[RUME] Women Earn 46% of Undergraduate Math Degrees but Represent Only 8% of Math Professors ??

[Richard Hake]

As reported by Rick Reis (2006) in  Tomorrow's Professor, Message 
#717, "Proof and Prejudice: Women in Mathematics," Lisa Trie (2006) 
in the "Stanford Report of 15 February 2006 wrote: 

"According to [Londa] Schiebinger, women earn 46 percent of 
undergraduate math degrees in this country but represent only 8 
percent of math professors."

I relayed a portion of Trei's report to Math-Learn, Phys-L, PhysLrnR, 
POD, and RUME, including the above statement attributed to 
Schiebinger. 

But in a recent RUME (Research in Undergraduate Mathematics) post 
Cathy Kessel (2006), President-Elect of the Association for Women in 
Mathematics <http://www.awm-math.org/>, wrote [bracketed by lines 
"KKKKKKKKKK. . . ."; my CAPS; slightly edited]:

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
I WONDER IF SOME CONTEXT GOT LOST FROM SCHIEBINGER'S STATEMENT, MAYBE
SHE MEANT SOMETHING LIKE "PROFESSORS AT RESEARCH 1 UNIVERSITIES"?

In mathematics departments, tenure-eligible college faculty members 
are 31% female, other full-time faculty members are 47% female, and 
tenured faculty members are 17% female (Lutzer, Maxwell, & Rodi, 
2002). In the "top 10" mathematics departments, there are 
approximately 300 tenured faculty members; 16 of them are female 
(Jackson, 2004).

Somewhat related is the episode of "The Simpsons" that is supposed to 
air on April 30 is called "Girls Just Want to Have Sums" and is to 
discuss women in
mathematics: <http://www.mathsci.appstate.edu/~sjg/simpsonsmath//sums.html>.
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

And on Apr 26 19:10:08 EDT 2006, Patricia Hale, in the Math Dept. at 
Cal Poly Pomona posted on the RUME list:

"Another possibility is that [Schiebinger] simply meant only 8% of 
full professors.  The AMS data for 2004 indicates that 16% of tenured 
faculty are women (combining Groups I, II, III, Va, M & B).  I am 
pretty sure the percentage for full professors is lower than the 
percentage for Associate and Full combined."

Londa Schiebinger has not responded to a 26 April 2006 request for 
clarification. I wonder if anyone has any further ideas on what Londa 
Schiebinger might have meant?

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake at earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>


REFERENCES
Hake, R.R. 2006."Proof and Prejudice: Women in Mathematics and 
Physics," online at 
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0604&L=pod&O=D&P=15426>. 
Post of 23 Apr 2006 16:23:26-0700 to Math-Learn, Phys-L, PhysLrnR, 
POD, and RUME.

Reis, R. 2006. Tomorrow's Professor, Message #717, "Proof and 
Prejudice: Women in Mathematics," 21 April, to be online at 
<http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/postings/717.html>  Discussion of 
posts is at the "Tomorrow's Professor Blog" 
<http://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/>.

Trie, L. 2006. "Biases must be tackled to achieve gender equity in
mathematics, scholars argue." Stanford Report, 15 February; online at
<http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2006/february15/mathem-021506.html>.