MANTEL, L.H.; none: A look at the status of women in biological sciences.

In contrast to women in many other scientific fields, women in the biological sciences now represent more than half of those awarded bachelor’s degrees (55%) and close to half of those awarded doctoral degrees (43%). A steady trend of progress has occurred over the past 30 years to reach this goal. A number of legislative and political mandates were instrumental in bringing about this progress. However, academic employment of women biologists still does not live up to the potential provided by this pool of scientists. Persistence of women through their post-doctoral training into full-time science careers has been decreasing in recent years. The proportions of women biologists with full-time faculty positions varies by institution, with some of the smaller schools providing substantial opportunities for recruitment and advancement, while some of the larger, research-intensive universities still have numbers of women well below the size of the available pool. A look around at a SICB meeting might indicate that women in Integrative and Comparative Biology are doing fine�is this really the case? Are we satisfied with what we have achieved? If not, what remains to be done? How can we work together to ensure that women who wish to pursue careers in biological sciences are able to do so?