Barbara Hodgson

Barriers and constraints: women physicists' perceptions of career progress

Researchers in the area of women in science are trying to understand how the participation of women in science can be increased and also what prevents women from developing scientific careers. Past influential work supports the importance of taking the perspective of womens education and career paths as a whole, emphasizing the importance of structural and social factors in career progress. This paper reports some outcomes from an interview study with women PhD physicists working in a variety of science-related careers. Our aim is to explore and document the career experience of women scientists and to identify barriers and constraints to womens participation in science careers and to investigate ways in which educational experiences contribute to career progress.

Innovatory Educational Models for Women Returners in Science, Engineering and Technology Professions

Women returning to work after a break have been the target of programmes and initiatives within the adult and higher education sectors for many years: they have also been the focus of government concern at times of skills shortages. Often drawing on feminist principles and pedagogies , such initiatives have generally aimed to empower women and raise their awareness of gender issues at the same time as offering skills and training in preparation for employment (Coats 1996; Ellen and Herman 2005; Phipps 2008). The initiative discussed in this chapter has its roots in these traditions but, by using an online environment, the government has been able to offer a new programme to a wider and more diversely distributed target group, as well as focussing on the needs of a specific group: women already qualified in Science , Engineering or Technology (SET) subject areas.

Women in science-or are they?

The disappointingly small number of girls studying science was highlighted in this journal 20 years ago. This article looks at progress in bringing girls into science eduation and women into science-based employment.

The Heinekin principle re-visited: collaborative presentation of retraining courses for physics teachers

The authors present a reflection on the OUs distance-learning retraining scheme - Physics for Science Teachers - to see how the schemes original aims have been implemented.

OU Help-Line for Teachers of Physics.

In the 1980s, the Open University has developed new approaches to open learning. The experience gathered from preparing and delivering undergraduate courses, largely by distance-teaching methods, has been invaluable, but new OU initiatives often need to be based on entirely novel assumptions about audience and styles of delivery. A particularly good example is the Physics for Science Teachers project, which introduces new blends of direct and distance teaching.