Although female professors are a minority in many science and math departments, women made up a majority of students enrolled in those areas at the beginning of the school year, exceeding the overall ratio of females to males attending the University.
Female students identified decreasing the discrepancy between the percentage of women faculty members and women students as the next step for diversification of those fields, which were once male-dominated.
During fall term 2005, 59 percent of all undergraduates in the science and math departments were women, according to data from the Office of the Registrar.
Biology major Jane Xing said she couldn’t see a gender difference in the classroom.
“In most of my bio classes I’ve noticed an equal number of guys or girls,” she said. “I think it’s a lot more fair than a lot of people think.”
The ratio of male to female students varied widely among science departments.
Of 89 undergraduates in the physics department, only 19 percent were female. Women made up less than 40 percent of mathematics, biochemistry and geological sciences students.
Biology major Sarah Bwabye also said she didn’t notice a skewed gender ratio in her classes. If anything, biology’s female majority was the only visible contrast to classes outside her major.
“It seems like there’s a balance, and it almost seems to be more women,” she said.
University data supports Bwabye’s experiences. Seventy percent of the psychology department’s 1,012 undergraduates were female. Sixty-one percent of biology students were female, as were 59 percent of the general science department.
The figures for graduate and undergraduate students from fall term 2005 are nearly identical. Sixty-four percent of 97 psychology graduate students were female, whereas only 17 percent of 90 physics graduate students were women.
Bevin Daglen, the president of The University of Oregon Women in Graduate Science group and a chemistry graduate student, said she wasn’t surprised that female graduate students composed 37 percent of the chemistry department.
“That seems pretty close because it’s not 50-50, but I was never the only woman in the room,” she said. “Thirty-seven percent, that’s a decent amount.”
Founded two years ago, Daglen’s group brings together female graduate students from departments such as chemistry, physics, geology and molecular biology.
Daglen said the main purpose of the group is to host speeches by prominent female scientists from other schools, industry, laboratories and national organizations at its monthly meetings.
“Mostly we have women speakers come and talk about their personal history in conjunction with the science that they’re doing,” Daglen said.

Daglen said equality is a significant concern for the science departments.
“Personally I feel that there is a lot of equality in the school,” she said. “I think there’s a great community of scientists here, and we’ve had a lot of support from faculty in starting this group up.”
For students like mathematics major Laura Barnhart, gender balance isn’t an issue.
“I don’t think it’s important to increase the number of female students,” she said. “The gender ratio, I don’t believe, has ever impacted my ability to learn here in the math department, so I don’t consider that to be an issue.”
But for those who believe action is needed, most say having more female faculty in affected departments is paramount.
Bwabye said she wished there was more visibility for women already working in those departments.
“I think it would be nice to know that there is another female faculty,” she said. “Now we hardly know them because I don’t really see their contribution.”
Bwabye said the female faculty members she knows are more involved in research than teaching, so presenting their work to potential students would be a good way to increase the number of female undergraduates in science.
“They have so much research opportunities that nobody knows about, so we’d put them out there and get students interested,” Bwabye said. “They need to give examples of female teachers during recruitment to inspire someone else.”
For Daglen, the problem is urging women to pursue science after they graduate. She said this shortfall can be aided by having female role models in positions of scientific authority.
“I do think to encourage women to pursue a career in science when they’re done with school, you need to have role models to help them do that,” she said. “Sometimes those can be difficult to find.”
But these role models don’t necessarily have to be female, Daglen said. As long as female students interact with professionals who promote women’s advancement in science, the change will occur.
“If you have doubts in your mind if being a woman will hold you back in your career, it’s important to have role models that show it can be done,” she said.

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