SEARCHING FOR GENDER PARITY AT ILLINOIS PHYSICS: 100 Years of Women PhDs
Shraddha Agrawal
for Illinois Physics Condensate
In 1956, Chien-Shiung Wu demonstrated one of the most critical experiments in the history of physics: testing parity violation under weak interactions. Wolfgang Pauli famously quipped, “Ich glaube aber nicht, daß der Herrgott ein schwacher Linkshänder ist.” (I do not believe that the Lord is a weak left-hander.) Wu’s experiment did indeed prove that the universe, by a margin of roughly 1 in 10,000, really is left-handed. Despite her landmark discovery and 26 nominations, Wu was left out of the Nobel Prize winners’ list.
This report by Illinois Physics doctoral candidate Shraddha Agrawal introduces a two-part series of articles, written in the first person by our women PhD alumnae and students. We hope you’ll enjoy this ode to women physicists like Wu and the women PhDs of our own department, past and present.
Illinois Physics’ history is full of stories that exemplify excellence. The department has produced and hosted several Nobel laureates and remarkable discoveries in physics. But until the 1960s, the PhD program had very few or no women. One early example of the caliber of research women can bring is Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, a student of Maurice Goldhaber who earned a PhD in 1945—the second woman in the department’s history to accomplish this. Yalow would later win the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones,” a technique she invented with her colleague Solomon Berson.
“Broadening participation in our graduate program has allowed us to draw from the largest possible pool of scientifically talented physics students. Increasing diversity in our program has also significantly benefited the academic experience, research activities, and social climate for graduate students in our department, particularly for students from groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in physics.”
Illinois Physics Professor and Associate Head for Graduate Programs Lance Cooper
When Yalow started her graduate studies in 1941, she was the only woman in the classrooms where she learned or taught—in fact, the only woman among the 400 teaching fellows and faculty members of the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Before Yalow, Eleanor Frances Seiler was the first woman to earn a PhD from Illinois Physics, in 1922. Unlike Yalow, Seiler did not find her way into a scientific career in academia or industry.
Today, the department—one of the largest physics doctoral programs in the country—is a second home to 91 women PhD students. That’s as many as graduated from the department in the 100 years from 1910 to 2010.
Head of Department and Professor Matthias Grosse Perdekamp credits the department’s current success in enrolling women PhD students to the leadership and diligence of Associate Head for Graduate Programs and Professor Lance Cooper.
Perdekamp notes, “In his 11 years at the helm of our graduate program, Lance Cooper has transformed admission practices and the climate of equity and inclusion. During his tenure, the proportion of students from historically underrepresented groups rose from 3 percent to 8.5 percent and the number of women from 13 percent to 29 percent—both now well above national averages. Lance’s perseverance in implementing bold ideas and his data-driven approach to optimizing outcomes have proven a tremendously successful mix to effect positive and lasting change.”
The student experience
While a student, Illinois Physics PhD alumna Karmela Padavic-Callaghan contributed to the formation of diversity support groups and community-building efforts at Illinois Physics.
She recalls, “I left Urbana with this sense of optimism, because I saw that change could happen. I was there six years. Over those six years, we built up a lot more support and had a lot more conversations, a lot more awareness. I do think that I saw the culture of the department change over the years, and it was very encouraging to see that if you organize and if there’s institutional support for organizing, then institutions can change.
“I’m going to emphasize that we would have done absolutely nothing had it not been for Lance, who was willing to give us space and money and advocate for us.”
Illinois Physics doctoral candidate Preetha Sarkar shares, “I can only speak from my own experiences, but this department holds up pretty well to what I thought a department should be. No segregated groups, all graduate students so friendly and welcoming. The department, Lance especially, put in a lot of effort towards making our workspace a safe, inclusive space. It is very encouraging to see so many diversity and equity efforts going on and being appreciated.”
Illinois Physics doctoral candidate Anabel Romero comments, “I’ve heard a lot of minority students say they don’t consider themselves minorities because they are ‘just as capable as everyone else.’ The idea of disparate capabilities based on gender, race, or ethnic group is a misconception. Of course, we are all equally capable! The difference is that minority students face more issues and have less access to resources. What stops minority students from further succeeding in life is not a lack of talent or intrinsic abilities, it’s harsher circumstances. Therefore, I thought it was superb that the department has started presenting the Excellence in Outreach, Service, and Diversity Award—definitely a step in the right direction.”
Cooper says the increase in diversity, including the greater enrollment of women, has only benefitted the graduate student community and the department’s research programs.
