Professional Groups
Women in Physics Group IUPAP
IUPAP International Conference on Women in Physics
March 7-9, 2002, Paris, France
The first international conference on Women in Physics, held to examine the under-representation of women in Physics and to develop strategies to increase their participation.
The UK delegation wrote the report: Women Physicists Speak
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About the Conference
Report on the Conference
Resolutions
Reccommendations
Participants
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Finalised UK contribution
The primary purpose of the International Conference on Women in Physics was to understand the severe under-representation of women worldwide and to develop strategies to increase their participation in physics. The conference will serve as an initial focal point for ongoing activities to implement these strategies. It is the first international conference to be held on this topic.
It is widely acknowledged that the global scientific workforce is under-utilizing a large percentage of the available talent pool. Although the situation differs widely from country to country, there is a remarkable consistency in one sobering pattern: the percentage of women in physics, physical science and engineering in all countries decreases markedly with each step up the academic ladder and with each level of promotion in industrial and government laboratories.
In addition to organizing the conference, the IUPAP Working Group on Women in Physics did an international benchmarking study on issues concerning women in physics. Demographic information on education and career attainment was collected from countries in all parts of the world and was analyzed by professional statisticians. This material and the results of the discussions at the conference were published in the proceedings, and are available freely at internet.
At international conferences the delegates are there because of their love of their subject. This is not stated explicitly – it is there in the excitement of the new results and the many hours of labour that have been dedicated to the work reported. Some delegates at international conferences are women and in this environment the women discuss the area of physics that most interest them and personal lives are kept private. I guess most of us always felt that to raise women’s issues would mean that we were labelled as eccentric and not taken seriously as physicists.
The Paris conference was a great contrast – a new experience for all of us. About 300 women physicists mostly from academia but with a few from industry and a small number of men met to discuss how conditions might change to enable more women to make contributions to the subject. Altogether there were 67 countries represented from both the developed and developing worlds. The Europeans were well represented comprising approximately half of the conference. Passion for physics that had sustained these women shone through the meeting. Women who told of their experiences in discussion spoke of their determination, single-mindedness or stubborn nature.
Some life histories of the older delegates were awesome. The majority and probably nearly 100% of those from the developing world had children. Almost none of them had taken a career break; one of the US delegation remarked that she had taken one weekend maternity leave for each of her two children! The overwhelming view that is was certainly extremely hard work combining kids with ‘physics in the fast-lane’ but the rewards of success made it well worth-while. One life history was very memorable for me because it is so often remarked that it is wise to delay children until after obtaining a permanent position. Catherine Cesarsky became pregnant during her PhD and combined a happy family life with a very distinguished career as an astronomer – she now directs the European Southern Observatory. Not all were so fortunate and others told of a much less happy lifestyle, enforced childlessness or divorce. The view was that life was equally tough for the unmarried women. If married a supportive husband was deemed essential. Those of us who can choose our own husband were advised to choose a man who would respect and encourage us. So many women physicists are married to male physicists that the problems of managing dual careers for couples, ‘the two-body problem’, was much discussed and recommendations were made that this should be made easier because it is usually the woman who suffers if there is only one position.
The obvious problem for women physicists wanting an academic career in Europe is the long apprenticeship served on a succession of short-term contracts involving frequently changing institutions and often national boundaries often continuing until age 35 or even 40. This period coincides with the time when many women are establishing long term relationships which seriously restrict their mobility and is also a time for pregnancy. However, France is different.
Young scientists move straight from PhD into a permanent CNRS or University post after a short (1 or 2 years) post-doc period and the percentage of women hired on permanent position at university or CNRS roughly corresponds to that of women's PhDs. The situation is summarised in the figure, although it should be realised that the averaging is over different periods 3-5 years for students, circa 30 years for faculty and that faculty or professors mean different things in different countries.
There were other areas of disquiet. In MIT the women professors had assumed that any problems they might have were due to ill-luck or even their own shortcomings. However, when a committee was empowered to look at the working conditions of all the women faculty they found that the women had been excluded from the power structure and were very seriously disadvantaged in space, research funds and access to information compared with their male colleagues. The President of MIT commented at the start of the report(1) ‘I have always believed that contemporary gender discrimination within universities is part reality and part perception. True, but I now understand that reality is by far the greater part of the balance.’ There was the Swedish study that showed that women scientists suffered substantial discrimination in the award of research grants(2). These two examples made delegates very uneasy. It seemed that wherever, one looked carefully at data for bias against women it had been found. Where else might it be?
