Women's and Men's Career Choices in Astronomy and Astrophysics

This talk was given at the GENERA Gender in Physics Day in Vienna, Austria in May 2017. Using data from the third round of the Longitudinal Study of Astronomy Graduate Students (LSAGS), we build on previous results to examine gender differences in working out of physics and astronomy. We show that women are more likely to work outside of astronomy and physics than men because of the two-body problem and lack of encouragement from their dissertation advisors. Once people leave the field, they tend not to return.

The LSAGS is supported by funding from the National Science Foundation (AST-1347723) and follows people who were in graduate school in astronomy in 2006-07. The first survey was conducted during 2007-08, the second during 2012-13, and the third during 2015.