I checked with my colleagues during a department Chairs meeting this morning
to see what the gender balance was in some of the other science departments.
In our biology department the enrollment is about 58% female, in chemistry
and in geology it's about 50%, in math about 45% female. In our physics
department the enrollment is about 30% female - a bit better than the
national average but not much.
We ought to be able to do better. As far as I can see the problems we have
in attracting women to the discipline have nothing to do with physics per
se, but rather with the culture of physics departments. Other science
departments have been able to change their culture, we can do the same if we
have the will to do so.