Women in Academic Atmospheric Sciences
AbstractPast studies suggest that the atmospheric sciences may have the fewest women of all geosciences occupations. The purpose of this study was to document the representation of women in the academic atmospheric sciences, specifically women’s representation among faculty in U.S. atmospheric sciences doctoral programs. A second purpose was to describe the demographic profile, educational preparation, and occupational destination of atmospheric sciences graduate students—as a way to gauge the characteristics and progress of women potentially in the pipeline for academic positions. Data on atmospheric sciences faculty (N = 813) were collected from the websites of 34 doctoral programs. Women constituted 17% of tenure-track and tenured atmospheric sciences faculty. Most departments (53%) had two or fewer female tenure-track or tenured faculty members. The proportion of female faculty members declined as academic rank increased. Institutional data for graduate students (N = 1,153) at a subset of these progra...