B - Women's underrepresentation in science

Ceci SJ, Williams WM. Understanding current causes of women's underrepresentation in science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America February 7, 2011 doi: 10.1073/pnas.1014871108 To better understand women's underrepresentation in math-intensive fields of science and its causes, a review of claims of discrimination in the past 20 years and their evidentiary bases are presented. It is showed that some of these claims are no longer valid. Despite frequent assertions that women's discrimination in science is caused by sex discrimination by grant agencies, journal rewievers, and search committees, the evidence shows women fare as well as men in hiring, funding, and publishing (given comparable resources). Potential interventions to increase gender fairness are suggested.