The underrepresentation of women and minorities among
recipients of physics degrees is a manifestation of systemic educational problems. Corrective
measures must begin in the primary grades and continue through university schooling and beyond.
Physics stands out among the
sciences for its inability to attract enough women or minorities that their representation in
physics will, in the foreseeable future, be commensurate with their proportions in the general
population. True, among the so-called hard sciences, physics has experienced over the past decade
the most significant rate of increase in women PhDs. But the baseline number of women PhDs, say from
the 1970s, is small. In 2003, women received only 22% of bachelor's degrees and 18% of PhDs awarded
in physics by US colleges and universities; those numbers include degrees awarded to non-US citizens.
In the same year, African Americans received 3.5% of bachelor's degrees and 2.3% of PhDs awarded
in physics to US citizens. For Hispanic citizens, the numbers are 3.4% of bachelor's degrees and
2.5% of PhDs. In 2004, women received 184 of 1186 total physics doctorates, or 15.5%. African American
students who were citizens or permanent residents accounted for 13 doctorates, about 1% of the
total. Hispanic citizens and permanent residents also received 13 doctorates. A single PhD was
awarded to an American Indian in 2004. For additional statistics, see Figure 1 and tables 1 and 2.1
Low though they are, the percentages
of physics degree recipients who are women represent significant increases from 30 years ago.
Those gains were achieved through the efforts of many in the science community to promote more diversity
in physics, and they track the modern civil-rights movement for women that dates from the early
1970s. Intervention programs introduced girls and young women to the possibilities of nontraditional
careers and encouraged them to take more mathematics and science courses. Underrepresented minorities
(URMs), defined as African Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians, have received increasing
numbers of bachelor's degrees in physics since the 1970s, except for a serious decrease in production
for African Americans that began in the late 1990s and continues to this day, albeit with significant
fluctuations. The statistics for PhDs paint a less optimistic picture: Both African Americans
and Hispanics have earned stagnant or declining numbers of PhDs during the past decade.
Physicists need to be aware
that the Figures I have quoted compare rather unfavorably with those for chemistry. Chemistry
doctorates awarded to women by US institutions grew from 6.4% of the total in the 1960s to 10.4% of
the total in the 1970s to nearly 20% of the total in the 1980s. In 2004, women received almost 32% of
all US chemistry doctorates awarded, a proportion that has been relatively stable since the mid-1990s.
At the bachelor's level, women and men receive an approximately equal number of chemistry degrees.
Since the 1960s, URMs have
increased their percentage of chemistry doctorates, albeit at a slower rate than women. In 2004,
African American citizens and permanent residents received 2.3%, Hispanic citizens and permanent
residents earned 2.2%, and American Indians received 0.2% of all doctorates awarded. Collectively,
URMs accounted for 7.9%, or 93 of 1180 doctorates in chemistry awarded to US citizens and permanent
residents. The 27 physics PhDs awarded to URMs in 2004 were 4.8% of physics doctorates awarded to
all US citizens and permanent residents.
Institutions that serve minorities
Historically black colleges and universities
and Hispanic-serving institutions have had a disproportionate impact in producing URM baccalaureate
degree holders. Between 1992 and 2001, HBCUs granted 45–50% of bachelor's degrees in the
physical sciences awarded to all African Americans and 48–56% of the degrees conferred
on African American women. The 10 institutions awarding the most bachelor's degrees to African
Americans in 2003–04 were all HBCUs. According to American Institute of Physics data, the
eight departments that awarded an average of at least three physics bachelor's degrees to African
Americans for the classes of 2001, 2002, and 2003 were all at HBCUs.2
Of the 10 colleges and universities
awarding the most bachelor's degrees in the physical sciences to Hispanics in 2003–04,
most were Hispanic-serving institutions. The exceptions are all research universities: University
of Texas at Austin; University of California, Santa Cruz and San Diego campuses; and MIT. An institution
could appear on Diverse magazine's top-50 lists for African American and Hispanic physical
sciences baccalaureates by awarding 5 and 4 degrees, respectively.3
It is not reasonable to
expect growth in the URM PhD population without first addressing the small number of physics bachelor's
degrees awarded. And perhaps it is not reasonable to expect an increased number of bachelor's degrees
in light of experiences in K–12 schools, uneven career guidance, small numbers of visible
role models, and few institutions with significant degree output. Those factors combine to decrease
the pool of interested and well-prepared students who can consider advanced study in physics.
Among those graduating
high school in 2000, only 26% of African Americans and 26% of Hispanics took any physics classes.
In comparison, 62% of African Americans and 56% of Hispanics took chemistry courses.4
Behind those numbers is the issue of the nature and quality of science education at elementary-
and middle-school levels, including the extent to which physics concepts are being taught. Research
suggests that K–12 schools largely attended by minority students have higher proportions
of instructors teaching subjects they were not trained to teach.5 The problems related
to the nation's overall scarcity of certified physics teachers are likely magnified for schools
with significant African American, Hispanic, and American Indian enrollment.
