The numbers of women in science as a percentage of total women employed has stayed pretty much constant over the past decade. In other words, women are not making up the gap in scientists.
Women are getting more science degrees. There are millions of dollars spent in the US to get women to go into science. Every girl who wants to become a scientist should have the opportunity, and be encouraged to become a scientist.
But the reality of what happens after women get an advanced science degree is that the majority go into teaching science, not working in research or for high-tech corporations where employers are hollering about the shortage.
From the UK, here is the data showing that the percentage of women in science in the work force has remained relatively stable. Data. click here
That is, more women are not going into science and women are not making up for the scientist shortage in the UK and U.S.
Not only do most women with science degrees go into teaching, but according to a Chronicle of Higher Education article they are forsaking research universities in favor of liberal arts (teaching only) colleges. This is not surprising, nor bad. As Warren Willingham and Nancy Coles of the Educational Testing Service noted in their classic work on gender, Gender and Fair Assessment (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publisher, 1997) communication is the area where women are superior to men.
Bottom line: women are not making up the scientist shortage.
