Equisetum

posts are held by men. It isn’t always easy for young women to have social confidence necessary to not only engage but stand out in their respective scientific communities and the competition for faculty positions is stiff. That being said, I think a lot has changed for the better in the last 20 years that I have been in science and the climate is still improving. A second challenge that women face is the fact that they are at a fitness disadvantage if they opt for a scientific career in spite of measures to overturn this. If you consider that most people do not reach tenure until their late 30s or early 40s — it is easy to see how this presents a disadvantage for women, who are most fecund before the age of 35. Further, babies and the careers of early investigators both require a lot of investment.....I guess you get the picture. My male colleagues do not face the same trade‐offs between family and career. There are ways around it for women, but they aren’t simple. Perhaps society will eventually make it easier for young women to do both. This will depend in part on how much we value having women in science.