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Women in Physics & Astronomy Faculty Positions

by Rachel Ivie

Highlights

• Data for these graphs were collected from a survey sent to all physics and astronomy degree-granting departments in the US in 2006. The response rate to the survey was 96%. AIP thanks all the departments for completing the survey.
• The percentages of physics and astronomy faculty positions that are held by women have increased since our last data collection efforts in 2002 and 2003. Twelve percent of physics faculty members are women, up from 10% in 2002 (Figure 1), and 17% of astronomy faculty members are women, and up from 14% in 2003 (Figure 2).
• The percentages of women physics and astronomy professors at all ranks have increased (Figures 1 and 2). At 17%, the percentage of women assistant physics professors is slightly higher than the percentage of physics PhDs earned by women in the recent past (about 13%). The percentage of women assistant astronomy professors is about the same as recent PhD production in astronomy.
• The percentage of women physicists who are instructors and adjuncts increased between 2002 and 2006 (Figure 1). This occurred at the same time that the overall percentage of physics non-tenure-track faculty members increased.
• Forty-three percent of all physics departments have no women at all on their faculties. It should be noted that most physics departments have relatively few faculty members of either sex. As Figure 3 shows, physics departments that do not grant graduate degrees (median number of faculty =4) are less likely to have women faculty members than larger, PhD-granting physics departments.
• The percentage of PhD-granting physics departments that have multiple women on their faculties is increasing rapidly. In 2002, 20 PhD-granting physics departments had four or more women faculty members. In 2006, 21 PhD-granting physics departments had five or more women on their faculties (Figure 4). These are listed in (Figure 5).
• Twenty-two percent of the new physics faculty members hired for 2006-2007 are women (Figure 6) . One-fourth of new assistant physics professors are women. Again, this is higher than the percentage of women among recent physics PhD recipients. Whether the percentages of full and associate female professors will continue to increase will be shown in future rounds of this survey.