Stemming the Leak

By Fran Bagenal (University of Colorado, Boulder)

How come I hadn’t noticed these facts before? I thought I was pretty much aware of the demographics of women in physics, but the plot below distributed by the American Institute of Physics last spring had me flabbergasted. What has been going on for the past 15 years that has caused the percentage of US bachelors in physics going to women to drop from nearly 24% down below 20%?

The good news is that absolute number of women getting physics degrees (both bachelors and PhDs) are at record values. And the total number of physics degrees, after oscillating around 4000 for the past 50 years, has shot up to 8000/year. Indeed, talking to physics departments around the country I hear reports of bulging enrollments and needs for moving to larger classrooms.

So why is this expansion preferentially male rather than female? Why are men flocking to physics at a proportionally greater rate than women? I fi
nd it very hard to believe that the market for women physicists is saturated and that out of the whole US population only 1550 young women want to study physics.

UK's 'Your Life' Campaign: Government, Industry, and Universities' Concrete Steps to Recruiting Women in STEM

In early May the UK launched its ‘Your Life’ campaign, a new STEM initiative focused on spreading the message that science and math are the pathway to a successful and well-paid career*. The initiatives concrete goals are to:

• Increase the total number of students studying A-level Maths and Physics by 50% over the next three years.
• Double the proportion of undergraduate engineering and technology degrees that are taken by women to 30% by 2030 and increase the numbers taking these degrees overall.
• Increase the number of women in STEM careers (no clear numbers/benchmarks are assigned to this goal)

Over 170 businesses, universities, schools, and other organizations have signed personalized pledges stating specific steps each company/organization will take to support these goals. The numerous pathways/programs fall under three main categories:

• STEM companies are providing financial support for a new scheme called ‘Maths and Physics Chairs’ to recruit post-doctoral graduates to become science and math teachers, particularly for 14-16 year old students. This will inject teachers with top-level expertise at this critical age when girls are choosing non-STEM trajectories. 
• New partnerships between universities and STEM companies to provide additional internship opportunities and improve targeted recruitment of women into STEM companies. 
• Universities and STEM companies have pledged to identify women in STEM role models from within their organizations and provide support for these role models to participate in career panel discussions, classroom visits, online webinars, etc. The primary audience for these role model interactives will be 14-16 year olds as well as undergraduate students.