Almost 80 years ago, Florence Bell quietly laid the foundations for one of the biggest landmarks in 20th century science: the discovery of the structure of DNA. But when she died on November 23 2000, her occupation on her death certificate was recorded as “housewife”.
Decades later, female researchers are still being sidelined. Research has shown that deep systemic problems block women from advancing or push them out of science. But this isn’t inevitable – there are changes universities could make to level the playing field.
While promotion criteria differ across universities, credibility in academia is primarily established through the number of publications a researcher has authored. This means academics are under pressure to publish as much as they can even if quality suffers.
