Women in Physics in Canada

Here we are in the 21st century in Canada, where most of us would say that young girls and boys have equal access to education, opportunities, and careers of their own choice. In Canada, women currently outnumber men in full-time university enrollment, in Medical Schools and in Law Schools. 48\% of the Canadian work force is female, yet women make up only 21\% of working professionals in science, engineering and technology. Canada-wide in Physics, the situation is such that only 20\% of our BSc graduates are women, and 19\% of our PhD graduates are women. It is evident that the ``leaky pipeline'' in Physics leaks most at a young age, before BSc graduation. High school physics statistics in BC indicate that while most of the grade 12 science and math disciplines have roughly equal numbers of young men and women enrolled, this is not the case for high school physics, where province-wide, only 30\% of Physics 12 students are women. (Biology is also skewed, but in the other direction: 62\% of Biology 12 students are women) This poster will present current statistics and will hopefully be a wake-up call for us all to consider participating in more outreach in science, and especially physics, in our high schools.