Scientific and Medical Careers: Gender and Diversity

Abstract

Women students and employees are underrepresented in scientific contexts. Similarly, though the number of women medical students is quickly reaching parity with men, women are still underrepresented in the most lucrative medical specialties and at the top of medical hierarchies. Women’s experiences in both of these contexts are very similar, yet scholars rarely explore or describe this similarity. In this chapter, we begin to fill this gap by examining the role of the “leaky pipeline”, tokenism, the “chilly climate,” and career/family concerns for women in both science and medicine.