With women still underrepresented in STEM career tracks, there is much work left to change the ratio. One critical factor that has been shown to create greater odds for success is support at home or in an early educational environment.

Deirdre Haskell, Fields Institute Deputy Director and Professor of Mathematics at McMaster University, and Cymra Haskell, Professor of Mathematics at University of Southern California grew up in a math-friendly household, which positively influenced their eventual independent choices to pursue academic careers in the field. But even with this home advantage, their paths were still filled with many challenges.

On International Women’s Day, they will join in conversation about the contrast between their home environment and the systemic issues they – and their peers – faced through graduate school and academic work, how their experiences compare with today’s overall structure, and what more needs to be done to create the spaces where girls, women, and underrepresented groups can all thrive in the mathematical sciences.