The gap between males and
females taking at least some physics classes in high school is closing; 36% of males in the class
of 2000 reported taking some physics, as did 32% of females. But both overall numbers remain unacceptably
low. Compare them with the 58% of males and 67% of females who took chemistry.
Clearly, most students
graduate high school with no formal instruction in physics. That means low levels of physics literacy
among the adult population. Or does it?
A human activity
Opportunities exist for adults to develop
a physics sense, even if they have not been exposed to a significant number of physics concepts.
A trip to the local science museum can be enlightening, but one can also learn a good deal just by paying
attention to everyday events—how a car responds during a drive around town, the forces at
play when one assembles something, the trajectory of a ball from bat to glove. In observing everyday
physics, adults are doing what some cognitive scientists argue is a natural component of child
development. As children experience the physical, living, and social worlds, they develop assumptions
about how those worlds work. Consider, for example, the following discussion of how babies reflect
on issues of cause and effect, from The Scientist in the Crib by Alison Gopnik, Andrew Meltzoff,
and Patricia Kuhl:
There are other reasons
to think that, at about a year, babies understand how objects can influence each other. You can show
babies a classic case of "billiard ball" causality: a toy car rolling along and bumping into another
toy car, which then moves off. Or you can show them almost the same sequence, with just a slight difference—the
first car gets close to the second car, and the second car rolls away, but the two cars don't actually
touch. Although this is very similar to the first sequence, it violates a basic causal principle.
Usually, at least, objects can't act on each other at a distance. Ten-month-olds look longer at
the second scene than the first one. This suggests that they recognize just how peculiar it really
is. And this, in turn, suggests that they know something about how objects can causally influence
each other, quite independent of their own actions.6
The book cites other examples,
including toddlers providing appropriate explanations about what caused what and making predictions
about how simple mechanical systems will work.
Young children explore,
try things out, and try to make sense of the world. Their natural experiments are coupled with social
interactions that reinforce their proclivity for sense making. On the topic of how babies learn
about the external world, Gopnik and coauthors note: "They start out with some crucial assumptions,
assumptions that seem to be built in. But, just as important, they are endowed with powerful abilities
to learn, and even more powerful motivations."7
How do children move from
behaving in ways that are so clearly consistent with learning about the physical world to avoiding
courses that can support their understanding of it? Put a different way, how does physics move from
being an inclusive domain for learning to an exclusive or exclusionary one?
Fixing the system
Sixty-five percent of undergraduate
students are female or URMs. Clearly, their reduced interest in physics and the barriers to their
entering the field do not bode well for the long-term health of the discipline. It is important to
consider how the current patterns of participation might be changed. The problems that have led
from physics as a part of what it means to be human to physics as a community lacking diversity can
be fixed. But, I contend, the issue of diversity in physics is a systems problem, and it can respond
only to a thoughtful suite of interventions that begins at the earliest grade level and moves through
the professional life span. Those interventions would include at least the following components:
Education and professional development so that those who teach physics are confident and comfortable teaching physics concepts.
High-quality, hands-on, inquiry-based science for the primary grades.
Development and dissemination of high-quality, research-based curricula for the middle grades.
Experimentation with curriculum and instructional models, including such strategies as "physics first," to increase the number and diversity of students taking physics in high school (see reference 8 and the Reference Frame column by Leon Lederman, PHYSICS TODAY, September 2001, page 11). Such experimentation may be especially valuable in schools that serve a significant number of URMs.
Recruitment of minority students at all levels to take physics classes and to engage in informal physics experiences such as those offered in science and technology centers, afterschool programs, and camps.
Support of physics programs in institutions that serve URMs.
Increased recruitment of bachelor's-level URM and women students for summer internships and research opportunities.
Transfer of effective models from high-production to low-production institutions.
Exploration of the efficacy of mentoring or a community of colleagues to improve the retention of women and URMs in graduate school.
Understanding of the departmental climate as a factor in increasing student diversity.
Awards and recognition for individuals and departments that effectively mentor URMs.
Support, through professional organizations, for the professional development of women, URMs, and persons with disabilities as well as for those who teach and advise them.
Equal opportunities for employment and advancement.
Focused attention on the needs of female URMs in physics at all levels.
Some of the interventions
are general and would have a positive impact on the study of physics for all students; ensuring that
teachers are comfortable with physics concepts is one example. Other proposals, including focused
attention on the needs of female URMs, are targeted. In many instances, people's ability or willingness
to implement targeted programming has been dampened by concerns about legal challenges.9
Rather than seek ways to legally and effectively serve populations most in need, institutions
have tended to cancel their efforts or make them "for all," a move that neither increases the number
being served nor addresses the special needs faced by those in the minority. Legally responding
to the concerns of women and URMs is an issue that deserves more discussion in the physics community.
It is crucial that science
educators work to maintain the early excitement, interest, and curiosity that children bring
with them when they begin school. Nonexistent or poor early science instruction can affect students'
attitudes toward science and their future willingness to take elective courses in science. Professional
development that allows teachers to learn in the same way they should teach is demonstrably effective.