The reaction of the conference was to call strongly for full transparency in all areas. Too much power was believed to be in the hands of ‘old boy networks’. Clear guidelines for permanent appointments should be made and all jobs should be advertised. Criteria for promotion should be known. Women should be involved, if possible, on appointment and promotion panels. The peer review process should be clearer and women should be involved (the EU has a target of 40% female representation on its committees and comes close to meeting this even in physics). Affirmative action was discussed, of course, but most delegates rejected it. Instead the conference delegates were strongly in favour of much more transparency and real equality of opportunity.
There was a need for more reliable data so that the effects of any initiative could be monitored. It was also clear that education systems varied widely between countries and so comparing one country with another was neither easy or really instructive. However, it was important to do monitoring as a function of time within any given country. In Japan there had been extensive studies over a period of time and kinks in the curves where clearly identified with social or legal changes. Each country produced a two page summary in advance of the conference. Reading those from Europe gives indication of a strong correlation between the number of active women physicists and the availability of good state organised child-care.
The EU commissioned the very widely acclaimed ETAN(3) report. In its development of human resource programmes it has been concerned with moving post docs over national boundaries. Physicists who work in laboratories in another EU country gain enormously. My personal view is that women are less likely to be able to benefit from a scheme to go abroad in their early 30’s than one to allow them to study for at least part of their PhD abroad in their 20’s. Funding students to work abroad would be a way of increasing the European experience of women physicists. Another imaginative scheme would be one that allowed mature scientists to travel for periods of say up to one year or two years if they had been prevented from travelling abroad earlier either because of responsibilities of care or because they came from one of the candidate countries where foreign travel had been impossible in their youth. At least as far as the women are concerned I believe that there is a great release of time and energy after children have become independent and that short enrichment experiences for these women would pay dividends in terms of their future productivity. I hope the EU will consult women’s groups across Europe before finalising the 6th framework.
The EU funded a number of young researchers to attend. One of them told me ‘I had a chance to meet many successful women physicists, and it was heartening to realise that it can be done. I also had a chance to discuss many of the concerns I've had - until now - about the possible course my career might take, especially those which are taboo in a male environment’ Another one commented ‘It was wonderful to meet all these women from so many places. The conference clearly showed that the lack of women physicists is a global phenomenon across diverse countries (true even within Europe).’
Almost all women worked in environments where there were very few female colleagues. This was what gave the conference a real feeling of euphoria – suddenly we were not alone but met really inspiring women from widely varying backgrounds. We determined to establish links between our physics societies, an enduring Women in Physics web site and a proposal has gone to the EPS council to establish a European Woman in Physics Group. This will allow more mentoring.
The conference passed resolutions and more detailed recommendations directed at various types of organisation. These can be read in detail on the web(4). The delegation from each country was limited to 3-5 with a recommendation that one male delegate be included. This meant that there were rather few men in the Paris conference. The mean a the conference were very supportive. Now is the time for the whole community to be involved as many of the structural changes can only occur with the good will of all active physicists as well as organisational bodies.
Gillian Gehring 18 March 2002
Conference Resolutions
Introduction
Physics plays a key role in understanding the world we live in, and physicists contribute strongly to the welfare and economic development of nations. The knowledge and problem-solving skills of physicists are essential in many professions and industries and to society at large. To thrive in today's fast-changing, technological world, every country must achieve a highly educated population of women and men, fully engaged in making decisions important to their well being.
Thus a knowledge of physics is an important part of general literacy for every citizen. In addition, advancing physics understanding is an exciting intellectual challenge that benefits from the diverse and complementary approaches taken by both women and men from many cultures. Currently women can and do contribute to this quest and, through physics, to the welfare of humankind, but only in small numbers: women are an underutilized "intellectual reserve." Only when women participate fully as researchers in the laboratory, as scientific leaders and teachers, and as policy makers will they feel equal partners in a technological society.
The ideas in these resolutions are aimed at bringing more women into the mainstream and leadership of physics. They were unanimously approved by over 300 physicists from 65 countries attending the first International Conference on Women in Physics, held in Paris, France, 7-9 March 2002.
Each country is different. Thus the conference participants are translating these resolutions into their own languages. In the translation, the ideas in the resolutions will be appropriately phrased and directed to the responsible entities in each country.
