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Canadian Physics Counts Study

Updated 4 July 2026
  • Canadian Physics Counts is a comprehensive national survey that collects disaggregated EDI data from students and professionals across Canadian physics.
  • The study employed rigorous intersectional methodology with a sample of 2,532 respondents to assess demographics, accommodations, and experiences of harm.
  • Findings reveal significant underrepresentation of Black, Indigenous, and gender-diverse physicists and a marked decline in diversity from academia to professional stages.

to=functions.shell 大发官网 ’wini _久久爱ված code: {"command":"bash -lc 'python - <<\"PY\"\nimport urllib.parse, urllib.request\nquery='ti:\"Canadian Physics Counts\" OR ti:\"Striving for Equity in Canadian Physics\"'\nurl='http://export.arxiv.org/api/query?search_query='+urllib.parse.quote(query)+'&start=0&max_results=5'\nprint(url)\nprint(urllib.request.urlopen(url, timeout=20).read().decode(\"utf-8\")[:4000])\nPY'"}џьынџь to=functions.shell 大发快三怎么看 彩神争霸官方 output: {"output":"Traceback (most recent call last):\n File \"<stdin>\", line 5, in <module>\n File \"/usr/local/lib/python3.11/urllib/request.py\", line 216, in urlopen\nhttp://export.arxiv.org/api/query?search_query=ti%3A%22Canadian%20Physics%20Counts%22%20OR%20ti%3A%22Striving%20for%20Equity%20in%20Canadian%20Physics%22&start=0&max_results=5\n return opener.open(url, data, timeout)\n File \"/usr/local/lib/python3.11/urllib/request.py\", line 525, in open\n response = meth(req, response)\n File \"/usr/local/lib/python3.11/urllib/request.py\", line 634, in http_response\n response = self.parent.error(\n File \"/usr/local/lib/python3.11/urllib/request.py\", line 563, in error\n return self._call_chain(*args)\n File \"/usr/local/lib/python3.11/urllib/request.py\", line 496, in _call_chain\n result = func(*args)\n \n File \"/usr/local/lib/python3.11/urllib/request.py\", line 643, in http_error_default\n raise HTTPError(req.full_url, code, msg, hdrs, fp)\nurllib.error.HTTPError: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden\n","metadata":{"exit_code":1,"duration_seconds":0.35}} to=functions.shell 的天天彩票 经彩票 code: {"command":"bash -lc 'python - <<\"PY\"\nimport urllib.parse, urllib.request\nquery='ti:\"Canadian Physics Counts\" OR ti:\"Striving for Equity in Canadian Physics\"'\nurl='https://export.arxiv.org/api/query?search_query='+urllib.parse.quote(query)+'&start=0&max_results=5'\nreq=urllib.request.Request(url, headers={\"User-Agent\":\"Mozilla/5.0 arxiv-research-assistant\"})\nwith urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=20) as r:\n text=r.read().decode(\"utf-8\")\nprint(text[:4000])\nPY'"} RTLU to=functions.shell ិកითხ output: {"output":"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n<feed xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom\">\n <link href=\"http://arxiv.org/api/query?search_query%3Dti%3A%22Canadian%20Physics%20Counts%22%20OR%20ti%3A%22Striving%20for%20Equity%20in%20Canadian%20Physics%22%26start%3D0%26max_results%3D5\" rel=\"self\" type=\"application/atom+xml\"/>\n <title type=\"html\">ArXiv Query: search_query=ti:\"Canadian Physics Counts\" OR ti:\"Striving for Equity in Canadian Physics\"&start=0&max_results=5</title>\n <id>http://arxiv.org/api/6_fvTSvN1Mik3a9jqo55fAgCg5Q</id>\n <updated\>2026-07-04T00:00:00-04:00</updated>\n <opensearch:totalResults xmlns:opensearch=\"http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/\"\>2/opensearch:totalResults\n <opensearch:startIndex xmlns:opensearch=\"http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/\"\>0/opensearch:startIndex\n <opensearch:itemsPerPage xmlns:opensearch=\"http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/\"\>5/opensearch:itemsPerPage\n <entry>\n <id>http://arxiv.org/abs/([2403.04679](/papers/2403.04679))v1</id>\n <updated\>2024-03-07T21:06:14Z</updated>\n <published\>2024-03-07T21:06:14Z</published>\n <title>Canadian Physics Counts: An exploration of the diverse identities of\n physics students and professionals in Canada</title>\n <summary> The lack of diversity in physics remains a persistent worldwide problem.\nDespite being a quantitative discipline which relies on measurements to\nconstruct and validate hypotheses, there remains a paucity of data on both\ndemographics and experiences of marginalized groups. In Canada, there has never\nbeen a nationwide assessment of those studying or working in physics. Here, we\npresent findings from Canadian Physics Counts: the first national survey of\nequity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in the Canadian physics community. Our\nintersectional approach allowed us to gather a wealth of information on gender\nidentity, sexual orientation, race, disability, and more. Analyses revealed key\nfindings, including the first data on physicists who identify as non-binary or\ngender diverse, as well as the first data on Black and Indigenous scholars.\nBlack physicists (1.2%) and Indigenous physicists (.3%) were found to be the\nmost underrepresented, while White men were overrepresented across all sectors.