Why has the UK got so few women scientists?

Professor Lesley Yellowlees, soon to become the Royal Society of Chemistry's first woman president, has said that Britain is half a century behind the US when it comes to opportunities for female researchers. Is she right? The US certainly has an illustrious record when it comes to female scientists. In 1873, industrial chemist Ellen Swallow Richards became the first American woman to receive a chemistry degree, after studying at MIT. It took Cambridge University until 1948 before it even began awarding degrees to women. And recent statistics suggest things aren't fast improving: 24 of the 84 scientists elected to the US National Academy of Sciences this year were women. At the same time, only two of the 44 fellows appointed by the UK's Royal Society were female. According to Ruth Wilson from the UKRC and Wise, a joint organisation that encourages women into scientific careers, men in the UK are six times more likely than women to work in science, technology, engineering or maths. The stumbling block is not just encouraging girls into science, but getting them to stay. Researchers often drop out of the lab to start families, and find it tough to return because the hours are so long, sometimes encroaching into the weekends. The need to stay ahead of the competition also means that within a year, colleagues without children can race ahead in their careers. "I was really anxious that I would be forgotten," says Dr Catherine Heymans, an astrophysics lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, who is expecting her third. Her biggest problem now, she adds, is the amount of travel needed to attend international conferences. But without them, it would be difficult for her to gain recognition for her work. A report on women in science published in April by the Royal Society of Edinburgh suggested that extending parental leave equally to both mums and dads, similar to Finland, along with better onsite childcare like in the US, might help. The US National Science Foundation unveiled some family-friendly policies last year that included allowing research funding to be deferred, giving time to start families. Lobbying bodies and famous spokeswomen can be useful, too. The American Association for Women in Science got Michelle Obama to attend a recent event. Meanwhile, the UKRC and Wise has just lost all its funding from the British government.