International Year of Statistics Praises Contributions of Women Statisticians on International Women's Day

​Observed each year on March 8, International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, International Women's Day is a national holiday. The event has been observed since the early 1900s, which was a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.

Statistics2013 is a worldwide initiative that is highlighting the contributions of the statistical sciences to finding solutions to global challenges. Turku Centre of Statistics is a Statistics2013 participating organization.

Like their counterparts in other professional fields, women pioneers in the statistical sciences have made outstanding and trailblazing contributions to their profession and have opened the field to more women.

– We salute the world’s women this International Women’s Day, a special day dedicated to them and their achievements past, present and future, says Mervi Eerola, the Head of the Centre.

– The statistical sciences profession and our global society has greatly benefited from the groundbreaking contributions of women statisticians including Florence Nightingale, who used statistics to modernize health care; Dr. Janet Lane-Claypon, who made several important contributions to epidemiology by using and improving its use of statistics; and Janet Norwood, who as the first woman commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics made major contributions to government statistics.

Today, the number of women among mathematicians and statisticians equals the number of men, says a U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey report. Further, women statisticians are influential in many countries—41 of the world’s 190 statistical offices were headed by women in 2010, says The World’s Women 2010: Trends and Statistics, a report commissioned by the United Nations. Lastly, women have earned more than 40% of math and statistics bachelor’s degrees throughout the past four decades.

About The Turku Centre of Statistics

The Centre of Statistics is a core unit of statistical expertise at the University of Turku. It provides education in statistical science, as well as training and consulting in modern statistical methods across the faculty boundaries.

The Centre is a proponent of innovative use of statistical methods and cross-disciplinary collaboration in this area.

For additional information:

>> www.tilastotieteenkeskus.fi
>> www.statistics2013.org/

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