FAQ: Aren't there a lot of guys in physics?

While I could be literal and start quoting statistics on the tiny fraction of the world's population that studies physics, normally when people address this question to me it means "aren't there a lot more guys than girls in physics"? So to answer the typically implied question: yes, like mathematics, computer science, chemistry, and most engineering colleges, ladies in the field of physics tend to be rather drastically out-numbered by their male colleagues.

How drastically out-numbered depends. In most of my time studying physics, my programs ran between 20% and 25% female. That puts the fraction of women higher in physics than in many computer science and mechanical engineering departments, but lower than that of many civil engineering ones. It can also vary depending on which disciplines are included in the physics department. Astronomy tends to have a higher percentage of women than the rest of the physics disciplines, so a department that combines physics and astronomy will have higher numbers than a department that doesn't. In my experience, particle physics and CERN seem to follow the average; I spend my work days in an office space with two girls and five guys.

No, it doesn't bother me. As a fourth-year grad student, I have been working in this sort of environment for well over seven years now. It's normal. Yes, the guys are typically geeks, but I played Magic: The Gathering in high school and used WarCraftIII to celebrate making through each finals week, so the geekiness doesn't bother me. I have always found the guys I work with to be very gentlemanly, if in a shy, slightly oblivious sort of way. I've had them spend hours helping me get code debugged or derivations finished when I was stuck on various problems. They care, even if they would never say so.

That being said, please realize the corollary of the numbers I cited earlier. If only 20% of my group is female, the other 80% is male, and those would be who I've associated with for the past seven years. I talk with guys, work with guys, and befriend guys. Therefore, it probably isn't a safe assumption that any time a guy's name pops out of my mouth, said guy is being evaluated as potential boyfriend material, and I'd rather not be questioned like he is.

Please. I'm a geek, too, capable of throwing together python scripts, opening cans sans can-opener and other geek-powers, and that sort of talk kind of weirds me out.

Computing picture from ladygeek.org.uk; the can of pumpkin is my own.