Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering

ISSN for PRINT: 1072-8325

For Online Access

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2007, Volume13

Issue 1

98 pages

DOI: 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.v13.i1

Issue price - $58.00

Barbara L. Whitten
Physics Department, Colorado College, 14 E. Cache la Poudre, Colorado Springs, CO 80903, USA

Shannon R. Dorato
Colorado College, USA

Margaret L. Duncombe
Colorado College, USA

Patricia E. Allen
Appalachian State University, USA

Cynthia A. Blaha
Carleton College, USA

Heather Z. Butler
Lakeside School, USA

Kimberly A. Shaw
Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, USA

Beverley A. P. Taylor
Miami University, USA

Barbara A. Williams
University of Delaware, USA

We are studying the recruitment and retention of women in undergraduate physics by conducting site visits to physics departments. In this second phase of the project, we visited six physics departments in women's colleges. We compared these departments to each other and to the nine departments in coeducational schools that we visited in phase 1 of the project (Whitten, Foster, & Duncombe, 2003a; Whitten et al., 2003b; Whitten et al., 2004). We learned that women's colleges, much more than coed schools, try to recruit students into the physics major. This has led us to criticize the "leaky pipeline" metaphor often used to describe women in physics and to call attention to women dropping in to the physics pipeline. We discuss our results for students and pedagogy and for faculty and institutions, and we offer some advice on how to make a physics department more female friendly.

DOI: 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.v13.i1.30 Download article, 37-76 pages

Article price - $35.00

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