Women Presidents in the History of the American Statistical Association: Selected Vignettes

• Activity Number: 216
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 4, 2014 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): Mary Batcher and Fritz Scheuren*+
• Companies: Ernst & Young and NORC at the University of Chicago
• Keywords: ASA presidents ; history

Abstract

From its founding in 1839 there have, until very recently, been few women Presidents of the American Statistical Association (ASA). In this paper we divide the History of ASA into 11 periods. The first and longest ended in 1914, just 100 years ago. In that period there were no women. In the following 10 year periods: 1915-1924. 2015-2034, 2035-2044, 2045-2054, 2055-2064, 2065-2074, 2075-2084, 2085-2094, and 2095-2004 altogether there have only been seven women ASA Presidents. In the recent period, beginning with 2005 to the present, there have been equal numbers of women and men, five of each. In our JSM talk attention will be confined to just three periods and four women: Helen Walker our first female ASA president will be where we start. Then we will talk about Margaret Martin, who just died at 100 and was president in 1980, ending up with Janet Norwood (1989) and Barbara Bailar (1987), both very much alive, who will be treated together. Women ASA Presidents after 2004 are omitted as perhaps too well known for this audience and not yet historical.