In the wake of the controversy on women in science ignited by Harvard President Summers, this document provides facts and data on women in the sciences.
University Numbers : Faculty
- Women represent 41 percent of the nearly 1 million faculty in the US.
(1)
- Only 25 percent of full-time faculty at research universities are women (2001) ; in 1972, the number was 18 percent .
- Four year institutions - full professors: men, 50 percent ; women, 23 percent
- Female professors at UNC-Chapel Hill earn $1,332 less per year compared to comparable qualified white male professors
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Women faculty are disproportionally under-represented at research institutions. (2)
- 2-year institutions (community and junior colleges): women account for 42 percent of full professors
- 4-year liberal arts colleges (no graduate school): women account for 23 percent of full professors
- Research university: women account for 17 percent of full professors
- Women don't progress as fast as their male colleagues (3)
- For each year after securing a tenure-track job, male assistant professors are 23 percent more likely to earn tenure
- For each year after earning tenure, male professors are 35 percent more likely to be named full professors
University Numbers : Students
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From 1975 to 2001, there has been a steady increase in the number of women completing bachelor’s degrees in all branches of science. (2)
- Women earn 50 percent of the bachelor degrees in biological sciences and chemistry
- Women earn 19 percent of the bachelor degrees in physics and 18 percent of undergraduate engineering
- Women earn 40 percent of doctorates in biological sciences and 33 percent in chemistry
- Women earn 12 percent of doctorates in physical sciences and 11 percent in engineering (up from 2 percent in 1975)
Scientists and Engineers - Demographics / Psycho/Sociograhics
- Women engineers have a harder time balancing home/family and work than male engineers (2)
- 34 percent of women scientists and engineers are unmarried compared to 17 percent of men
- 10 percent of married women scientists and engineers have an unemployed spouse compared to 38 percent of men
- 21 percent of women scientists and engineers identified balancing family and work as a career obstacle compared to 2.8 percent of men
- The 40-hour workweek has been replaced by a 48-hour workweek.
- Americans are taking fewer number of weeks of vacation
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"Imagine what it is like for a woman on the first day of a Computer Science 101 class. She is sitting in a room full of young men who have been programming since they were 12, spending their entire lives in their bedrooms playing computer games, and who can probably teach the class. There are very few young women who come in with that kind of cultural background. There are fundamental differences in the experiences of 18-year-old men and women with respect to computer science.
It is extremely important to create curriculum that is equally satisfying to men and women rather than putting them in the same classes and expecting the same outcomes from them. For about 4 years, Carnegie Mellon has had a program in place that does exactly that, and it has been extraordinarily successful. They are now graduating more women in computer science than any other university in the country. It was simply a matter of acknowledging this simple difference, and then adjusting the curriculum."
Citations
- Gender Issues Related to Rank and Tenure Decisions
- Ensuring the Future Participation of Women in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering
- "Summers Storm," MsMagazine Blog, January 2005. Accessed 21 February 2005. http://www.msmagazine.com/blog/Farchives/2005/01/Fsummers_storm.html
Other Resources
- The 2000 National Doctoral Program Survey - Harvard University (2001)
- "Faculty Diversity," Harvard Magazine ( html , pdf )
- A Study on the Status of Women Faculty in Science at MIT (1999)
