Phoebe

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The nearer the top of the academic hierarchy, the lower the proportion of women. Indeed, universally, women are just a tiny minority of people in top scientific jobs.

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Out of 69,300 science and engineering full professors in 2006, a mere 600--less than 1%--were African-American women.

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Statistics
Since 1966, the number of women receiving [|bachelor's degrees] in science and engineering in the U.S. has increased almost every year, reaching 202,583 in 2001, approximately half of the total.[|[16]] The number awarded to men has not increased significantly since 1976. The proportion of women graduate students in science and engineering has risen since 1991, reaching 41% in 2001. Substantial differences between subjects are seen, however, with women accounting for almost three-quarters of those enrolled in psychology in 2001, but only 30% in computer science and 10% in engineering.[|[16]] Both the number and the proportion of doctoral degrees in science and engineering awarded to women have increased steadily since 1966, from 8% in 1966 to 37% in 2001. The number of doctoral degrees awarded to men peaked in 1996 and has since fallen.[|[16]] Research on women's participation in the "hard" sciences such as physics and computer science speaks of the "[|leaky pipeline]" model, in which the proportion of women "on track" to potentially becoming top scientists falls off at every step of the way, from getting interested in science and math in elementary school, through doctorate, postdoc, and career steps. Various reasons are proposed for this, but the vast differences in the "leakiness" of this same pipe across countries and times argue for a cultural interpretation. The leaky pipeline is also applicable in other fields. In biology, for instance, women in the United States have been getting Master's degrees in the same numbers as men for two decades, yet fewer women get Ph.D.s; and the numbers of women P.I.s have not risen.[|[17]] In the UK, women occupied over half the places in science-related higher education courses (science, medicine, maths, computer science and engineering) in 2004/5.[|[18]] However, gender differences by individual subject were large: women substantially outnumbered men in biology and medicine, especially nursing, while men predominated in maths, physical sciences, computer science and engineering. In the U.S., women with science or engineering doctoral degrees were predominantly employed in the education sector in 2001, with substantially fewer employed in business or industry than men.[|[16]] In January 2005, [|Harvard University] President [|Lawrence Summers] sparked controversy when, at an NBER Conference on Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce, he made comments suggesting the lower numbers of women in high-level science positions may be due to innate differences in abilities or preferences between men and women. This frustrated many conferencegoers who felt that these issues, or at least his presentation of them, had been thoroughly refuted during the conference, and that moreover such statements were irresponsible coming from a university president. The resulting controversy was a factor in his later resignation.[//[|citation needed]//]

Encouraging girls into science careers
A number of organisations have been set up to combat the stereotyping that may encourage girls away from careers in these areas. In the UK [|The WISE Campaign] (Women into Science, Engineering and Construction) and UKRC (The UK Resource Centre for Women in SET) are collaborating to ensure industry, academia and education are all aware of the importance of challenging the traditional approaches to careers advice and recruitment that mean some of the best brains in the country are lost to science. The UKRC and other women's networks provide female role models, resources and support for activities that promote science to girls and women. One of the largest membership groups in the UK is [|Women's Engineering Society], which has been supporting women in engineering and science since 1919.