Extended Abstract (96K)5.2
Statistical analysis of survey data related to gender issues among academic AMS members
Donna F. Tucker, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS; and J. A. Winkler
The American Meteorological Society has conducted several surveys of its membership. The latest survey was administered in 2005. Overall 66% of the members for whom the AMS had valid email addresses completed the survey. We examined the responses of the AMS members employed in academia with an emphasis on differences by gender. When possible, responses from the recent survey were compared to those from the 1993 membership survey. Academic members were divided into three groups: those listing their employment field as atmospheric science or meteorology, those in another geoscience (climatology, oceanography, geology or geophysics, hydrology, geography), and those in some other field. We have restricted our analysis to those respondents in atmospheric science and in other geosciences. Respondents in other fields were very diverse and small in number, thus making analysis of the results in this category difficult. Student's T Test was used to determine if differences between groups were statistically significant. Overall 696 men and 180 women in academia listed their employment field as atmospheric science or meteorology and 294 men and 77 women listed their field as one of the other geosciences. Of these, 439 men (63.1% of men) and 69 women (38.3% of women) in atmospheric science and 239 men (81.2%) and 43 (55.8%) women in other geosciences had a Ph.D. degree. The gender difference in Ph. D. degrees reflects the larger percentage of women compared to men who were students employed part time. Among nonstudents, 69 women (85.1%) and 438 men (87.8%) had Ph.D. degrees. Women with Ph.D. degrees in academia were significantly less likely to have a tenure stream position than men were and the number of women employed in tenure stream positions has increased only slightly from the 1993 survey. For tenure stream positions in atmospheric science at all ranks women had salaries that did not differ significantly from the men. In the other geosciences, however, women assistant professors made salaries comparable to those of men but associate and full professors made less. This difference was weakly significant (alpha < 0.10) at the associate professor level but significant (alpha <0.05) at the full professor level. Women in the atmospheric sciences, but not the other geosciences, who were employed as research scientists earned less money than men in these positions. But the women also had significantly fewer years since their most recent degree than the men.
Session 5, Special Session on Assessing Diversity among Geoscientists
Monday, 21 January 2008, 7:00 PM-8:30 PM, 219
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