In the limited research I have done on this topic so far I have come across some interesting yet troubling statistics. In a paper published by the American Physical Society in May 2012 they state that 50% of women take some type of high school physics class. But, at the university level only 20% of undergraduate bachelor degrees are received by women. This is also the same rate at which women take an AP physics course in high school. What can account for this gender gap? Are women encouraged to engage in other sciences other than physics or do they actively seek out sciences were women are more evenly represented? Take biology for example, women are over represented in the amount of undergraduate degrees awarded. This could be that science technology and math are often looked at as one discipline where women are more evenly represented covering up the shortage of women in physics.
For minorities the situation is similar, while 50% of white and Asian students take at least one physics class in high school only about 25% of African Americans take a physics class in high school. Hispanic students have been awarded degrees at an increasingly higher rate but they are still under represented when compared to Asian and white students. While a larger number of degrees of Hispanic students has gone up it has not kept pace with the rate at which the Hispanic population has increased.
For African American women the issue is compounded. On average only 6 PhD’s in physics are awarded each year to women of color in the United States. Although they are hired at the same rate as other graduates I can imagine them feeling some degree of isolation in the field. How can they influence a younger generation to reach the same amount of success if they are so few and far between?
Although I need to narrow this topic I want to know why this is the case and what can we do to get the percentage of undergraduate physics degrees given each year to more evenly represent the overall population. (gh)
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