Why are there still so few women scientists, especially at the upper levels of the scientific professions? Persisting differences between women's and men's experience in science make this question as relevant today as when sociologist Alice Rossi posed it more than three decades ago at a conference on women in science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Rossi, 1965).

The years since Rossi's groundbreaking analysis have witnessed the revival of the feminist movement and the increased entry of women into many professions. Women have become lawyers and doctors in significant numbers, albeit unevenly distributed into high and low status subfields of these professions. Despite significant advances, there is a continuing disproportionate lack of women in most scientific and engineering disciplines, especially at the upper reaches of the professions.

One such scientist, Leslie Barber, a female Ph.D. in molecular biology, decided to end her career as a research scientist shortly after being awarded the doctorate. She reflected upon the mixed experience of her male and female peers in a recent article (Barber, 1995). On the positive side, she found widespread evidence of encouragement for girls and women to pursue scientific professions from the media and from parents and teachers.

On the negative side, in comparing the career trajectories of the ten members of her graduate research group, equally divided into five men and five women, Barber noted significant differences. Whether or not the men had done well in their graduate careers, they had forged ahead in their professional lives.