Women gain ground in academia; science mentors needed

If a pipeline is losing most of its product between the source and the first metering station, that isn’t considered a leak? I don’t know any industrial scientist who would even try to sell that idea to the plant manager. Similarly, the fact that talented, hard-working women with interests in physics, science, and engineering are leaving the system between high school and a bachelor’s degree really is a problem that needs to be addressed. As the parent of a female undergraduate physics student contemplating advanced degrees in this field, I know how important it is for these high-school students to find science or engineering mentors who can take students into the labs and involve them in the excitement of scientific discovery that lies beyond the grind of getting the tough homework done–and maybe give help and encouragement with that homework too. My daughter was lucky enough to find such a mentor, but most students are not.