Keep women in academia by providing childcare, historian urges universities

Childcare is the single biggest problem for female academics, but too little is done to help, suggests Cambridge University historian Patricia Fara

A leading British historian has called on universities to provide more support for childcare to reduce the number of women who leave academia before they reach the peak of their careers.

Starting a family remains one of the greatest obstacles for women who are building their careers as university researchers, but too little is done to help them, said Patricia Fara, a historian at Cambridge University and president of the British Society for the History of Science.