Improving Climate and Gender Equity in Physics Departments

We need to open the door of science to women and minorities. We need to invite them in and encourage them to succeed. We need to teach them the secret handshake and transfer all the writing on the men's room walls and all-white country clubs into accessible places. We need to promote them to positions of national prominence. We need to do this out of respect to our mothers and the pioneering scientists who have come before us. We need to do this for our daughters and sons, so that our grandchildren may only know this discrimination as a piece of history. We need to do this now -- for the sake of our country, our science, our technical workforce, our economy and because it is the right thing to do. The Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP) has been helping physics departments improve their climate as a means to enhance gender equity. The CSWP site visit program has been giving departments valuable feedback on their climate for many years. In May 2007, a workshop on ``Gender Equity: Enhancing the Physics Enterprise in Universities and National Laboratories'' was held to address the issue of underrepresentation of women in physics by engaging the stake holders. This fall a new ``Conversation on Gender Equity'' has begun. Successful strategies for improving the climate and increasing the representation of women in physics will be presented.