Women in science

This is one of the best articles I have read on the topic. Not enough women in top-level positions? The solution is simple - just hire more women. No more blathering on about childcare and maternity leave, just hire women. 

As the mother of two amazing women, I would say that family issues are the least of the problem ... It has been shown that women without children generally do not advance any faster or further than women with families. In their ground-breaking 2002 paper, 'Do Babies Matter', researchers Mary Ann Mason and Marc Goulden showed that women with children who remain in full-time academia are no worse off than women without children. Both groups lag well behind men — especially men with children, who lead everyone else.

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When I give a colloquium at a university whose physics department lacks female faculty members, I often ask: “Have you thought about hiring women?” The answer is usually earnest: “Oh yes, we definitely want to do that, but we want to hire the best.” Do my hosts realize how insulting it is to imply those two goals are mutually exclusive? ... As I (and many others) have pointed out several times, the failure to hire women and minorities in science is a guarantee that the best are not being hired.