We have been examining whether the presence of a PER specialization in a PhD-granting physics department is associated with the representation of women among physics bachelor’s degree recipients. In September’s column, we saw that the overall representation of women among bachelor’s degree recipients stayed relatively constant between 2005 and 2015 in departments with a PER specialization, while there is weak evidence to support a claim that it fell very slightly in departments with no PER specialization. Last month, we took a look at the departmental level, graphing the representation of women among bachelor’s degree recipients between 2005 and 2007 on the horizontal axis and that for 2013–2015 on the vertical axis. There was visual evidence that the proportion of women among bachelor’s degree recipients is correlated over time. Of course, correlation does not necessarily imply causation.
We will now use regression analysis to test the hypothesis that the growth in...