bluesyemre

• A commonly voiced hypothesis is that women rule themselves out of the race by deciding to have children (the average age of completion of postdoctoral training is between 28 and 35), and it is true there does seem to be a relatively high proportion of childless women in academic science. However, there are enough counter-examples (Nobel laureates such as Elizabeth Blackburn, Ada Yonath and Carol Greider to name just three) to make this scenario unlikely to be the whole explanation. Then, of course, there is the suggestion that there are innate differences in the ability of men and women to do science, most famously put forward by president of Harvard University Larry Summers with his dribblings about “daddy and mummy trucks”. In the fallout from that performance it was noted that the percentage of tenured job offers made to women had dropped dramatically since Summers took office, something he pledged to rectify.

http://j.mp/V69ydi