  Women make up a shrinking portion of physics faculty in senior positions, a
phenomenon known as a "leaky pipeline." While fixing this problem has been a
priority in academic institutions, efforts have been stymied by the diverse
sources of leaks. In this paper we identify a bias potentially contributing to
the leaky pipeline. We analyze bibliographic data provided by the American
Physical Society (APS), a leading publisher of physics research. By inferring
the gender of authors from names, we are able to measure the fraction of women
authors over past decades. We show that the more selective, higher impact APS
journals have lower fractions of women authors compared to other APS journals.
Correcting this bias may help more women publish in prestigious APS journals,
and in turn help improve their academic promotion cases.
