Senior Women: A Comparison of Astronomy Departments

% Women	# Women	# Men	University	Department	Joint Appts.
42.9	3	4	Indiana Univ.	Astronomy
33.3	4	8	Univ. of Washington	Astronomy
33.3	1	2	Case Western Reserve Univ.	Astronomy
29.2	3.5	8.5	Caltech	Astronomy
28.0	1.75	4.5	Univ. of Wisconsin	Astronomy	1 at 0.75; 1 at 0.5
23.8	5	16	UCSC	Astronomy & Astrophysics
23.1	3	10	Univ. Michigan	Astronomy
23.1	3	10	Columbia Univ.	Astronomy & Astrophysics
22.4	3	10.4	Ohio State	Astronomy	1 at 0.25; 3 at 0.05
20.0	2	8	Univ. of Minnesota	Astronomy
20.0	4	16	Univ. of Arizona	Astronomy
19.0	2	8.5	Princeton Univ.	Astrophysical Sciences	1 at 0.5
16.7	3	15	UCLA	Astronomy & Astrophysics
15.0	3	17	Univ. of Colorado	Astrophysical & Planet. Sci.
14.3	2	12	Univ. of Florida	Astronomy
14.3	2	12	UMass	Astronomy
12.5	1	7	Univ. of Illinois	Astronomy	2 at 0.5
12.5	2	14	Penn State	Astronomy & Astrophysics
11.8	2	15	UC Berkeley*	Astronomy
10.0	2	18	Univ. of Texas, Austin	Astronomy
9.5	2	19	Cornell Univ.	Astronomy
8.3	1	11	Harvard Univ.	Astronomy	4 at 0.5
7.7	1	12	Boston Univ.	Astronomy
7.4	1	12.5	Univ. of Maryland	Astronomy	1 at 0.5
4.7	1	20.5	Univ. of Chicago	Astronomy & Astrophysics	3 at 0.5
0.0	0	13	Univ. of Virginia	Astronomy

Senior woman in astronomy provide us with mentors and role models. They can sometimes change or even transform the culture, dynamics, and environment of a university department. They can stand with us and fight for us if we find ourselves the victim of gender discrimination, sexual harassment, or unconscious bias. They can make a department more female friendly.

CSWA has compiled a list of % women on the senior faculty (tenured professors only) for PhD astronomy departments in the US. For joint appointments, we attempted to include the % time devoted to the astronomy department. Numbers and percentages were confirmed by a member of each department except where noted. Please feel free to contact me with any changes, updates, and questions.

For comparison, 18% of full members of the AAS are women. In addition, 30% of named postdocs have been women for the past 20 years; these represent some of the most highly qualified potential candidates for faculty positions.

From: Joan Schmelz [jschmelz_at_memphis.edu]