personnel is not reported in the Directory, there is no clue to the coverage of workers. Three large additional industrial firms which employed women in laboratory work, but were not listed as having research laboratories, were visited, as was one biological supply house. Research institutions: Eight research institutions or centers, some of them identified with a particular college or university, also supplied information on women members of the scientific staff. Colleges and universities: Statistical information on the number of women graduated with degrees in science, mathematics, and engineering over a period of years from 1939-40 to 1946 was obtained from 30 colleges and universities and from 9 engineering schools. Again an attempt was made to obtain wide geographical coverage and to cover different types of institutions, such as women's colleges, State universities, and small liberal arts colleges. The information available from these sources, too, varied. Placement bureaus and heads of science departments as well as deans of women at these institutions and at six other colleges contributed reports on the demand for women trained in the sciences. The Western Personnel Institute made possible the inclusion of data which it collected for the Bureau from its affiliated colleges and universities in the far West. Since no recent data were available on the number of women teaching science in the colleges, a count was made in 1947 of the women identifiable by name who were listed on science faculties in the catalogs of 330 institutions of higher learning which were then available in the United States Office of Education Library. These institutions were selected because they are believed by the United States Office of Education to be representative in their enrollments of the 1,749 institutions of higher education in the United States and, therefore, are likely to have faculties equally representative. Other sources: In addition, 97 individuals not included in the afore-mentioned sources, most of them women scientists, contributed information, suggestions, or helpful criticisms of the preliminary manuscripts circulated before revision for publication. While every effort has been made to obtain wide coverage, there remain some dark corners still unexplored because of the range and variety of these fields and the difficulty of obtaining information from widely scattered sources. Perhaps this beginning will result in further additions to our so-little knowledge. Figure 1.-A physicist testing the performance of oxygen regulators at high altitude in the Aeronautical Instruments Section of the National Bureau of Standards. Minimum requirements for membership in the American Association of 6-29 Minimum requirements for membership in the American Astronomical 6-29 List of colleges and universities offering the Ph. D. in astronomy. 6-29 6-30 Tables: 1. Distribution by highest academic degree held of 11,615 men and women registered in physics with the National Roster of Scientific and Specialized Personnel, 1944-- 6-5 2. Distribution by highest academic degree held of 346 men and women registered in astronomy with the National Roster of Scientific and Specialized Personnel, 1946--- 6-23 Illustrations: 1. Physicist testing the performance of oxygen regulators at high altitude. 6-VIII 2. A faculty member of the Purdue University Department of Physics.. 3. Astronomer adjusting the Photographic Zenith Telescope... 4. Student assistants in astronomy "manning" a telescope_ 6-13 6-18 6-21 6-IX Definition of Physicist by the War Policy Committee of the American Institute of Physics (4) "A. A physicist is one whose training and experience lie in the study and applications of the interactions between matter and energy in the fields of mechanics, acoustics, optics, heat, electricity, magnetism. radiation, atomic structure, and nuclear phenomena. "B. To qualify as a professional physicist one must have had at least 8 years of training and experience in physics. Toward this experience 4 years of formal collegiate education with major emphasis on physics may be credited, year for year, if it leads to a bachelor's degree, 5 years if it leads to a master's degree, and 7 years if it leads to a doctor's degree, from a recognized institution. Years of teaching of physics in a recognized institution may be credited as years of experience in physics. By a recognized institution is meant one which appears in the list of institutions approved by the Association of American Universities." Occupational Summary of the Profession of Physicist by the National Roster of Scientific and Specialized Personnel (43) "Physics is the science that deals with matter, motion, and energy. Recognized areas of specialization within this field are mechanics, heat, sound, light, electricity and magnetism, electronics and ionics, radio, atomic and nuclear physics, properties of materials, theoretical physics and biophysics. Other specialties relate to the application of the fundamental principles of the science to industrial problems, especially with highly precise and delicate measuring instruments, radio design and manufacture, optical instruments, and physical testing of materials.” 6-X THE OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN IN PHYSICS Recent research in nuclear physics and its wartime applications to the atomic bomb have brought unusual prominence to the 12,000 men and women physicists of the United States (41). Their work in fundamental scientific research also made possible the recent and, from the point of view of wartime strategy, the equally important developments in radar and electronics. In these fields, as well as in others less popularly known, the contributions of some 500 American women trained in physics have not gone unrecognized, although they form only 4 percent of all physicists (47). Prewar Distribution The number of physicists in the United States before the war varied from an estimated 4,000 to 6,000, depending upon how physicists were defined (29). The more conservative defined the profession rigidly and usually included graduate training or its equivalent as a criterion. Most of the physicists were employed in university and college teaching, in industrial research and development, or in fundamental research in Government agencies or research foundations. By far the largest number, some 3,000, were in universities and colleges, engaged in teaching, and sometimes in research, as time and facilities permitted (12). Qualifications set for physics faculties were very high; probably more than half had the Ph. D. (42). That teaching was the principal prewar outlet for physicists is further indicated by the fact that, in 1940, more than 60 percent of the 1,100 persons who had received the doctorate in physics in the previous decade were employed in institutions of higher education (21). The number of women physicists engaged in college teaching before the war is not known, but the proportion in teaching was possibly as high as or higher than that of the men. For example, of the 12 women graduated with a degree in physics by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose 1940 employment is known, half were teaching. Two of the women were serving as full professors, two as assistant professors, one as a teaching assistant, and one was a teacher part time in addition to her work as an astronomer. About three-fourths of the 42 women physicists listed in the 1938 directory of American Men of Science were teaching. Twenty-nine of these women held the doctorate and 11 the master's degree (33). Physics teachers in secondary schools usually cannot be classified as physicists, since most of them do not have even undergraduate de |