“Broadening participation in our graduate program has allowed us to draw from the largest possible pool of scientifically talented physics students,” notes Cooper. “Increasing diversity in our program has also significantly benefited the academic experience, research activities, and social climate for graduate students in our department, particularly for students from groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in physics.
Historical correlations with enrollments
Looking at historical enrollment data from the Illinois Physics doctoral program, there are interesting correlations between the number of PhD graduates and historical events. For example, there was a significant increase in the number of PhD graduates in 1950, five years after the end of World War II, and then again in the mid-1960s, reflecting the post-Sputnik era in the United States (Figure 1). Not surprisingly, the total number of women PhD graduates from Illinois Physics does not follow the same historical trajectory. Women have only sporadic representation until about 1970, after which enrollment of women graduates became more regular.
Figure 1: From 1910 to 2022, the average number of women PhD graduates is significantly below the number of men graduates, but progress toward greater equity has been made over the last decades. Graph courtesy of Lance Cooper, Illinois Physics
[cr][lf]Since 1970, the Illinois Physics enrollment data show three distinct periods in women PhD graduations. In the 30-year span 1970–1999, women graduated fairly consistently each year, but at a very low average rate of 1.7 women per year. In the following 16 years, 2000–2015, the average PhD graduation rate for women roughly doubled to 3.6 women per year. In the past 7 years, 2016–2022, the average PhD graduation rate roughly doubled again to 7.1 women per year, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: From 1910 to 2022, the number of women PhD graduates trends slowly upward. Graph courtesy of Lance Cooper, Illinois Physics
[cr][lf]While these jumps in women PhD graduations have little to no correlation with historical events prior to 1970, both our department’s data and the national data compiled by the American Institute of Physics indicate a consistent increase in the number of women seeking undergraduate or graduate degrees in physics after 1975 (Figure 3). Interestingly, this increase correlates with the passing in 1972 of Title IX of the Education Amendments, which prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs or activities that receive federal funding. Title IX is one example of how systemic changes can propel an underrepresented group forward.
Breaking through enrollment barriers
At Illinois Physics, several admissions requirement changes put in place by the associate head for graduate programs have contributed to a marked increase in the number of women PhD graduates. Cooper, who has administered the graduate program since 2011, meets annually with each graduate student to discuss progress toward degree and career aspirations. He has a reputation among the students for providing individualized mentorship and support. He applied the same attentiveness to his review of admissions policies, having greater equity as a goal.
Cooper recalls, “During the decade 2000 to 2009, we had plateaued at 13 percent women in our PhD program enrollment—13 percent seemed to be the fundamental constant of our graduate admissions.”
Figure 3: Top, national data on the percentage of undergraduate and PhD physics degrees earned by women, collected by the American Physical Society (APS), shows increased representation in the field by women since 1968; consistent growth in the percentage of women PhD graduates starting around the mid-70s is consistent with Illinois Physics’ numbers. Bottom, the number of Illinois Physics women PhD graduates by decade reflect the national trend of increased accessibility to women, but shows contiued growth from 2010 forward, in part due to our holistic admissions criteria. Upper graph courtesy of the APS, lower graph courtesy of Lance Cooper, Illinois Physics
[cr][lf]Surpassing this mark required a change in PhD program admissions and recruiting procedures. Among these changes, significantly less emphasis is placed on the standardized Physics Graduate Record Examination (PGRE). Since 2017, submitting the PGRE as part of the application has been optional.
Without the PGRE, a more holistic evaluative approach considers applicants’ letters of recommendation, personal statements, and undergraduate grade point averages (GPAs) on equal footing. According to Cooper, this review process has resulted in significantly more offers made to qualified women, which in turn has contributed to a more inclusive environment for all genders.
This was a bold move—physics programs were the slowest to drop GRE requirements in the US.1 However, some studies have shown that GRE scores are uncorrelated to student productivity in graduate school2 and are particularly disadvantageous to groups historically underrepresented in physics, like women. Not content to rely on data from other fields, Cooper collected Illinois Physics graduate program data over a span of many years and studied the correlation of admitted students’ PGRE scores with their success in the program. Figure 5 shows the GPAs of first-year Illinois Physics graduate students relative to their PGRE scores from 2010 to 2020. The data reveal only a weak correlation between test scores and grades.
Figure 4: Top, From 2004 to 2022, the number of Illinois Physics women PhD graduates trends slowly upward. Bottom, Bottom, breaking through a plateau in the number of first-year women PhD enrollments in the 2000s required thoughtful changes in admissions requirements and practices. Graphs courtesy of Lance Cooper, Illinois Physics
[cr][lf]Since implementing these changes, the enrollment of PhD women in the first-year class doubled during the decade 2010 to 2019, climbing to 12 women per year from an average of 6 women per year during the previous decade (Figure 4).
