The underrepresentation of women in physics at all levels has been recognized by the community as a serious problem for many years. As long ago as 1972, the American Physical Society created the Committee on the Status of Women in Physics to deal with the issue.1 Since that time many studies have been done on the participation of women in physics at all levels, from high school to senior faculty, and a rather clear narrative has emerged about the nature of the problem the community faces.
We begin the narrative by looking at figure 1, which shows the percentage of bachelor’s degrees in physics awarded to women since 1981.2 The graph illustrates a classic good news–bad news situation. The good news is that over the last several decades the physics community has been doing something right: The percentage has increased from about 12% in 1981 to 21%...