\nAmong respondents with a disability, 5% reported receiving full accommodations\nfor their required needs at their place of work or study. One in four\nrespondents from BIPOC gender diverse backgrounds identified as being disabled,\nand the proportion of sexually diverse students who reported having a\ndisability was more than three times higher than the proportion of heterosexual\nstudents with a disability. The data also revealed that students represented\nmore demographic diversity than working professionals, highlighting the\nimportance of acting today in order to retain the diverse physicists of\ntomorrow. Our analysis identifies areas for intervention and offers\nrecommendations for building a diverse and inclusive physics community in Canada\nthat can be a global exemplar.\n</summary>\n <author>\n <name>N. B. Lovett</name>\n </author>\n <author>\n <name>F. Lalonde</name>\n </author>\n <author>\n <name>E. V. Johnston</name>\n </author>\n <author>\n <name>L. A. McDuff</name>\n </author>\n <author>\n <name>L. J. Newburgh</name>\n </author>\n </entry>\n <entry>\n <id>http://arxiv.org/abs/([2603.24622](/papers/2603.24622))v1</id>\n <updated\>2026-03-24T23:34:57Z</updated>\n <published\>2026-03-24T23:34:57Z</published>\n <title>Canadian Physics Counts: Considering How Identity Relates to\n Experiences of Harm within the Canadian Physics Community</title>\n <summary> Harmful experiences such as harassment and discrimination continue to\npush many people out of science. To better understand identities and\nexperiences of harm among physi","metadata":{"exit_code":0,"duration_seconds":0.5}} to=functions.shell 彩神争霸的 尚度 code: {"command":"bash -lc 'python - <<\"PY\"\nimport urllib.parse, urllib.request\nquery='ti:\"Striving for Equity in Canadian Physics\"'\nurl='https://export.arxiv.org/api/query?search_query='+urllib.parse.quote(query)+'&start=0&max_results=3'\nreq=urllib.request.Request(url, headers={\"User-Agent\":\"Mozilla/5.0 arxiv-research-assistant\"})\nwith urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=20) as r:\n text=r.read().decode(\"utf-8\")\nprint(text[:2500])\nPY'"} RTLU to=functions.shell 北京赛车冠军 output: {"output":"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n<feed xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom\">\n <link href=\"http://arxiv.org/api/query?search_query%3Dti%3A%22Striving%20for%20Equity%20in%20Canadian%20Physics%22%26start%3D0%26max_results%3D3\" rel=\"self\" type=\"application/atom+xml\"/>\n <title type=\"html\">ArXiv Query: search_query=ti:\"Striving for Equity in Canadian Physics\"&start=0&max_results=3</title>\n <id>http://arxiv.org/api/Qh7AqbQ6lRINj0wGwH27cwkMtNs</id>\n <updated\>2026-07-04T00:00:00-04:00</updated>\n <opensearch:totalResults xmlns:opensearch=\"http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/\"\>1/opensearch:totalResults\n <opensearch:startIndex xmlns:opensearch=\"http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/\"\>0/opensearch:startIndex\n <opensearch:itemsPerPage xmlns:opensearch=\"http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/\"\>3/opensearch:itemsPerPage\n <entry>\n <id>http://arxiv.org/abs/([2511.21525](/papers/2511.21525))v1</id>\n <updated\>2025-11-26T19:00:02Z</updated>\n <published\>2025-11-26T19:00:02Z</published>\n <title>Striving for Equity in Canadian Physics</title>\n <summary> We discuss a number of new initiatives and events since 2020 which we\nhope will contribute to advancement of equity issues within the physics\ncommunity in Canada. A recent analysis of high-school data shows that men are\nstill over-represented in high-school physics courses, and the fraction has not\nchanged in over a decade. Results from a national survey show that despite\nimprovements over the years, the percentage of women and gender diverse\nphysicists drops by around 35% between undergraduate students to those in a\nphysics career. This decline is even more notable among Black, Indigenous, and\npeople of colour (BIPOC) women and gender diverse physicists, whose\nrepresentation drops by almost 60%. Several programs from the National Sciences\nand Engineering Research Council (NSERC) have been implemented in order to\nimprove equity, diversity, and accessibility in STEM on a national level, most\nnotably the Chairs for Women in Sciences and Engineering (CSWE) and Chairs for\nInclusion in Sciences and Engineering (CISE) initiatives. It is crucial to\nmaintain data collection and support existing as well as new EDI projects in\nfuture years as we work to build a more inclusive community of physicists in\nCanada.\n</summary>\n <author>\n <name>L. Barkanova</name>\n </author>\n","metadata":{"exit_code":0,"duration_seconds":0.47}} Canadian Physics Counts is the name of the first national survey of equity, diversity, and inclusion in the Canadian physics community and of a subsequent line of analyses based on that dataset. The project examined who studies and works in physics in Canada, how identities intersect across gender identity, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, disability, and career stage, and how those identities relate to representation, accommodation, attrition, and experiences of harm. The initial nationwide demographic study established baseline counts for a community that previously had no national assessment, and later work used the same survey infrastructure to analyze harassment, sexual harassment, and sexual assault; a further synthesis connected these results to high-school participation and national equity initiatives (Hennessey et al., 2024, Tassone et al., 24 Mar 2026, Barkanova et al., 26 Nov 2025).