Programs such as the Teachers Academy of Math and Science in Chicago and La Main à la Pâte,
begun in France but now operating worldwide, focus on enhancing the interactions between scientists
and educators and encourage the use of hands-on, inquiry-based strategies that move from phenomena
to concepts. Many of the topics they recommend are from physics. Wherever the projects are in use,
their results are universally engaging for children.
Lederman's physics-first
concept, in which physics is a required first course rather than an elective capstone course, changes
how the student relates to the disciplines of physics, chemistry, and biology. When he proposed
the idea in the mid-1990s, I asked Lederman to look at the patterns of course-taking for different
demographic groups in the schools that reordered their sequence. He found more students, and a
more diverse group of students, were taking more science classes.
After the degree
Why are some institutions effective
in recruiting, retaining, and graduating physics students from diverse populations while others
are not? Student potential, the reality of student capacity, the learning environment, the curriculum,
and expectations all play a role. But the fact is URM baccalaureate degree recipients in physics
come disproportionately from HBCUs and Hispanic-serving institutions.
A 2005 talk-back session
with newly minted African American PhDs who participated in the Packard graduate scholars program
provided insights into the success of minority-serving institutions. The program supported
the graduate-level education of science and engineering students who had received their undergraduate
degrees from HBCUs (see Figure 2). In the talk-back session, scholars contrasted the communities
of the black colleges with those of their graduate schools and noted that the HBCUs gave them confidence,
encouragement, and tangible proof that African Americans could succeed in science. In a February
2006 Inside Higher Education editorial, Daryl Chubin, who moderated the talk-back session,
summarized the students' messages and their implications.10 Gender and race bias,
the students found, is a graduate-school reality that has to be managed, and even though successful
students devise their own ways to cope, institutions need to consider formal systems to address
discrimination. In particular, institutions need to reward outreach and work to develop student
diversity. The Packard scholars also noted that they must stay focused on completing the requirements
for their doctorate.
One important comment
Chubin made in his editorial was that any institution of higher education can effectively serve
minorities. A recent article by Michael Summers and Freeman Hrabowski in the journal Science
gives an example of a predominantly majority institution, the University of Maryland, Baltimore
County, that aspired to and became a minority-serving school.11 I must note, though,
that any prospect for success in increasing diversity is predicated on leadership—having
it and nurturing it.
In 1876 Edward Bouchet
received the first PhD awarded to an African American from a US university.12 His degree,
from Yale University, was in physics. Little in Bouchet's background would have led one to predict
that outcome. The son of former slaves, he was able to demonstrate his capacity to achieve in physics
by being given the opportunities for education up to the highest levels. And yet, when he completed
his doctorate, he found no employment opportunities appropriate to his level of preparation.
Subsequent African American
doctorates, at least through the civil-rights years of the 1960s, worked in HBCUs or in government.
But until employment opportunities opened more broadly in the 1970s, one could not have reasonably
expected a significant influx of African Americans into the study of physics. A feedback loop exists
between the opportunities for employment and advancement in a field and the ability to attract
and retain people. At least for women in physics, appointments to faculty positions seem to track
with the number of women in the overall pool. That is not the case for women in chemistry, at least
at the major research universities. Industry has done a better job at offering women with chemistry
degrees employment in proportion to their numbers.
It will not be easy to change
the system of education and career opportunities in physics to one that is fully supportive of diversity.
But failing to consider change is unacceptable to the health of the field.
This article is adapted
from a talk given at AIP's 75-anniversary celebration, held in Washington, DC, on 3 May 2006.
Shirley Malcom is the director of the education and
human resources programs at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington,
DC.
References
1.See, for example, E. L. Babco, N. S. Bell, Professional Women and Minorities: A Total Human Resources Data Compendium, 15th ed., Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology, Washington, DC (2004); T. B. Hoffer et al., Doctorate Recipients from United States Universities: Summary Report 2004, National Opinion Research Center, Chicago (2005), available at [LINK]; American Institute of Physics Statistical Research Center, [LINK].
2.American Institute of Physics Statistical Research Center, Enrollments and Degrees Report, 2003, AIP pub. no. R-151.40, AIP, College Park, MD (July 2005), table 12, available at [LINK].
4.US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress, 1990, 1994, 1998, and 2000 High School Transcript Studies, reprinted in National Science Board, Science and Engineering Indicators 2006, vol. 2, National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA (2006), appendix table 1-18, available at [LINK].
5.R. M. Ingersoll, Out-of-Field Teaching, Educational Inequality, and the Organization of Schools: An Exploratory Analysis, Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy, Seattle, WA (January 2002), available at [LINK].
6.A. Gopnik, A. N. Meltzoff, P. K. Kuhl, The Scientist in the Crib: Minds, Brains, and How Children Learn, William Morrow, New York (1999), p. 78.
7.Ref. 6, p. 91.
8.M. G. Bardeen, L. M. Lederman, Science281, 178 (1998).
9.S. M. Malcom, D. E. Chubin, J. K. Jesse, Standing Our Ground: A Guidebook for STEM Educators in the Post-Michigan Era, American Association for the Advancement of Science, National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Washington, DC (2004).
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