One woman is still not enough
From a recent Editorial in Nature (451, 869; 2008):
"Seven years ago, Mitiko Go, a biophysicist then at Nagoya University, told Nature about a disturbing experience she had had at a meeting of the university's Division of Biological Science (see Nature 410, 404–406; 2001). The academics were considering a female applicant for a vacant chair, and one male member said: "I'm sorry to have to say this in front of Dr Go, but one woman is enough."
Go thought she might be scolded for relating the story (and indeed she says she was accused of "tarnishing the honour of the university"), but she was about to retire from the university and felt the time had come to say something radical.
Times have changed. Far from retiring, Go is now president of the prestigious Ochanomizu University in Tokyo and a member of the Council for Science and Technology Policy, the country's highest science body, which is chaired by the prime minister. Go and others have implored the government to do more in support of women. The science and education ministry has responded."
Read the rest of this free-access Editorial here, which addresses the questions of why, when Japanese science needs its women more than ever, it does not treat them accordingly.