1. Resolution Directed at Schools and Their Government Sponsors
Girls should be given the same opportunities and encouragement as boys to learn physics in schools. When parents and teachers encourage girls, it strengthens their self-confidence and helps them advance. Methods and textbooks used in teaching physics should include those that have been shown to interest girls in physics and foster their success. Studies show that young girls have a strong desire to help improve people's lives, and therefore it is important that they have the opportunity to see ways that physics has a positive impact on society.
2. Resolutions Directed at Universities
2.1 Students
Universities should examine their policies and procedures to ensure that female students are given an opportunity for success that equals that of male students. All policies that perpetuate discrimination should be abolished, and policies that promote inclusion should be adopted. This may involve adopting such practices as: using a broad interdisciplinary approach to physics; providing flexible entry criteria to the physics major; allowing early participation in research; providing mentoring; and exposing students to the important contributions physics makes to other sciences, medicine, industry and the quality of daily life. Adopting these practices will have an especially positive effect on young women, who often feel isolated and unwelcome in physics.
2.2 Faculty and Researchers
Recent studies have shown that, even at top research institutions, women scientists have not been treated fairly with respect to their male colleagues. This is not only very harmful to women in science but in the long run will be harmful to science as well. Universities must examine and communicate their policies and practices to make sure that they promote equity; it is of key importance that universities guarantee transparent and fair mechanisms of recruitment and promotion. Additional important elements for success are access to research funding and facilities and sufficient time for research.
Having a family should not be allowed to impede women's participation in scientific careers. A family-friendly environment that provides such things as child-care facilities, flexible working schedules and employment opportunities for dual career families will enable career success.
University governance has been found to be dominated by men. Women need to be included in university and physics department governance, particularly on key policy committees. Women must have input into those policies that control their own destinies. It is important for the development of young women physicists to see successful women active in research, teaching and leadership.
3. Resolution Directed at Research Institutes
Research institutes will benefit from policies that allow women scientists to be successful. Institute directors should make sure that policies that promote gender equity in recruitment and promotion are adopted and enforced. Too often what has been termed a "glass ceiling" is allowed to stop the advance of women's careers.
Institute directors should take an active part in ensuring that family-friendly practices such as child-care facilities and flexible working schedules are available to all. Surveys repeatedly show that a leading concern of women is balancing career and family life; having a family should not be allowed to impede successful participation in scientific research.
4. Resolution Directed at Industries
Industries will benefit from policies that allow women scientists to be successful. Industrial managers and research directors should make sure that policies that promote gender equity in recruitment and promotion are adopted and enforced. Too often what has been termed a "glass ceiling" is allowed to stop the advance of women's careers.
Industrial managers should take an active part in ensuring that family-friendly practices such as child-care facilities and flexible working schedules are available to all. Surveys repeatedly show that a leading concern for women is balancing career and family life; having a family should not be allowed to impede successful participation in scientific research.
5. Resolution Directed at Scientific Societies
Scientific and professional societies can and should play a major role in increasing the number and success of women in physics. Each society should have a committee or working group that is responsible for such issues and that makes recommendations to the society as a whole. At a minimum societies should do the following things: work with other organizations to collect and make available statistical data on the participation of women in physics at all levels; identify women physicists and publicize them as role models; include women on program committees and as invited speakers for society-sponsored meetings and conferences; and include women on editorial boards of society journals.
6. Resolution Directed at National Governments
Physics plays a key role in understanding the world we live in, and physicists contribute strongly to the economic and cultural development and welfare of nations. It is therefore in every nation's self-interest to provide strong physics education for all its citizens and to support advanced education and research. Governments must ensure that women have the same access and chance for success in research and education as men. National planning and review committees should include women, and awards of government funds should only be made to organizations and institutions that make gender equity a part of their policies.
7. Resolution Directed at Granting Agencies
Agencies that make funding available for scientific research play a key role in promoting the success of individual scientists as well as science as a whole. Past studies have shown evidence for gender bias in the review process. Therefore, to ensure that women have the same access to research funding as men, all competitions for funding should be transparent and widely publicized; the criteria for obtaining funds should be clear; and women should be included on all review and decision making committees. Limits on age of eligibility or grant structure and duration that seriously disadvantage applicants taking family leave should be reconsidered. Granting agencies should maintain and make available statistical data by gender, including such information as the proportion and qualifications of women and men who apply for funding and who obtain funding.
