Why aren’t there more women in science? The industry structure is sexist | Jenny Gristock

Women outnumber men in a raft of science courses - but when they start their careers, they find many insurmountable barriers

Why are so few women publishing scientific papers? It is a question that has been posed by New Scientist magazine, as it reports that in medicine, female authorship of scientific papers has started to go backwards. Since 2009, the proportion of women as lead authors has gone down.

Findings such as these usually provoke a cry of "We need more women in science!" and organisations wheel out a spokesperson to explain that girls should be encouraged to study science at university. The Welsh government, for example, celebrated International Women's Day this way.