Taking stock after the Second International Conference on Women in Physics, held this past May in Rio de Janeiro, participants say that—as with the first such meeting, which took place about three years earlier in Paris—they came away energized.

Among the changes stemming at least in part from the Paris meeting (see Physics Today, May 2002, page 24) are the creation of women-in-physics subcommittees in the Albanian and Japanese physical societies, studies of the climate for women in physics in both the UK and Canada, and science camps for grade-school girls in Senegal and Ghana. About 145 people, 7% of them men, from 42 countries attended the meeting in Rio de Janeiro, down from 300 people from 65 countries in Paris, a drop due largely to strained budgets.

Meeting attendees unanimously passed a resolution intended to promote the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women of all races and...

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