8. Resolution Directed at IUPAP
IUPAP is the international organization of physicists and as such exerts considerable influence on the physics community through its statements and activities. IUPAP should both endorse the above resolutions aimed at other groups and also examine its own actions to make sure that they contribute to increasing the number and success of women in physics. It will also be valuable for IUPAP to communicate the results of this conference to international scientific organizations in other fields. In the election of IUPAP's Executive Council and Commission members, procedures should be instituted to ensure the full inclusion of women. IUPAP sponsors major international conferences; a criterion for such sponsorship should be the demonstration that women are included on the International Advisory Committees and Program Committees. IUPAP should require conference organizers to report gender distribution of invited speakers. IUPAP should encourage all of its national Liaison committees to include women among their members. Liaison committees should also advocate these resolutions in their countries. IUPAP should continue its Working Group on Women Physics and empower it to establish an international advisory committee with a member in as many countries as possible. Finally, this group will form the basis of a network that can continue the work of increasing the number and success of women in physics.
Conference Recommendations
Many specific recommendations emerged during the conference. Not all will be applicable to all countries or situations. They should be reviewed by each country team, which should translate the applicable ones and work to implement them in their country. The recommendations are grouped into categories, but many are likely to have impact in other categories, too. Note that most of these recommendations, when implemented, will improve physics for both men and women.
General Recommendations
Coordinate data collection and access internationally on physics demographics, including gender, to watch and influence trends. Collect data regularly (every one to three years) and in a consistent way, to watch and influence trends. Request data from national and regional physical societies. Find out also why women leave physics.
Create, support, and encourage networks for women physicists: local, national, international, including a world-wide e-network. Create women-in-physics web pages in each country, with links to each other and to information on successful strategies and programs. Provide a well publicized international web presence for Women in Physics.
Involve men, especially highly respected physics leaders, in improving the climate for women (and minorities) in physics.
Have transparent, gender-blind processes for important decisionmaking. Transparency can be aided by having a requirement for decisions to be reported and explained. Important decisions include those related to recruitment, selection, salary, promotion, peer review, conference programs, allocation of space and equipment, and other issues affecting important working conditions.
Establish mechanisms to assess and improve the climate for women (and minorities) in physics. Proven approaches include creating special committees for women in physics and focusing resources and attention on this issue. Examples include having a source of matching funds for initial years of a tenure-track position filled by a woman, and committees that visit universities, research institutes, and other physics employers to advise on their climate for women.
Encourage written rules and policies (for example an equality policy) to achieve fairness and transparency in policies, practices, and decision making.
Provide Web 'index' of links to international funding sources.
Remove barriers to full participation of girls and women (restrooms, dormitories, etc).
Adjust the reward structure at all levels to encourage desired behaviors.
Attracting Girls into Physics (childhood to university)
Revise educational curricula and materials to connect physics with medicine, biology, technology, the environment, etc. and to show diverse physics career paths and job prospects. Ensure physics courses, math courses, textbooks, equipment, and funding for girls' education are as good as for boys' education, and feature women physicists as role models.
Strengthen the training of science/physics teachers and include opportunites for them to do research and to interact with working scientists. Train teachers and counsellors about gender issues (girl-friendly classroom atmosphere, examples of interest to girls). Attract qualified school teachers with fair pay, respect, and working conditions.
Publicize physics role models who counteract the stereotypes and whose stories are examples of career success and leadership positions.
Educate parents about opportunities for daughters and how to encourage them.
Help smart girls network (clubs, enrichment opportunities, and encouragement).
Attract more girls to compete in prestigious physics competitions.
Raise boys to share family responsibilities and to expect women to have professions.
Get international help and funding for schools in developing countries.
Involve universities, research institutes, and industries to help schools and strengthen teacher training.
Launching a Successful Career (University to Mid-Career)
Have flexible entry and graduation requirements for physics majors, and provide early opportunities for students to participate in research.
Train/sensitize faculty and supervisors to gender issues (female-friendly atmosphere, respectful and collegial treatment).
Provide enlightened and supportive mentors and supervisors for women physicists. These people should find funding, teach the women the "rules of the game" and how to write successful proposals, introduce them to important professional contacts, give them challenging assignments and opportunities, provide constructive feedback on unsuccessful proposals or interviews, give them credit, and advocate them in the physics community.
