Then I'd get up with the children in the morning and spend the whole day with them. It was hard, but it was harder not doing astronomy. Nobody becomes a scientist overnight. Those who work as professional scientists have successfully completed a protracted and arduous training process. If the structural and cultural causes for the leakages are ignored, attempts at increasing the representation of women at the various pipeline segments may fall short.
Crucial processes distancing females from science careers start in the family.
The Wellesley Pathways Project identified parental encouragement for a science career among the factors that predicted women's persistence in science. Kindergarten through High School. At school age, especially during secondary school, females may also experience a subtle distancing from academic achievement in general and from achievement in the sciences in particular. Whereas girls and boys have been found to perform fairly evenly in the lower grades, a critical juncture occurs in middle school. Girls have been documented to fall behind in mathematics and science after reaching adolescence.