During my commute last week I listened to an episode of the Diane Rehm show (NPR) “11:00 Nobel Prize Winners: Women in Science” (episode linked here: http://wamu.org/programs/dr/09/12/02.php#28913). I am pleased that this topic is being discussed on a national show.
The enevitable topic that is always brought up in discussions of women and minorities in the sciences is the concept of a leaky pipeline. For those unfamilar, the analogy is that there is one path to success in the sciences, this is the pipeline. Although we get women and minorities into the pipe early on (high school and undergrad), we loose them at various stages (graduation from undergrad, graduate school, postdoctoral, etc), this is the leak.
Everyone focuses on fixing “the leak”. I think we need to get rid of the pipe and replace it with a highway with “on ramps”. We need to realize, as one of Diane’s guest points out, that a “one size fits all” approach to success does not and can not work if we want to diversify the scientific community.
