A Richer and More Diverse Future for Cell Biology

Abstract

Our vision: within the next few decades the composition of the faculty of cell biology, and of all biological science departments, will reflect the diverse composition of the graduate students in those departments. We are far from that reality today. Disparities in representation exist for both gender and race. Tyrone Hayes' essay in this volume provides a compelling discussion of the challenges faced by people of color in the sciences. Here we focus on gender. Fully 50% of current biology Ph.D. graduates are women. Most of those women continue training as postdoctoral fellows. Yet the percentage of women declines with each advance along the tenure-track academic career path, so that <20% of full professors in the biological sciences are women (c17 Committee on Maximizing the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering, 2007); the number drops to <15% in top-tier institutions (Handelsman et al., 2005).