Starting with Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel, 1903 in Physics, just 15 women have won the Science Nobel, most of them in physiology and medicine. In the United States and Europe, around half of those who gain doctoral degrees in science and engineering are women, but barely a fifth of professors are women. Too many women encounter patronising attitudes or harassment in research contexts. Asking women “to ‘lean out’ and be true to themselves instead of trying to ‘lean in’ or fit into a system designed and controlled by men” , could be one way of confronting sexism (“ >Yes, there’s sexism in science ”, June 24). The ultimate redemption would be in recognising and addressing the unconscious bias in the DNA. Also, scrupulously avoid using vocabulary and imagery that support one gender more than the other.
C.V. Venugopalan,
Palakkad
