Both nationally and internationally, women are greatly underrepresented in physics and related fields such as engineering. These fields have to be able to draw upon the full spectrum of the world's talent in order to meet the demands in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in addressing global needs. To this end, this award to the American Association of Physics Teachers supports the United States delegation to the Fifth International Conference of Women in Physics in Waterloo, Canada. The overarching goals of the conference are to provide an international opportunity for analysis of the current status of and progress in promoting women in physics internationally; to provide an arena for international women in physics to share their scientific accomplishments and nucleate international research collaborations; and to build capacity in each participating country to design and implement changes that improve the numbers of and the advancement of women in physics. The International Science and Engineering Section at the National Science Foundation co-funded this activity because of the international activities and their expected broader impacts for women in physics.
The U.S. delegation will broaden participation through its diversity with regard to gender, race/ethnicity, disability status, research specialty, career phase and path, employment sector and institution type, and geographic location. The strategies and insights gained through this activity are expected to be useful in other fields where women are severely underrepresented. Outreach and dissemination will maximize the benefit of the conference in the U.S. The project will be informed by an evaluation conducted by the Statistical Research Center of the American Institute of Physics.
