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Women in Physics and Astronomy, 2005

by Rachel Ivie and Kim Nies Ray

Highlights

• The representation of women in physics and astronomy at all levels continues to increase. At the high school level, almost half of physics students are girls (Figure 2), although fewer girls take AP physics in high school. During 2003, women earned 22% of the bachelor’s degrees in physics and 18% of the PhDs in physics—a record high (Figure 1). In astronomy in 2003, women earned 46% of bachelor’s degrees and 26% of PhDs (Figure 3).
• Astronomy has a much higher representation of women than does physics. Although the percentage of degrees awarded to women in physics continues to increase, physics is not attracting women as quickly as other fields (Figure 7 and Figure 8).
• There are 18 physics departments that award at least 40% of their bachelor's degrees to women (Table 2). There are 10 physics departments that award more than 25% of their PhDs to women (Table 4). There are also 19 women’s colleges that award at least a bachelor’s degree in physics, although these colleges account for only a small percentage of bachelor’s degrees in physics earned by women (Table 3).
• Women are 10% of the faculty members in degree granting physics departments (Table 6). In stand-alone astronomy departments, the percentage of women faculty members is 14% (Table 5). In addition, women are better represented at departments that do not grant graduate degrees and in the lower ranks of the faculty.
• Examination of the academic “pipeline” reveals that women disproportionately leave physics between taking it in high school and earning a bachelor’s degree. While almost half of high school physics students are girls, less that one-fourth of bachelor’s degrees in physics are earned by women. After this initial “leak” in the pipeline, women are represented at about the levels we would expect based on degree production in the past. There appears to be no leak in the pipeline at the faculty level in either physics or astronomy (Figure 11 and Figure 12).
• Estimates of the retention rates for physics graduate students show only small differences in the dropout rate for male and female students.
• African American and Hispanic women earn very few of the physics degrees in the US (Figure 15 and Figure 16).
• Internationally, the representation of women in physics is also very low. Most countries award less than 25% of their first-level university physics degrees to women, and most grant less than 20% of their physics PhDs to women (Table 11 and Table 12).
• Even when working in the same sector for the same number of years, women’s salaries are lower than men’s in physics and related fields.