2:1, M:F

what do you mean by PI ?

its not private investigator I suppose


And

I do not know, its just something I noticed.
There were always a lot of girls in the "medical" orientated courses and even biotechnology, biochemical courses (except the industry orientated ones), but once on the workfloor especially research and teaching they were gone... very strange.

Not strange, they just get pregnant. And drop out if the environment is not friendly enough.
Around 70% PhD students are female in here, and my institute is family-friendly, so three postdocs had a baby lately and one is already back, gradually starting the work. Basically you need the boss who is tolerant of maternal leave and later absences and can balance the team (like, the postdoc mom has responsible students, who will do the experiments while she's not there). Also here, there are science marriages and if she has a baby, he shares responsibilities and takes some mornings or days off, working odd hours.
Family-friendly politics pays off to the boss, I guess - if you lose a valuable employee, you lose a part of knowledge she has.
In the faculty (the bosses), 17 F, 14 M.

Ooooo big call on this one Telomerase

!! I don't necessarily agree that women are any more sensitive to an unfriendly/uncomfortable work environment than men. In fact, the only people in my department to leave for personality clash reasons have been men (in the last 4 years I've been around anyway).

But I whole-heartedly agree that the reason that there are less women higher up in science is due to the baby factor. Luckily in Aus (and particularly at my uni) there is a big focus on keeping women in the work force, so many employers have maternity leave, back-to-work bonuses, child care facilities etc etc

In my lab, we have 3 men (all PIs, one is also Professor), and 4 women (3 PhD students, 1 PI).
In my department, I would say it is about 60% men in the upper levels (lab heads, lecturers, PIs, Professors), post-docs are 50:50, PhD students are 80% female.........and in undergrad classes, I'd say roughly even, but with yearly fluctuations.......


Oh, and I work in a Microbiology and Immunology department

leelee on Apr 2 2009, 12:31 AM said:

I meant family friendliness, leelee.
Some institutes are more accustomed or tolerant to young mothers than others.

Telomerase on Apr 2 2009, 09:38 AM said:

hehe my group has 7 women and no men... such a peaceful environment to work in

Kami23 on Apr 2 2009, 10:36 PM said:

no control groups for comparison?

oh, woops sorry Telomerase
my bad

Kami23 on Apr 2 2009, 02:36 PM said:

5M:2F
I have seen labs with 100% female population and believe me, it can't be good
A friend used to say it should be compulsory at least a 3F:1M ratio, otherwise it becomes a extremely twisted working environment.

toejam on Apr 6 2009, 09:20 AM said:

I agree...it won't be fun if we don't have at least one to torture ...besides, who's gonna do the lifting jobs...