每年出版 6 期
ISSN 打印: 1072-8325
ISSN 在线: 1940-431X
Indexed in
MEN AND WOMEN STUDENTS AND FACULTY IN THE SCIENCES: CHANGING PATTERNS OF INVOLVEMENT IN THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA SYSTEM
摘要
Debate during the last decade has centered around whether or not there is a shortage of scientists in the United States. Reports in the literature suggest that fewer students are choosing science majors in college and in graduate school. Other reports indicate that there is a surplus of scientists, especially those at the junior level. To resolve this discrepancy with respect to the University of North Carolina (UNC) system, university archives were examined to learn how participation by men and women in the sciences within the system has changed in recent years. Data were collected for both faculty and students within the physical sciences (biology, chemistry, geology, and physics) and social sciences (anthropology, geography, history, philosophy and religion, political science, and sociology) as well as mathematics and psychology for the years 1980−1984 and 1990−1994. Results showed that the number of women faculty in the UNC system has increased at the professor and associate professor positions, although the percentage of women in these positions is quite small compared to men (15% and 40%, respectively). Furthermore, more men than women occupy nontenured, tenure-track positions. Women are more likely to be employed in nontenured, temporary positions, although the UNC system also employs a large number of men in these positions. In addition, the data show that women are majoring in the sciences in increasing numbers, which is encouraging; however, men outnumber women at the Ph.D. level by 151%. Further research is needed to explore reasons why women are less likely than men to pursue graduate education in the sciences, and whether women who pursue an education in the sciences will actually pursue a career in the sciences.