Frank Gannon, Director General of Science Foundation Ireland and senior scientist at the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) highlights the women issue in his editorial in the current issue of EMBO Reports ( 8, 11, 975; 2007) about two studies published in the same issue of the journal that, “like many others preceding them—show once again that there are great inequalities in the career prospects of men and women in science.” Gannon highlights “the blatant unfairness of the fact that, although an identical number of men and women get a PhD in the life sciences, only 15–20% of tenured positions are secured by women. Put another way, it means that men are almost three times more ‘successful’ than their erstwhile female colleagues.”
The first of the two studies, Falling off the Academic Bandwaggon by E. D. Martinez et al. (EMBO Reports 8, 11, 977–981; 2007) documents that women are more likely to quit research at the transition of postdoc to principal investigator. The authors conclude that “the scientific community should wake up to the needs of female PIs by fully supporting—in both theory and practice—initiatives and policies that address the problems faced by women who could take up an independent position. Targeting this population of scientists will increase the number of women entering the PI track and will ultimately result in an increase in the number of women who hold senior positions—thus sustaining the involvement of women in academic science through future generations.”
The second study, A Persistent Problem, by A. Ledin et al. (the authors include Gannon) (EMBO Reports 8, 11, 982–987; 2007) concludes that traditional gender roles hold back female scientists. “Employers, policy-makers, scientists and society all need to consider whether we can afford to lose such a large number of trained specialists from the workforce. The consequence of the current system is that a large percentage of higher education graduates are not reinvesting their skills in the economy, owing to traditional gender roles that are no longer in accordance with the demands of modern women and men. We need to ensure that men and women who want to have families are not prevented from also having careers and contributing to society in every way that they can. This can only be achieved by a significant change in the way that society and individuals think about the roles of men and women, and by taking positive action to improve the working conditions and available support for both women and men at all stages of their careers.”