Provide training for women physicists in presentation of results, paper writing, grant applications, etc.
Shorten the post-post-doc phase with its inherent insecurity and relocation requirements.
Balancing Family and Career
Respect and value family obligations (quality child care convenient to workplace and at conferences, flexible working hours).
Pause 'career clock' and have flexible age limits and rules for grants and fellowships, to not disadvantage people who take time for family responsibilities. (Accord career interruptions for "family service" the same respect as for "military service".)
Provide funding sources to help people return to physics after a career pause.
Solve the dual-career couple problem by facilitating geographically co-located job opportunities and creative solutions, such as shared positions.
Getting Women into Physics Leadership
Appoint women physicists to leadership positions and include them on important committees in their institutions, countries, professional societies, and IUPAP.
Involve more people in leadership. Consider innovative approaches, such as shared positions, term appointments, and novel structures.
International Aspects
Create opportunites for R&D employment, funding, and research equipment in developing countries (not just factories employing cheap labor).
Provide opportunities for collaboration and exchanges between regions and countries. Provide resources for conference travel for physicists from developing countries, and for physicists from developed countries to be visiting lecturers in developing countries.
Establish and sponsor international speaker program(s) for women physicists: web-accessible data base of names and topics; source of travel support.
Sponsor prestigious, topical international physics summer schools with female and male speakers, organizers, and participants.
The members of the UK team were :
Professor Gillian Gehring (Team Leader)
Sheffield University, currently the longest serving woman professor of physics in the UK (in condensed matter theory). Twenty years experience as tutor (teacher/advisor) to women physics undergraduates in Oxford Woman’s College. Responsible for many studies of women in physics including membership of the working party for the ‘Rising Tide’, on the selection panel for the Daphne Jackson Fellows, author of study into physics women’s salaries and article ‘Scientific Mothers’, involved with the DTI mentoring scheme for women scientists, committee member of the Women in Physics Group of the Institute of Physics. Two daughters now students.
Dr Dimitra Darambara
Senior Research Fellow University College London (radiation imaging detectors). Chair of the Women in Physics Group, (last two years) Heavily involved in the "Women and Science" Sector of the European Commission to promote women's participation in research and evaluation panels and to set up a European Platform of Women Scientists; involved with the DTI "Networking the Network" scheme for women scientists; member of the committee of the Women in Engineering of the IEEE (USA).
Mrs Anne Marks
Retired teacher of physics, in girls schools. Was a member of 'Advancing Physics' syllabus working party. Member of the Women in Physics Group Committee; heads the Education Sub-Group. Education Secretary of the Institute of Physics Merseyside Branch. As a Schoolteacher Fellow has been conducting research on women in physics at Oxford University; concentrating on the drop out from physics at each stage; conducting comparative study at Liverpool University. Methodist Local Preacher and has a family.
Professor Sandra C Chapman
First female to be promoted to Professor in the Physics Dept at Warwick. Previously first female to be appointed to a faculty position in the Physics Dept. at Sussex. Ran 'Women into Physics' courses at Sussex. Head of the Space and Astrophysics Group (which she founded) at Warwick. Specialises in nonlinear phenomena in solar system, astrophysical and laboratory plasmas. Vice President Royal Astronomical Society and member of PPARC Education and Training Committee.
Dr Helen Heath
Physics lecturer, Bristol University (High Energy Particle Physics), with family. Responsible for recruitment to undergraduate Physics courses at Bristol University. Involved in policy on PPARC studentships and fellowships as a member of PPARC Education and Training Committee and several fellowship appointment panels. Organiser of annual "Think about Physics" days for 14-15 year old girls. Experienced and enthusiastic promoter of Science though schools talks (Infants to 6th form), inservice training for teachers and talks to the public. Honorary Ambassador for the Girl Guide Association.
Dr Yasmin Andrew
Physicist working in the Core Spectroscopy Group at the Joint European Torus (JET). Involved in advising three female graduate students at the Centre for Plasma Aided Manufacturing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1999-2001). Strong interest in Women in Physics issues. Two children under the age of two.