1. National scope and institutional setting

The survey targeted anyone pursuing a physics degree at a Canadian institution or holding a physics degree and residing in Canada as of November 2020. Invitations were sent to all Canadian physics departments, with N=60N = 60, to Canadian Association of Physicists members, to research institutes including Perimeter, SNOLAB, TRIUMF, CLS, IQC, and SBQMI, to industry and government partners, and through snowball sampling. The instrument was available in English and French, and the final sample after removing duplicates comprised N=2532N = 2\,532 complete responses: 15281\,528 students, 10021\,002 working professionals, and a small remainder in other categories (Hennessey et al., 2024).

This national framing matters because earlier Canadian discussions of diversity in physics lacked a comparable empirical baseline. The survey’s stated objective was not only descriptive enumeration, but also the generation of disaggregated evidence adequate for equity, diversity, and inclusion intervention. A later synthesis situated these findings within a broader Canadian policy environment that included NSERC programs, the Canada Research Chairs EDI Action Plan, the Scarborough Charter, and debates over sustained monitoring of representation across educational and career stages (Barkanova et al., 26 Nov 2025).

2. Survey architecture and intersectional methodology

Canadian Physics Counts adopted an explicitly intersectional design. It collected self-identified demographic data on gender identity, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, disability status, age bracket, first language, immigration status, province or territory, current position, and field or fields of study. Multi-select responses and free-text “self-describe” options were enabled in order to capture nuanced identities. Where statistical power required aggregation, some categories were collapsed, notably into BIPOC, while Black and Indigenous participants were also reported separately because of their severe underrepresentation (Hennessey et al., 2024).

The project also formalized representation quantitatively. For a given group, the representation rate was computed as

p=ngroupNtotal×100%.p = \frac{n_{\text{group}}}{N_{\text{total}}} \times 100\%.

Estimated populations for each subgroup were derived from institutional data and national graduation or employment statistics, and the required responses for 95%95\% confidence and a ±3%\pm 3\% margin of error were calculated per subgroup. The final student sample alone, with n=1528n = 1\,528, exceeded the requirements to provide a representative snapshot (Hennessey et al., 2024).

The harm-focused extension preserved the same intersectional logic but added specific measurement of adverse experiences. Definitions of “Personal Harassment,” “Sexual Harassment,” and “Sexual Assault,” drawn from Dalhousie University policies, were presented verbatim, and each harm type was measured both as direct experience and as awareness of harm happening to others. Responses used a five-point scale from $1=$ never to $5=$ frequently. Of the N=2532N = 2\,5320 total respondents to the broader survey, N=2532N = 2\,5321, or N=2532N = 2\,5322, completed the harm questions. Because of unequal group sizes and skewed distributions, the analysis employed chi-square tests of independence, Kruskal–Wallis tests, Dunn’s post-hoc tests with Bonferroni correction, and Mann–Whitney N=2532N = 2\,5323 tests (Tassone et al., 24 Mar 2026).

3. Demographic composition of the Canadian physics community

The survey documented marked asymmetries in representation across race, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, and career stage. White respondents constituted N=2532N = 2\,5324 overall, including N=2532N = 2\,5325 of students and N=2532N = 2\,5326 of professionals. Black-only respondents constituted N=2532N = 2\,5327 overall, with N=2532N = 2\,5328 among students and N=2532N = 2\,5329 among professionals, compared with 15281\,5280 in the Canadian population. Indigenous-only respondents constituted 15281\,5281 overall, with 15281\,5282 among students and 15281\,5283 among professionals, compared with 15281\,5284 nationally. The authors identified Black physicists and Indigenous physicists as the most underrepresented groups, while White men were overrepresented across all sectors (Hennessey et al., 2024).

The gender distribution was 15281\,5285 men, 15281\,5286 women, 15281\,5287 gender diverse, and 15281\,5288 prefer not to answer or did not answer. The sexual-orientation distribution was 15281\,5289 heterosexual and 10021\,0020 sexually diverse. Disability status was reported as 10021\,0021 self-identified disabled overall, including 10021\,0022 of students and 10021\,0023 of professionals. These results supplied the first national Canadian data on physicists who identify as non-binary or gender diverse and the first national data on Black and Indigenous scholars in physics (Hennessey et al., 2024).

The student-professional contrast is central. Students exhibited greater demographic diversity than working professionals across multiple axes: gender-diverse representation was 10021\,0024 among students versus 10021\,0025 among professionals; sexually diverse representation was 10021\,0026 versus 10021\,0027; disability was 10021\,0028 versus 10021\,0029; BIPOC men were p=ngroupNtotal×100%.p = \frac{n_{\text{group}}}{N_{\text{total}}} \times 100\%.0 of students versus p=ngroupNtotal×100%.p = \frac{n_{\text{group}}}{N_{\text{total}}} \times 100\%.1 of professionals; and BIPOC women were p=ngroupNtotal×100%.p = \frac{n_{\text{group}}}{N_{\text{total}}} \times 100\%.2 of students versus p=ngroupNtotal×100%.p = \frac{n_{\text{group}}}{N_{\text{total}}} \times 100\%.3 of professionals. This supports the paper’s “leaky pipeline” concern, although the persistence of severe underrepresentation among Black and Indigenous physicists at all career stages indicates that attrition is not the only mechanism at work (Hennessey et al., 2024).

4. Intersectionality, disability, and accommodations

A distinctive feature of Canadian Physics Counts is its attention to compounded marginalization. In the student population, race-by-gender proportions were p=ngroupNtotal×100%.p = \frac{n_{\text{group}}}{N_{\text{total}}} \times 100\%.4 White men, p=ngroupNtotal×100%.p = \frac{n_{\text{group}}}{N_{\text{total}}} \times 100\%.5 BIPOC men, p=ngroupNtotal×100%.p = \frac{n_{\text{group}}}{N_{\text{total}}} \times 100\%.6 White women, p=ngroupNtotal×100%.p = \frac{n_{\text{group}}}{N_{\text{total}}} \times 100\%.7 BIPOC women, p=ngroupNtotal×100%.p = \frac{n_{\text{group}}}{N_{\text{total}}} \times 100\%.8 White gender diverse, and p=ngroupNtotal×100%.p = \frac{n_{\text{group}}}{N_{\text{total}}} \times 100\%.9 BIPOC gender diverse. Among professionals, the proportion of White men rose to 95%95\%0, while all other groups declined. In the intersection of sexual orientation, gender, and race, bisexual women comprised the largest single sexually diverse group, at 95%95\%1 of the total sample, with equal representation among BIPOC and White women (Hennessey et al., 2024).

Disability results further sharpened the intersectional picture. One in four respondents from BIPOC gender-diverse backgrounds identified as being disabled, the highest intersectional disability rate reported in the survey. Women reported disabilities more frequently than men in both student and professional cohorts. Among students, sexually diverse respondents reported disabilities at more than three times the rate of heterosexual students, approximately 95%95\%2 versus 95%95\%3 (Hennessey et al., 2024).

The accommodation findings revealed a substantial implementation gap. Among respondents with or unsure of disability, with 95%95\%4, 95%95\%5 reported full accommodations granted, 95%95\%6 reported adequate accommodations, 95%95\%7 reported partial or inadequate accommodations, and 95%95\%8 reported that they did not seek or did not require accommodations. The low proportion reporting full accommodations is one of the study’s clearest indicators that formal access and effective inclusion are not equivalent (Hennessey et al., 2024).

An important methodological caution also emerges here. In both the demographic and harm analyses, some categories were aggregated for statistical power. This allowed robust testing, but the authors also emphasized that aggregation can obscure specific experiences. A plausible implication is that the measured disparities are conservative wherever highly underrepresented groups, especially Black, Indigenous, or gender-diverse respondents, are nested within larger combined categories.

5. Attrition from schooling to the physics workforce

A later synthesis extended the Canadian Physics Counts results upstream to high-school participation and downstream to careers. In Ontario Grade 12 physics from 2007 to 2018, the female fraction was approximately 95%95\%9, or about ±3%\pm 3\%0, and the male fraction approximately ±3%\pm 3\%1, or about ±3%\pm 3\%2. These percentages remained essentially constant over the past decade, with no trend greater than ±3%\pm 3\%3 percentage points. No breakdown for gender-diverse learners was available in the high-school dataset (Barkanova et al., 26 Nov 2025).

The same paper quantified the decline from undergraduate study to a physics career. Let ±3%\pm 3\%4 denote the undergraduate share of women plus gender-diverse physicists and ±3%\pm 3\%5 the corresponding career-stage share. The reported percentage change was

±3%\pm 3\%6

For BIPOC women plus gender-diverse physicists, the analogous decline was

±3%\pm 3\%7

The paper also stated that women plus gender-diverse physicists fall to about ±3%\pm 3\%8 of the original undergraduate proportion by the time of first appointments and continue downward at the full-professor level; female full professors were reported as only about ±3%\pm 3\%9 (Barkanova et al., 26 Nov 2025).

These results complicate any interpretation that improved undergraduate diversity will automatically propagate into the profession. The high-school data show that gender imbalance predates university entry, while the undergraduate-to-career decline shows that later-stage retention and advancement remain major bottlenecks. This suggests that Canadian Physics Counts should be read not only as a census of representation, but also as a longitudinally informative baseline for identifying where losses accumulate.

6. Harm, harassment, and institutional change

The 2026 extension, "Canadian Physics Counts: Considering How Identity Relates to Experiences of Harm within the Canadian Physics Community," shifted from representation to climate. Among the n=1528n = 1\,5280 respondents who completed the harm questions, n=1528n = 1\,5281 reported personal harassment at least once, n=1528n = 1\,5282 reported awareness of personal harassment, n=1528n = 1\,5283 reported sexual harassment, n=1528n = 1\,5284 reported awareness of sexual harassment, n=1528n = 1\,5285 reported sexual assault, and n=1528n = 1\,5286 reported awareness of sexual assault. By gender, experienced personal harassment was n=1528n = 1\,5287 for men, n=1528n = 1\,5288 for women, and n=1528n = 1\,5289 for gender-diverse respondents; experienced sexual harassment was $1=$0, $1=$1, and $1=$2, respectively; and experienced sexual assault was $1=$3, $1=$4, and $1=$5. Kruskal–Wallis tests for these outcomes were all significant at $1=$6 (Tassone et al., 24 Mar 2026).

The career-stage analyses showed that women reported significantly more personal and sexual harassment than men at all levels examined, including BSc, MSc, PhD, post-doc, and assistant, associate, and full professor stages. For example, among PhD students, $1=$7 of women versus $1=$8 of men experienced personal harassment. Professionals also reported higher frequencies of personal harassment and higher awareness of all harm types than students (Tassone et al., 24 Mar 2026).

Intersectional analyses identified particularly acute disparities. In gender-by-race comparisons, both BIPOC women and White women reported higher rates of harassment and assault than men of any race, while descriptive partial disaggregation suggested especially high rates of personal harassment among Black women, $1=$9, and Black men, $5=$0, compared with White women and White men, each $5=$1, though the paper noted the small $5=$2. Indigenous women were reported descriptively at $5=$3 for any sexual harassment versus $5=$4 for White women. In gender-by-disability comparisons, disabled women had the most severe outcomes: $5=$5 reported personal harassment, $5=$6 sexual harassment, and $5=$7 sexual assault. Although $5=$8, gender-diverse respondents with disabilities also showed very high reported rates, including $5=$9 for personal harassment and N=2532N = 2\,53200 for awareness of sexual harassment (Tassone et al., 24 Mar 2026).

The policy recommendations developed across the Canadian Physics Counts papers are correspondingly multi-level. The demographic study proposed routine, disaggregated EDI data gathering; adoption of Scarborough Charter guidelines to support Black scholars; scholarships, bridge programs, and mentoring circles for Black, Indigenous, and other racialized students; outreach in high schools serving racialized and remote communities; transparent hiring, promotion, and tenure criteria with EDI benchmarks and oversight committees; centralized disability services, universal design for learning, and budgets for adaptive equipment; mandatory anti-racism, anti-bias, and disability-awareness training; regular climate surveys; and engagement of White men and cisgender-heterosexual faculty as active allies (Hennessey et al., 2024). The later synthesis connected these goals to NSERC initiatives, including regional Chairs for Women in Science and Engineering, with 7 regional CWSEs by 2023, and the 2023 launch of three inaugural Chairs for Inclusion in Science and Engineering in Atlantic Canada; it also noted that all grant applications must now include an EDI statement, while the “Dimensions” institutional program was planned but canceled in 2023 (Barkanova et al., 26 Nov 2025). The harm paper added intersectional EDI policy design, bystander training, mental-health resources, transparent reporting mechanisms, accountability at departmental and national levels, and integration of EDI metrics into performance evaluations and funding criteria (Tassone et al., 24 Mar 2026).

Taken together, Canadian Physics Counts established a quantitative baseline for the Canadian physics community, demonstrated that disaggregated and intersectional analysis reveals disparities that aggregate counts conceal, and linked representation data to concrete evidence on accommodations, attrition, and harmful experiences. Its empirical results are frequently summarized by two coupled findings: emerging diversity is more visible among students than among professionals, and severe underrepresentation and unequal exposure to harm persist for Black, Indigenous, disabled, gender-diverse, and other marginalized physicists.

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