Guido Kings. Even before, she completed her Master in Mathematics through the ALGANT Master program, studying at University of Padova for the first year and at the University of Regensburg for the second.

In her free time, Chiara has also started social media channels under the pseudonyme @a_life_with_math with the intent of making mathematics more accessible and inclusive to a broader audience, showing and explaining how maths permeates everyday life and also reflecting on her own experiences as a mathematics researcher and as a woman in the field.

Nowadays the ”leaky pipeline” phenomenon of women in mathematics academia, i.e. women in mathematics who opt out of an academic career, is largely recognised.

Often the environment in the departments does not feel welcoming to everyone, leading some of their members to face or feel discrimination. Since first-hand experiences are nowhere to be found Chiara and her colleagues Malena Wasmeier and Eleni Hübner-Rosenau made an online survey for mathematics students and researchers in autumn 2025, and, in this episode, Chiara tells us more about it, sharing some insights from it. It consisted of the following open-texted questions:

Q1 Do you think that it is important and/or a current issue to discuss about gender diversity and inclusivity in mathematics? Why?

Q2 How do you balance work and personal life? In particular, do you think that working in academia affects your personal choices (e.g. creating a family, having children,...)? How and why? Do you think it is a problem? If so, do you have any ideas about solutions?

Q3 Gender quotas and their effects: Have you ever experienced positive or negative effects of them? If so, which ones? Have you ever had the feeling ”I am here only because I am a woman/from an underrepresented background - I don’t actually deserve it”? If so, how did you deal with it?

Q4 There aren’t so many women/from an underrepresented background mathematicians in advanced roles (e.g. according to M. Infusino, Women in Mathematics Germany, in 2014 only 14% of professors in Germany were women). Have you ever felt a lack of these role models? If so, how do you think this affected you and nowadays affects the future generation of mathematicians?

Q5 If you have ever menstruated, have you ever experienced that period “affected” your work life? If so, how?

Q6 Mathematicians and women/from an underrepresented background mathematicians are very much stereotyped. Which common misconceptions about them do you think there are and why do you think they aren’t the truth?

A total of 125 persons from all over the world, from bachelor students to senior professors, participated in the survey, leading to some interesting reflections.

Literature and further information

• Chiara Sabadin, Malena Wasmeier, Eleni Hübner-Rosenau: On Gender Diversity and Inclusivity in Mathematics Departments. MItteilungen der DMV 34 (2026)
• Chiara Sabadin, Malena Wasmeier, Eleni Hübner-Rosenau: A collection of first-hand experiences on gender EDI policies in HE mathematics (to appear in SMEC STEM Education Conference 2026 proceedings)
• Chiara's YouTube

Podcasts

• S. Salomone, G. Thaeter: Allyship, Gespräch im Modellansatz Podcast, Folge 245, Fakultät für Mathematik, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), 2022.