Fixing the leaky pipeline: women scientists in academia.
Although the number of women receiving doctorates and in academic positions has increased over the past 20 yr, females still are under-represented on university faculties. The extent of and reasons for this inequity are discussed. There are four critical periods that influence the retention of women in science: early childhood, adolescence, college, and the graduate school/job entry period. For each of the later three periods, the paper addresses the relationship between self-esteem and job performance, the quality and impacts of classroom interactions, and the role of the advisor/mentor. In addition, some of the difficulties in combining career and family responsibilities are considered. Effective networking and mentoring play an important role at the faculty level. If our goal is to have a scientific community open equally to all members of the general population, it is necessary to keep adolescent girls involved in math and science and to maintain their self-esteem. New faculty need to be more completely included in departmental and professional activities through both formal programs and good neighborliness on the behalf of existing faculty.
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Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000818:Animals; D002321:Career Choice; D003612:Dairying; D004500:Education, Graduate / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005178:Faculty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D012586:Science; D012649:Self Concept; D014933:Women's Rights; D014931:Women, Working / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000078329:Workforce