Program for Gender Equity in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology (PGE): Increasing the Participation by Women in Undergraduate Physics: What Works?

Colorado College, Colorado Springs CO

Investigators

Abstract

A team based at Colorado College is conducting a study of undergraduate physics departments with high and average participation by women, in order to learn what works in attracting and retaining women in the undergraduate physics major. Ten schools that offer a bachelor's degree in physics, but no graduate degrees, were selected. Both public and private schools are included, and at least two are HBCU's. The project has several goals: oTo study some of the many things that have been tried by the physics community and learn what works to increase the number of women majoring in physics. oTo investigate the unusual success of some primarily undergraduate institutions in cultivating women physics majors. oTo find examples of common errors in programs and practices that could be corrected if they were recognized and understood. oTo see whether and how innovations in physics pedagogy have improved the climate for women. oTo communicate our results back to the physics community. A team consisting of two physics professors, one social science professor, and one student assistant are collecting demographic information about the faculty and students at each department. The team is making a two-day site visit to each department, which includes interviews with students, faculty, and administrators, and visits to classes and laboratories. The team is investigating departmental climate, the quality of teaching and advising, the style of classes, and other factors that have been proposed to make physics departments more comfortable for women students. The high participation departments will be compared with the average participation departments to determine what works to recruit and retain women in the undergraduate physics major. Results of this study will be reported in a peer-reviewed journal, and publicized in talks, journal articles, and on the Web. It is hoped that the results of this project will help the physics community evaluate its efforts to attract more women, and find ways to further improve its efforts. The physics community has been concerned about the low participation by women for a decade or so, and much progress had been made; the percentage of bachelors degrees awarded to women has more than doubled in the last twenty-five years. But physics continues to lag behind the other sciences; in 1998, 19% of bachelor's degrees in physics were awarded to women, in contrast to 40% of bachelor's degrees in mathematics and chemistry, and more than half in the life sciences. Several national initiatives are devoted to making physics more attractive to women and other members of underrepresented groups. In addition, individual physics departments are trying a variety of formal and informal programs to increase the level of participation by women. These efforts are unevenly distributed among physics departments, and departments vary widely in the percentage of women majors, some departments have as many as 40% women, and others are far below the national average.