This is an excellent article and these ladies are smart people:
But for some reason this article made me very angry. Well, not the article itself but the fact that this needed to be written. Why do we need to prove that ladies can be smart? Why do we need to prove that people who does not have a white skin are smart? The smartness or stupidity is related to your brains, not your gender nor your skin color.
When I was at the elementary school (about 11 years old) I had a school mate: a boy with a black skin. He was absolutely the worst in mathematics. We had a very smart teacher who realized that he was not actually bad in mathematics but he THOUGHT he is because everybody said so. This smart teacher came to me and asked if this boy could sit beside me and I could teach him a little during the mathematics classes. Of course I said that is fine (I have always loved both mathematics and teaching). Next time we had an exam he got an A-. It was not because of my superior skills in teaching but with the fact that he was not fighting against learning when I was just talking to him and explaining things and I believed in his skills. He found the motivation when he realized that he is not actually bad in mathematics at all.
Some years later another teacher was thinking the same and asked me to teach another boy (white in skin). I seriously tried but he just did not understand mathematics at all. He was not talented in mathematics but he was very talented in handicrafts.
People are talented in different areas and it has nothing to do with their skin color or their gender, it has everything to do with their brains and… with the MOTIVATION. If you tell others they cannot do something, finally they cannot, even though they might be very talented. Do not do that, please! Let people try if they are talented or not, do not judge them beforehand by facts that have nothing to do with their brains and talents. Do not judge based on gender, color of hair/skin/eyes/.. Do not judge in any reason, just let people try!
The article is excellent and will give motivation to many people who has been pressed down by ignorant people. Thank you for writing it! And thank you to those nine ladies for being such a great example to us all.
HeliFromFinland 
Well said.
Another aspect of this sort of thinking is people who decide someone can’t learn a skill if they can’t pick up the skill quickly. Some people take more time to learn skills but will get there if given some time and some encouragement.
Thank you, Martin. You are so right.
Finland is a reference for everybody else when it comes to good teachers and how to invest in the schools, your teacher is an excellent example. (Can one imagine the value for this boy learning math this way compared to go through life believing he was a loser?). Regarding the article you link to, it is a sad fact of reality that many prejudge others, and those who have been a victim of this may be helped by having heroes to look up to.
That is true. IMHO the school in my days was much better that it is today. I hope some changes are coming to get it better again… I remember from my school years that nobody ever said anything bad about me and mathematics: not the teachers, not the pupils. It was very normal that I like mathematics and that I am good in it.