Physics departments with women faculty members

Abstract

Last month we examined the representation of women among newly hired physics faculty members. This month we consider the proportion of physics departments with women on their faculties in the professorial ranks—assistant, associate, and full professors. There continue to be some physics departments that have no women faculty members. The percentage is higher at bachelor's-granting departments than at PhD-granting departments, largely because of the small number of faculty members at most bachelor's-granting departments. About 47% of bachelor's-granting departments had no women faculty members, while one percent of these departments had only women. We studied the number of physics departments with no women among their faculty and found that there are actually fewer of these than would be expected given the small number of faculty members in a typical department and given the overall proportion of women among current physics faculty members.1 Next month we will take a closer Proportion of Physics Departments with Women Faculty* by Highest Degree Granted, 2009–10 Academic Year look at the growth in the representation of women among faculty members in PhD-granting departments. If you have any questions or comments, please contact Susan White at the Statistical Research Center of the American Institute of Physics (swhite@aip.org).