Equity and Access

Published in the Research School of Physics Event Horizon
Vol42 Issue37 19–23 September 2016

From the RSPE Equity and Access Committee:

Focused Collection: Gender in Physics

This month, Physical Review Physics Education Research has a focussed collection on gender in physics.
Editorial: We are pleased to present the Focused Collection on Gender in Physics. For several decades statistics have demonstrated a lack of women participating in the field of physics, with the percentage of women receiving bachelor’s degrees in physics in the United States holding constant at 21% for the past several years. This disparity has opened the door to researchers interested in studying the differences among women and men in the field, as well as exploring gender research in science education more broadly. The goals for this collection included the following: extending gender research in physics beyond documenting performance gaps between female and male students, examining assumptions regarding the study of gender in the context of physics, and pulling researchers on gender from the broader science education community into physics education research.

More information available here: