Please feel free to circulate the attached summary to interested parties. Thus these have been relatively good times for astronomy, and perhaps contrary to popular impression, a good time for getting jobs. There are more women at all levels, both in absolute terms and in the percentage of astronomers at each level. In 1999, these ratios are higher for both women and men but still not equal. The differential is of similar magnitude, significance, and sign.
Women lag behind but the result is at lower significance.
The time scale for advancement from postdoc to assistant professor is not very different from the 7 years between the two surveys. Therefore it makes sense to compare the numbers of postdocs in 1992 to the numbers of assistant professors in 1999, and to see if that transition is different for women and men. Basically, for those institutions which tenure at the associate level, faculty can remain there forever. 30 Men 427 Each woman tenured at these elite and semi-elite institutions increases the number of tenured women by several percent. Conversely, each loss of a woman at this level makes a significant difference.