One of the main career stages that contributes to the gender imbalance among academic staff in physics is the transition from PhD to postdoc. At this stage, many woman physics students give up on an academic career path. To explore the causes of the gender imbalance at this stage, we focused on the decision-making juncture between PhD and postdoc. We used the mixed-methods paradigm, combining a nationwide representative survey among PhD students in Israel (n=267/404) and interviews with PhD students and postdoctoral fellows (n=38). The theoretical novelty that we suggest is viewing the career decision-making in this context as a ‘deal’, which involves contextual, organizational, and individual variables and their intersection. We argue that women are examining the components of this deal: what it offers them and what prices they will have to pay, but their decisions are made within a gendered power structure. Studying both context factors and agency, we reveal the multiple and hidden ways in which gender operates as a power structure, putting up barriers to women’s academic careers. This latent power structure influences women’s decision-making and experiences in several ways. In the academic field, it produces unequal competition in a male-dominated playground. In the social sphere, choosing a demanding academic career is seen as disrupting the gender order in Israel. Within the family, Israeli culture determines that women carry a greater burden of family work and give precedence to their husband’s career and preferences. Within this social structure, women who decide to follow an academic career feel that they must excel. The demand for ‘excellence’ acts as a hidden mechanism within the gender power structure that may prevent talented women from pursuing an academic career in physics.
The aim of this chapter is to explore personal stories of physicists including their own experiences and views on under-representation of women in physics. Discussions around the under-representation in physics often focus on structural factors that influence the attraction and retention of minorities into the field. In this chapter we focus on individual perceptions of the culture and environment in physics and the common themes that emerge from physicists’ experiences.
This chapter overviews the contribution of the collection to our understanding of the under-representation of women in physics. The chapter is divides into four sections: (1) it demonstrates the loss to physics as a discipline through the marginalization of women; (2) we address the question of why the under-representation of women in physics remains endemic and slow to change; (3) we argue that strategic leadership, evidence-based policies, and successful role models are essential for change to be effective; and (4) we conclude by offering recommendations for policy to achieve a sustainable culture shift in academic physics.
This chapter examines gendered experiences of women in physics through the analytical lens of microaggressions. It identifies subtle forms of discrimination faced at work by European women physicists, explores the strategies women use to cope with the unfriendly climates of their workplaces, and investigates the consequences of being exposed to microaggressions. The analysis is based on a qualitative study performed under the framework of the H2020 project Gender Equality Network in the European Research Area (GENERA). It covers the results of 40 semi-standardized interviews conducted in 2017 with women physicists working in 12 European research-performing organizations and higher education institutions. The study reveals microaggressions that European women physicists face at different career stages. The most prevalent themes include presumed incompetence, restrictive gender roles, invisibility, sexist jokes, and sexual objectification. The perceived negative consequences of being exposed to microaggressions include feeling bad and experiencing frustration about being treated differently than a person would like to be treated, feeling obliged to constantly provide evidence of being equally competent as men, and questioning one’s ability to continue with an academic career. In order to cope with covert sexism, women physicists employ various strategies, which – while bringing some individual advantages – hardly allow them to challenge the masculine culture of physics.
The discipline of physics is exemplified by many metaphors and superlatives that reflect the perpetuation of a culture purporting objectivity, elitism, and masculinity. In order to counter this physics needs to be supported by gender-sensitive institutional processes and strategies, requiring a vision of gender equality that crosses disciplinary boundaries and engages with a variety of gender and feminist perspectives. This chapter sets out a blueprint for action that includes institutional, structural, and cultural interventions that challenge prevailing behaviours, attitudes, cultures, and even the popular (among physicists at least) epistemology. Specific measures are required to create a more gender-sensitive discipline of physics thereby attracting a more inclusive, diverse, and gender-balanced quorum of students, researchers, academic staff, and decision-makers. Gender-sensitizing physics will involve meeting and countering resistance against change towards a more gender-inclusive academy.
This innovative interdisciplinary collection confronts the worldwide challenge of women's under-representation in science through an interrogation of the field of physics and its gender imbalance.
Leading physicists and sociologists from across Europe collaborate to adopt a comparative approach. They draw on theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence to explore the reasons behind low participation levels, from entering the field to sustaining a career, emphasising the importance of social perspectives over biological explanations.
Evaluating policy solutions implemented in various European contexts, this book offers key insights into the world of women physicists and sheds light on their life stories.
Physics is overwhelmingly a male-dominated research field. During the last decade, awareness of the gender imbalance which exists within all science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields has grown and, as a result, new EU initiatives have been developed to enhance inclusiveness and improve the gender balance in STEM fields. One of these initiatives has been the Gender Equality Network in Physics in the European Research Area (GENERA) project, which addresses this challenge through a ‘bottom-up’ approach for more gender equality in physics research organizations. Here we describe this project and present some major learnings for implementing gender equality in male-dominated disciplines. The aim is to provide insights into the implementation in practice and, by this, facilitate mutual learning for other research organizations.
This chapter is based on ‘existing’ within the UK education system and focuses on the evolving opportunities and hurdles within its higher education framework for women in physics. Some of these challenges will have analogues globally, whereas others will be particular to the UK. It is written from an individual personal career perspective, alongside contextual information.
This chapter sets the scene for the book’s focus on gender and physics. The chapter is divided into four sections. The first section presents a brief historical overview of gender and physics across Europe and beyond. It identifies ‘key moments’ whereby women’s presence and contribution have become recognized, and outlines some of the controversies that continue to the present day. Europe provides an important context for consideration of women’s under-representation in physics, with many countries having recently introduced policy initiatives, both within individual nations and in consortia with others. The chapter then progresses to present an overview of social theoretical approaches to understanding gender inequality to situate the content of the book. Drawing on feminist social science theory, the contributions of liberal, structural, and postmodern perspectives will be outlined. Building on this overview, section three reviews examples of different policy approaches to tackle gender discrimination, analysing how these are related to the different epistemological frameworks. The final section introduces the structure of the collection, linking this to the preceding discussion.