While offering more admissions to women was certainly an important factor in increasing the enrollment of women in the Illinois Physics PhD program, creating an inclusive environment for the women applicants was equally essential. Offering departmental fellowships to women and gender-minority applicants has been crucial to creating a sense of belonging and safe spaces. For example, women faculty and graduate students in the department started hosting a fun and inclusive Women in Physics coffee hour for prospective women PhD students during the Prospective Student Open House. Imagine walking into a room full of women physicists, sipping coffee, talking about their lives and research experiences, and sharing a few laughs during the prospective graduate student open house. That is some “Urbana-style physics” for you!
Figure 5: Illinois Physics PhD program statistics from 2004 to 2016 demonstrate that students’ Physics GRE scores are not a reliable predictor of academic performance in the first year of study, as measured by students’ grade point average (GPA). Plot courtesy of Lance Cooper, Illinois Physics
[cr][lf]Additionally, Professors Nadya Mason, Smitha Vishveshwara, Sangjin Kim, and other women faculty organize regular Women in Physics coffees for women PhD students. Mason secured funding from the Heising-Simons Foundation to support an annual Women and Gender Minorities (WGMP) retreat, Women in Physics luncheons, and other social activities for women PhD students and faculty in the department. Most recently, women graduate students at Illinois Physics secured a Women in Physics Group Grant from the American Physical Society to support social and professional development activities for women and other gender minorities at Illinois Physics.
Impacts of increased participation of women in physics
Cooper points out that enrolling more women graduate students at Illinois Physics has not only promoted greater participation of women in physics, but it has dramatically changed the culture and improved the climate in the department. Women PhD students at Illinois Physics are disproportionately the founders and leaders of the many social and professional-development groups in the department or on campus, they have disproportionately received national fellowships, and their graduation and job placement rates are at least as high as those of the male PhD students.
Indeed, the placement of women graduate students after graduate school is a particularly important metric for measuring the success of the program and the cause of equality. Cooper has tracked down the post-graduation jobs of about 80 percent of the 167 women PhD graduates from the department. He learned that, of the 129 women PhD graduates he could track, 43 percent stayed in academia, 39 percent went to industry, and 12 percent went to national labs. It is also noteworthy that 33 percent of women graduates became faculty in some form.
The success of women PhD students from Illinois Physics and from institutions across the U.S. securing jobs in academia, national labs, and industry is encouraging given the challenges that women have historically faced in the pursuit of scientific careers. In the not-too-distant past, all too often women physicists had to give up on their careers to become caregivers of their families or faced obstacles in getting hired at the same institutions as their husbands. In this way, women bore the brunt of the infamous “two-body problem,” which made it hard for couples to pursue their chosen professions in the same geographical location.
The increasing number of women graduates from Illinois Physics can be particularly important for bridging the glaring gender gap in the field of physics. Now with so many women PhD graduates from Illinois Physics finding placements in academia, at national labs, and in the private sector, the physics community can continue its promising work to reverse some of these trends.
The higher number of women graduates from Illinois Physics can also help address a related problem in STEM: the lack of women mentors and role models in high-level academic and industrial positions. With the increasing number of women PhD graduates from this department, the scientists of future generations will benefit from the strong professional mentoring, physics training, and social networking offered by the many excellent women scientists from Illinois Physics.
Ultimately, the hope of gender-inclusion efforts is that one day—unlike the parity violation that Chien-Shiung Wu not only discovered, but in another manner experienced—gender parity in physics can be an attainable goal, enabling many more significant discoveries by a growing network of outstanding women scientists, from Illinois Physics and elsewhere.
References
1. Daniel Garisto. Physics Departments Ditch the GRE in Bid for Equity. Ed. by David Voss. Sept. 2020. url: https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/202008/gre.cfm.
2. Joshua D Hall, Anna B O’Connell, and Jeanette G Cook. “Predictors of student productivity in biomedical graduate school applications.” In: PLOS One 12.1 (2017), e0169121.
Author Shraddha Agrawal is a fifth-year PhD student at Illinois Physics. Her research focuses on exploring novel topological phenomena using ultra-cold atoms. Her future interests involve exploring gravity in quantum mechanical regimes. She was recently awarded fourth place in an essay contest organized by the Gravity Research Foundation for her essay about the key role of large momentum transfer optics in atom-based interferometers. She is passionate about increasing participation of underrepresented groups in STEM fields, especially physics. Her essay about an incredible, little-known Indian woman physicist, Anna Mani, and her contributions to Indian metrological science was selected by the American Physical Society as a runner-up in its 2022 History of Physics Essay Contest.