Women in Canadian Astronomy: The Next Five Years
Brenda C. Matthews and Michael A. Reid
We are currently preparing, in co-ordination with the CASCA Board, a
follow-up survey to our "Ten-Year Survey of Women in Canadian
Astronomy", executed in 2001 and covering the period from
1991-2000. The results of the original survey were reported in the
March Equinox edition of Cassiopeia
(http://www.casca.ca/ecass/issues/2004-me/content_fs.html), the
bi-annual newsletter of the AAS Committee on the Status of Women in
Astronomy, STATUS, and at the 2003 Women in Astronomy meeting in
Pasadena, CA. The results of the Ten-Year Survey showed that women
are significantly underrepresented at all levels of Canadian
astronomy. While the fractional representation of women in
undergraduate and graduate programs has risen in recent years (to the
lofty level of 17% for graduate students and postdocs), the fraction
of women at the faculty level is still very low. In our 1991-2000
survey, there were NO female astronomers at the level of full
professor in Canada, and between 1996-2000, only 6% of astronomers at
any faculty level were women. Canada therefore lags significantly
behind the US levels in representation of women based on the 2003 CSWA
survey (representing over 1600 PhD astronomers), in which 15 ±3%
of assistant professors, 20±3% of associate professors and 9±1% of full professors were women
(http://www.aas.org/cswa/status/STATUS_Jun04sm.pdf).
There is urgent need for the information our latest survey will
provide. Information about the demographics of the Canadian astronomy
community (including the representation of women) and how they are
affected by the LRP funding has been requested by members of
government from the Coalition for Canadian Astronomy. There are no
up-to-date statistics other than the census done in 2005 by the
Graduate Student Committee of CASCA on the current makeup of the
graduate population in Canada.
Our new survey will be distributed early in 2006 and cover the years
of 2001-2005. This will be the last multi-year survey. The new
survey will be done online with subsequent surveys conducted annually
for the ease of department chairs. This method will also mean
statistics will be as current as possible. There will be a few
changes from the original version, particularly the reporting of the
number of students entering graduate programs as well as those who
completed degrees. Over time, this will yield information about
attrition rates within graduate programs.
We hope the results of the survey will be available for presentation
at the AAS and CASCA meetings in Calgary this coming spring.
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