Keeping Tabs on the Women: Life Scientists in Europe

April 2006 | Volume 4 | Issue 4 | e97 The proportion of leading women in science is so small that it can be diffi cult to know who they are. To increase the visibility of European women from post-docs to senior group leaders, a Database of Expert Women in the Molecular Life Sciences (http:⁄⁄www.elso-cdc. org) has been created by the European Life Sciences Organization (ELSO). The database is unique because it is designed for professional scientists to use: each entry in the database highlights publications in international journals, and familiar keywords and career stages. The goal is to provide a tool to help the scientifi c community work toward gender equality in Europe. A simple defi nition of gender equality is that individuals, regardless of their sex, have equal chances of succeeding. For decades now, approximately half of the graduate students in the molecular life sciences in Europe and the US have been women. Given that these students are selected for their academic achievements and potential to perform as scientists, clearly selection committees and PhD supervisors believe that men and women are equal in their intellectual and research capabilities. Nevertheless, plotting the percentage of women holding pre-doctoral, post-doctoral, junior group leader, and professor positions shows a dramatic and steady decline for women as career stages advance, though numbers differ by country and scientifi c discipline [1,2]. In the UK (1996–97), for example, ~52% of postgraduate students in the biological sciences were women, compared to only ~6% of professors [1]. Recent statistics for Germany are similar (Figure 1). Because the corresponding curve for men intersects with the line for women, this generates the familiar “scissors diagram.” In 2001, women held an average of 8.9% of senior academic research positions in 17 EU and associated countries [1]. These data describe an existing gender inequality. Won’t the pool of women training today drive us naturally toward gender equality as time goes by? Historically, the answer is no. A study of cohorts of German scientists followed over time has shown that the size of the female pool entering scientifi c fi elds does not result in proportional achievement of senior positions [3]. Governments and scientifi c organizations are logically concerned about the failure of women to progress in science because they provide the resources for scientifi c education and training—from primary schooling to university education, to preand post-doctoral fellowships. Their gamble is that this investment will provide returns in the form of discovery and technological innovation. If 50% of Keeping Tabs on the Women: Life Scientists in Europe