Dr Joanne Baker
Royal Society University Research Fellow (since 2001) in Astrophysics at Oxford University. She was successful in obtaining special EU funding for young researchers to attend the conference. Independent researcher in extragalactic astrophysics and observational cosmology. Currently on committee of Oxford Association for Women in Science and Engineering (AWISE), previously on committee of Women in Astronomy group, Berkeley, and member of Association for Women in Science and Engineering, Cambridge. Member of International Astronomical Union.
Dr Peter Melville
Background in industry, now Director, Profession and International Affairs, at Institute of Physics. ‘Women-friendly’ man on team (as requested by IUPAP); previously member of Advisory Committee on Women in Physics.
Miss A Byrne (Team Coordinator)
Recent graduate (2000), Professional Development Officer, Institute of Physics. Currently involved in project concerning decisions of girls to study physics at school and university.
In addition, Professor Teresa Rees from the Department of Social Studies Cardiff University will be giving one of the Plenary lectures at the conference. Her research interests are as follows:
The application of the concept 'gender mainstreaming to various policy fields such as education, training, labour market, regional economic development and science polices, especially in the context of the European union and the Welsh Assembly. I am also interested in equal pay and managing diversity policies of large corporations.
Current Research: Following the publications of the 'ETAN report' on Women and Science by the European Commission (for which I was the rapporteur) I am continuing work for the EC on policy development and implementation in the field of mainstreaming equality in science policy. This includes membership of a transnational team working on women and science in universities and advising the EC on taking forward recommendations for legislative and other reform. A current bid is for funding on benchmarking in the Member States.
All countries were asked to offer a 2 page contribution that will be part of the conference proceedings.
The IUPAP Working Group prepared a list of possible topics that we could address. They did not suggest that we covered all of them as they are only suggestions. The topics are given below, and then the final UK contribution which has been submitted.
Suggested topics:
Why is it important to increase the participation of women in physics in your country?
What are some of the joys and satisfactions you and your team members and women colleagues have had in your careers in physics, e.g. in research, in teaching, in managing?
Are there particular aspects of the culture in your country that made these possible?
Can you mention briefly some of the most exciting discoveries women scientists in your country have made in physics and why they were important to your country?
Are there cultural, societal, and/or professional features of a woman's career in physics in your country that you feel may be peculiar to your country or larger geographical area?
What have individuals or groups in your country done to try to improve the working conditions for women in physics?
What are the most serious barriers to women achieving successful careers in physics in your country? Can you think of ways in which physicists, both male and female, from your country and from other countries, might help to alleviate these barriers?
What initiatives have been made in your country to attract more women to physics?
What do you and your team hope to contribute to, and take away from, this conference?
Ann Marks prepared a poster
Why increase the participation of women?
In the UK the proportion of undergraduate women in physics is low compared with many countries and the number of postgraduate women is swelled by the influx of students from abroad. The number of women studying physics at university is significantly lower than for mathematics or chemistry and is barely higher than for engineering.
Physicists as a whole have very worthwhile careers and we believe that there are many more women who could benefit from following a physics education.
The opportunities are there. A number of research Laboratories with a mixed workforce show that women make a special contribution to the working environment so that there is a good case to be made that organisations who employ 20% upwards of women see benefits not only for the women but also for their colleagues.
In The Rising Tide Report 1994 the Minister for Science, William Waldergrave, is quoted as stating that "Women are the country's single most underused resource."
Discoveries made by women scientists in physics and why they were important
The UK is a large country with a large number of very distinguished women physicists. A few are mentioned below. More will be given on our poster where we shall highlight astronomy and crystallography because these two areas have attracted a relatively large fraction of the UK women physicists.
- Jane Brown is a neutron crystallographer who has spent most of her working life at the Institut Laue Langevin in Grenoble. She has been awarded the 2001 Walter Halg prize by the European Neutron Scattering Association, this prize is awarded biannually.
- Jocelyn Bell-Burnell identified the first object in the sky that was finally identified as a pulsar when she was a graduate student. This earned her supervisor a Nobel Prize.
- Athene Donald FRS is one of the country’s leading polymer physicists. She is the first woman professor in the Cavendish Laboratory Cambridge.
- Elizabeth Gardner was a Scot who made seminal discoveries in the theory of neural networks. This was done in the extremely short time available to her as she died aged 29.
- Carole Jordan FRS is the UK's leading expert on the ultraviolet and X-ray spectra of cool stars, including the Sun. She made the first identifications of many important emission lines and has used a combination of observations and theory to understand stellar chromospheres and coronae.
