Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2006 APS March Meeting
Monday–Friday, March 13–17, 2006; Baltimore, MD
Session R6: U.S. Women in Physics: Perspectives on Race and Gender |
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Sponsoring Units: CSWP Chair: Kimberly Budil, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Room: Baltimore Convention Center 310 |
Wednesday, March 15, 2006 2:30PM - 3:06PM |
R6.00001: An International Perspective on Women in Physics Invited Speaker: The 1$^{st}$ International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Conference on Women in Physics, held in 2002 in Paris, France, highlighted a number of issues facing women physicists around the world. A second conference was held in May 2005 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with the goal of examining the progress made since the last conference and also to provide an opportunity for the delegates to present their research, both physics research and gender-related research, and to make contacts for future collaborations. The conference was attended by 145 delegates from 42 countries, including a very diverse delegation of 22 women and men from the U.S. The conference was organized by the Working Group on Women in Physics of IUPAP, which is charged with making recommendations to IUPAP on how to attract, retain, and increase the participation of women in physics at all levels. The conference included a round table discussion on ``Research Funding and Women in Physics,'' several plenary talks, a poster session on women in physics in each country, a poster session on research by individual delegates, and discussion groups on six topics including attracting girls into physics, launching a successful career, getting women into leadership, improving the institutional climate, learning from regional differences, and balancing family and career. Conference proceedings have been published that include research abstracts, summaries from the discussion groups, articles on the plenary talks, and papers from each country on the status of women in physics in their country (proceedings can be found at http://proceedings.aip.org/proceedings/confproceed/795.jsp). This talk will discuss the U. S. delegation and their country paper on the situation for women in physics in the U.S. as well as highlights from the information presented by the delegates from other nations. The outcomes of the 2002 conference will be described briefly and then the signs of progress noted in 2005 will be summarized. ~ [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, March 15, 2006 3:06PM - 3:42PM |
R6.00002: What Works for Women in Undergraduate Physics? Learning from Different Institutions Invited Speaker: The participation of women in physics has increased in recent years, but the percentage of women receiving bachelor's degrees in physics is still less than half that in mathematics or chemistry. The undergraduate years have been identified as the biggest ``leak.'' With a team of women physicists, I have been studying undergraduate physics departments to learn what makes some departments female-friendly. An informal and supportive department culture is the most important factor we have identified. There are many elements that make up a female-friendly culture, and different kinds of institutions---small colleges, universities, women's colleges, and HBCUs---all have important ideas to contribute. I'll discuss what these different institutions have to tell us about recruiting and retaining women in the undergraduate physics major. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, March 15, 2006 3:42PM - 4:18PM |
R6.00003: Women Physicists of Color Achieving at the Intersection of Race and Gender Invited Speaker: As minority women physicists, we stand at the intersection of race and gender. We are physicists to be sure, but we are also women of Native, African and Hispanic descent. We are colleagues, mothers, sisters, and wives, as are our white counterparts, but our experiences cannot be distilled to only gender or race. As Prudence Carter and Scott Page remind us, women of color emerge from the interaction between race and gender.\footnote{ Prudence Carter. 2005. Intersectional Matters and Meanings: Ethnicity, Gender, and Resistance to ``Acting White.'' Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Montreal: AERA; Scott Page. 2004. The Logic of Diversity. Private Communication.} This distinction is important since most researchers who study American women's participation in science focus exclusively on the participation of white American women. Of those who acknowledge the existence of non-white women, most do so by disclaiming the exclusion of women of color because the numbers are so small or the experiences are different from white American women. There are some important differences however. While American women are 15 percent of all scientists and engineers, black American women are 60 percent of all black scientists and engineers. Yet less than 3 black women and 3 Hispanic women earn PhDs each year, out of about 1100. As Rachel Ivie and Kim Nies Ray point out, ``Minority women especially represent a great, untapped resource that could be drawn on to increase the size of the scientific workforce in the U.S."\footnote{ Rachel Ivie and Kim Nies Ray. 2005. Women in Physics and Astronomy, 2005. AIP Publication R-430.02. College Park, MD: American Institute of Physics.} Donna Nelson's study of diversity in science and engineering faculties further finds that there are no female black or Native American full professors.\footnote{ Donna J. Nelson. 2005. A National Analysis of Diversity in Science and Engineering Faculties at Research Universities. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma.} In physics, there are no black women professors and no Native American women professors at all. Despite such a bleak picture, there is hope. Of the 18 departments that award at least 40 percent of bachelor's degrees to women, 7 are Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Black women are earning degrees from HBCUs at rates above equity, and many singles and firsts at predominantly white institutions continue to persevere despite the obstacles. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, March 15, 2006 4:18PM - 4:54PM |
R6.00004: Effects of Informal and Formal Support Groups on Retaining Women and Minorities in U. S. Physics Invited Speaker: |
Wednesday, March 15, 2006 4:54PM - 5:30PM |
R6.00005: Interacting in the Smog Factors that Shape Faculty Attitudes and Beliefs about Race and Inclusion Invited Speaker: Many faculty members realize that we must interact productively with diverse colleagues and students, and we must find ways to benefit from the talents of all members of our intellectual community. Put simply, we must aim for the ceiling rather than the floor. This means that we approach our work informed that engaging diversity in our classrooms will increase our success and the success of \textit{all} our students. But in physics, it is often difficult to measure and address diversity issues because doing so is not perceived as central to our discipline. To address this apparent disconnection, we present some ideas on race [1] and inclusion [2] within the context of the physics instruction. Specifically, we speak to how university faculty might use inclusive pedagogy in physics education research and curriculum. Our goal here is to open a frank dialogue and present concrete avenues to explore as you create activities that serve your classroom best. \begin{enumerate} \item Tatum, Beverly Daniel. (2004). Changing demographics and challenges of the future. \textit{Draft Proceedings of the National Science Board Workshop on Broadening the Participation in Science and Engineering Research and }Education. Arlington, VA: National Science Board; Tatum, Beverly Daniel. (1997). \textit{Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations about Race}. New York: Basic Books. \item Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. (2003). \textit{Racism without Racists: Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States}. Lanham, MD: Rowan {\&} Littlefield; Thiederman, Sondra. (2003). \textit{Making Diversity Work: 7 Steps for Defeating Bias in the Workplace}. Chicago: Dearborn Trade Publishing. \end{enumerate} [Preview Abstract] |
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