"Not to stereotype but women are generally not as good as men in physics hence they feel discouraged to continue," another said. "This might be me stereotyping but usually women would want to do chemistry more than physics and physics is for guys," yet another female student wrote. Then there was this: "People say women cannot find a career in physics. People trust men to do the job in this area." "That really surprised me in this day and age," says Ms den Besten, the Laby Teaching and Outreach Fellow (Telescopes in Schools Program Coordinator) at Melbourne University The survey was sent to the 700 first-year female physics students, although many of those students were studying only one physics subject as part of another degree, such as biomedical science and therefore .had no intention of carrying on with the subject.

Others were studying first-year astronomy, which is offered as a Melbourne University breadth course that any student can take. Fourteen first-year female physics students were studying advanced physics. The survey was carried out in the final two weeks of November. On the first day, Ms den Besten received 84 responses, suggesting that the students wanted to make a contribution to help lecturers tackle why only small numbers of women go on with physics. About 20 first-year female students said in the survey they would continue with physics, although some are yet to make up their minds. The figure tallies with numbers from previous years. Students had generally decided whether to major in physics at high school or in first-year. Many were only taking physics for one year because they thought it would be helpful in preparing for the medical entrance test.

The survey also suggested that female students are reluctant to go on with physics because classes are male dominated and usually taught by male lecturers, tutors and laboratory demonstrators. The students also didn't see that physics could lead to different careers such as banking and finance. Most students, Ms den Besten says, believe physics only opens up options in research and teaching. Nevertheless, about 65 per cent of those who completed the survey enjoyed their experience of first-year physics. Some might have continued with the discipline if they had done more maths in high school. Ms den Besten says to successfully do a science degree, students need to keep their options open by studying the harder maths such as specialist maths. Girls, she says, are choosing the standard maths. "What concerns me is that they're opting for the easier subjects," Ms den Besten says.

She says teachers and lecturers have been successful in getting the message across that students should keep up maths until year 12. However, Ms den Besten says more needs to be done to promote the more challenging maths, as without it girls are less likely to go on with physics In 2001, 26 per cent of first-year female physics students went on with it at Melbourne University compared with 13 per cent last year. However, not all countries have small numbers of women studying maths and physics at university. Ms den Besten says an Italian professor in Melbourne University's physics school saysin Italy pure maths departments are often completely female. "Males tend to go into engineering whereas the girls do pure maths," Ms den Besten says. The biggest insult you can give an Italian woman, according to the professor, is to call her "dumb" or "stupid".

This suggests that cultural differences about gender bias and discrimination have a strong impact on whether women major in physics. Ms den Besten says plans are in place to tackle dwindling numbers of women doing physics. She also hopes other universities do surveys so information can be used to create a multi-pronged approach to encourage women to take physics. "There are so few (women) physicists," Ms den Besten says. "We need them to teach it (physics); we need them to promote it." * This is the final Third Degree post for the year. Thank you for reading. Third Degree returns on February 2. In the meantime, here are some issues to ponder that Third Degree plans to take up next year.

If deregulation of fees is introduced and fees go up substantially, will some students decide it's not worth going to university? Will the increasing graduate unemployment rates make students decide against going to university?

Is anyone going to do something about the teacher glut? Should the expensive Teach for Australia program be dropped in Victoria now that graduate teachers from traditional courses can't get jobs? Follow Third Degree on Twitter: @thirddegreeblog















