The UK HE sector working group has published a Draft Revised Concordat to Support the Career Management of Researchers.

The suggestion that women are not advancing in science because of innate inability is being taken seriously by some high-profile academics. Ben A. Barres explains what is wrong with the hypothesis.

In many countries, women are increasingly well represented in the natural sciences, although a more even gender balance has yet to percolate up to senior academic appointments.

Seventy-two names are on the list of new members of the US National Academy of Sciences, elected on 1 May. Nine stand out: Tania Baker, Ursula Bellugi, Karen Cook, Mary Estes, Pamela Fraker, Angela Gronenborn, Helen Hobbs, Laura Kiessling and Eve Marder. Two years ago, the academy elected 19 women to its ranks; this year, the number is less than half of that. Over the years there have been a plethora of programmes designed to introduce women into science, and more sporadic efforts to keep them in the career pipeline while they bear and raise children. Yet women have still not come remotely close to closing the gender gap at the senior level.