The underrepresentation of women in science may mean that discrimination against female researchers is “institutional,” says the Guardian‘s Alice Bell. A new study published in PNAS suggests science is “stuck in the past” when it comes to women and is focusing on the wrong issues in order to get past the problem, she adds. The researchers — Cornell University’s Stephen Ceci and Wendy Williams — reviewed 20 years of data on gender discrimination in science and they say too much attention has been focused on discrimination when women apply for jobs or funding. Instead, they argue that the focus should be shifted to making changes in education and policy that “reflect the challenges faced by women interested in building a long-term career in science,” Bell says.
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The article mentioned above has incited yet another heated debate about whether discrimination against women in science is “over”. The Association for Women in Science highlights some of the flaws of the Ceci & Williams study and provides links to several detailed analyses of the paper, from a few different viewpoints.
http://www.awis.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=421
You’ll find another interesting response to the Ceci & Williams paper at a blog by Mike the Mad Biologist. He adds that women in academia, from grad students to post docs, to faculty members, often get tasked with cleaning up institutional messes. As a grad student contributing more than my fair share to making my department more supportive of women, I can certainly see his point.
See the blog post here:
http://scienceblogs.com/mikethemadbiologist/2011/02/science_gender_and_cleaning_up.php