Often the only woman in her department, Barbara Moses taught math at Bowling Green State University — and found herself also teaching understanding and possibilities.

“I get excited about math, and it’s visible. I want everybody to see what is so fun about this,” she said.

STEM programs for young women started mid-career for Moses. But before they began she was already doing presentations to help bring women into the field. It was the junior high ages that she focused on.

Moses went to Carnegie Mellon University for her undergraduate studies, and there was only one female faculty member at that time.

Moses won awards for her teaching, especially for her work with and recruitment of middle and high school math teachers.

She is a professor emeritus at BGSU, who taught for 32 years, from 1978-2011. Her Ph.D. is from the University of Indiana Bloomington, in math/mathematics teacher education.

She taught both graduate and undergraduate students, focusing on the psychological understanding of teaching the practical application of math. She also gave free tutoring to secondary education students.

“I wanted to do it for the community and for my own benefit. … It was toward the end of my career, but I had some experience in the curriculum,” Moses said.

She was also the director of ACTION, a scholarship program for students hoping to become math teachers.

When Moses started graduate school she wasn’t sure if she could become a professor of math, and still asks where the role models are.

She participated in research and numerous studies. She always had notes for her lectures. She also believed in physical models of math.

“Back when I was in school, I never saw a physical model of anything in my math classes. I had to form the model in my head, and that’s hard if the teacher doesn’t know it and you are trying to learn it,” Moses said. “You have to realize that math is needed and necessary for everybody.”

She gives the example of the Pythagorean theorem.

“I think about how people just memorize that theorem, when they could really understand why it’s the case,” Moses said, talking about physical puzzle pieces she created to visually show students how the math works.

She carefully prepares for her presentations, and thinks of her career in two parts: pre- and post getting her degree.

“What should high school teachers be doing, or even middle school and elementary, (to) make sure they understand mathematics. That doesn’t mean that they can recite something, but do they understand the mathematics,” Moses said. “I think that’s really important, because if you try to teach something that you don’t understand, and that you just memorized, it comes across in the classroom.”

Moses recognized different levels of understanding in math, but the concept of understanding was also an issue in her career path.

“I was sort of a trailblazer,” Moses somewhat sheepishly admitted after telling the story of helping to create a new university policy to standardize rules across departments.

At the beginning of her career she was the only woman in the math department, but she generally ignored gender and liked working with and being around other mathematicians.

It was her pregnancy that created some social change.

“When I got pregnant, I talked to the chair, at the time, and gave him my approximate due date. He said ‘Fine. You know you can take off, but if you have the baby on Friday would you be back on Monday?”

Moses is still stunned by the question and insisted that readers know how things were.

“What? Are you kidding? And he was serious. He was absolutely serious,” Moses said.

That was not the first time she had to look past a comment, or a policy.

“There were instances like this. It was not that I was shunned, it’s just that people didn’t know how to treat me. That’s not true for everybody in the department. … I didn’t expect exceptional treatment, but I knew that the men in the department had never been pregnant. They didn’t know what it felt like.

“Later on, the dean of Arts and Sciences, who happened to be a friend of mine, she — and it was a she — said ‘There has to be a policy. It can’t just be up to the department. There has to be a policy to protect female faculty.’ And so a policy was established,” Moses said. “I don’t want to take credit for that. I was going to say, ‘Mostly because of me,” but the question arose because of me.”

Moses experienced another situation during graduate school. The notable mathematician she was studying with in the early 1970s, introduced her to the sexism of the field.

“He said, ‘I really don’t know why they give assistantships to females. They’re only going to go and get pregnant anyhow.’ Really?” Moses said. “That was really insulting and discouraging. For some individuals, who were not thick-skinned, it really was discouraging and they left. I was just astounded, because they had given me an assistantship. I did want to teach younger students, freshman students. It was a slap in the face.

“Things like that happened all along the way,” Moses said. “The non-presence of females, in all mathematical activities, was always disheartening.”

Her advice for young women is to learn math.

“I think you should keep a journal. Write down all the times you use math in your daily life, whether it’s getting change from the cashier or computing the interest on your bank account. You have to recognize that math is everywhere and you need to understand how it arises, and why.”