Female representation by type of class

Abstract

Last month we saw that females make up about 47% of all high school physics students in the United States. This number has changed little since 1997. This month, we take a closer look at female representation by type of class. We last collected class-specific data in 1993; that year, 43% of all high school physics students were female. However, female representation varies by type of class. In both 1993 and 2009, conceptual physics courses had the highest proportion of female students, and AP Physics C had the lowest. The good news is that female representation exhibits growth in all types of classes. In fact, the jump from 27% of the AP Physics C students being female in 1993 to 32% in 2009 represents an almost 20% growth in female representation; this compares favorably to the 9.3% growth overall.