Women's Interest and Persistence in Physics and Astronomy

There is a much larger percentage of women taking high school physics (about 50%) than there are women earning bachelor’s degrees in physics (about 20%, but rising). We designed a five-year longitudinal study to determine whether the decline in percentage of women in physics between high school and college is due to women entering college less interested in physics than men, or whether interest is initially equal, but declines faster for women than for men during college. If interest drops during college, the study is designed to show reasons for the decline. I will present results from this study that describe the timing of the gender gap in physics.

Data from other studies document additional barriers to equitable participation for women who persist past the bachelor’s level in physics. For example, women physicists who responded to a global survey reported that they have less access to career-advancing resources than men reported. The effects of barriers such as these combine to create an accumulation of disadvantage that can set back individual scientists’ careers and impede scientific progress. Data on inequity in physics and astronomy are essential so that we may design programs and practices that will allow full participation for all.