Women in Physics in the UK: Update 2005–2008

The United Kingdom continues to address gender equality and diversity in all aspects of society. The Institute of Physics (IOP) is regarded as a leading proponent of these issues, not only in physics, but in disseminating its practices to other learned societies in science, engineering, and technology. Within IOP, both the Women in Physics Group, a membership organization with 2,700 members, including students, and a dedicated Diversity Programme, that reports to a high‐level strategic Diversity Committee, are very active. In this paper we highlight some of the many initiatives that have taken place in the last few years, as well as present statistics on women in physics in the UK, demonstrating that progress has been made.