Women in Physics in Argentina

PONCE DAWSON, SILVINA

Conferencia; Second International Conference on Women in Physics; 2005

The First IUPAP International Conference on Women in Physics in 2002 revealed that physics in Argentina has many features in common with physics in other developing countries. In particular, the percentage of physicists who are female is higher in Argentina and in other developing countries than in developed countries, and these women tend to have more children and at an earlier age. About 30% of the students of physics at the University of Buenos Aires (the largest university in the country) are women. However, as in all countries, as we go up the academic ladder, the fraction of women compared with men in physics decreases enormously (see the statistics at www.df.uba.ar/users/silvina/women/datos_mujeres.html). I suspected that the decrease was related to the difficulties that most women encounter as they try to advance in their scientific career and, at the same time, start to build a family. This paper presents the results of a survey that seems to indicate that family is indeed one of the reasons for the falling numbers of women in higher academic positions in Argentina.