Barriers etc
The working environment in the UK is such that women have many barriers to overcome if they are to pursue successful physics careers.
These barriers may be listed briefly as follows:
- The British long hours work culture, which would be regarded as counterproductive in some countries.
- In universities it is usual for academics to gain their first permanent positions in their late thirties following a period of up to 10 years spent on short term contracts during which it is common to move institutions and even country. Most women are not mobile by their mid thirties. As women are usually younger than their partners (who are frequently physicists) they are the more junior and therefore it is usual for their careers to suffer particularly when a move is necessary. Women in academia either work full time through their childbearing years or else delay starting a family until they have secured a permanent post. The talents of those who are not happy with either of these options and take a career break are very often lost or underused.
- The UK has a mobile workforce which means that family and friendship ties are fragmented which makes childcare difficult.
- It is rare for career development to be possible during part-time working and job-sharing is not part of the culture particularly in a research or University environment
- There has been a steady destruction of industrial research centres over the last 30 years and the number of government research centres has also been considerably reduced. A number of physics departments within universities have also closed. This has lead to a situation in which we believe that there are fewer tenured physicists concentrated in fewer centres in the UK.
- There is a culture of mini-insults and sexist jokes. Over a long period these undermine confidence.
Improvements - initiatives
One could have a mighty bonfire with all material written on why more women do not practice science let alone crash a computer with all the web-based material! Below we have listed the initiatives that in our opinion may have done some good.
Initiatives that cover all Science Engineering and Technology (SET) specifically to assist women:
- The Government commissioned the Rising Tide Report 1994 (ISBN 1994 0 11 4300968). There have been follow up meetings to monitor progress. A number of initiatives have followed. Most notably there is a unit in the DTI and an umbrella organisation to disseminate all science and engineering information, AWISE.
- Athena was founded by the Higher Education Funding Council with the aim of the advancement of women in science engineering and technology (SET) in Higher Education. It funds schemes to encourage universities to set up schemes that will increase the recruitment, retention, participation, progression and promotion of women in universities.
- The Daphne Jackson Trust (see also the career break page) assists women to return to science careers after a career break by offering two year part-time fellowships for retraining. The Wellcome Trust has an excellent scheme for those whose work is related to medicine or dentistry.
- The Royal Society introduced a fellowship scheme that was designed to combat the problem of mobility by introducing 4 year fellowships that the holder could take to any institution: Dorothy Hodgekin fellowships. There are only 15 awarded per year for all science and engineering almost all to women. The Wellcome Trust also has fellowships in this area again restricted to those in medical fields.
- Women have started web sites for mutual support and to share information: e.g Portiaweb and Daphnet.
Initiatives that have increased possibilities for women as a by-product
- The research councils EPSRC and PPARC and the Royal Society have introduced 5 year fellowships. These are useable as ‘starters’ to permanent posts and have often enabled first rate women scientists to obtain a post at a university of their own choosing.
- The National Curriculum introduced physics into the core curriculum from ages 5 to 16. This has dramatically increased the number of girls studying some physics up to 16.
- The new more flexible first year sixth-form courses, for those aged 16/17, should increase the number taking at least some specialised physics.
- In the UK the financial service and IT industries are booming. These two areas take all the numerate graduates they can find. This has meant that trained women scientists have had increasing possibilities of returning to work in a non-scientific career after any break.
Physics schemes
- Universities have tried to boost the number of women studying physics by holding special open days for schoolgirls.
- The Institute of Physics Career Breaks leaflet and career development workshops have been of benefit.
Bring and take away
We are proud that some women are getting through the glass ceiling. The number of women professors of physics has increased from 1 to over 10 in about 10 years and a few women with physics qualifications are appearing in other top jobs. A sizeable number of women in top positions have managed to combine a successful career with a full family life. However we need to tackle the appalling wastage of female talent that certainly occurs because of the barriers mentioned earlier. We also want to learn how to increase the numbers of women embarking on a study of physics.
We intend to press for allowable conference expenses to include the extra cost of care of children and elderly relatives necessitated by the carer being away from home. This is very important because in both industrial careers and academia people are at a disadvantage if they cannot go to conferences. This should be seen as ‘family friendly’ good practice which will include carers of either sex.
This document was prepared by Gillian Gehring and Ann Marks with valuable input from many colleagues particularly Liz Whitelegg (Open University).
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