One paper argued that working conditions and the costs of getting Ph.D.s are insufficient to explain the gender differential and that men have economic and prestige incentives to try and keep women out of the more lucrative fields. Two studies looked at the differences in publication output between men and women between 1969 and 1993. Retention is a particular issue for female faculty, who are leaving the profession in disproportionate numbers. Although women are clearly voting with their feet, it is difficult to articulate, let alone chart the new issues that they now face. These issues are changing, complex and multidimensional in nature.
Survey research provides some indicators.
When male and female faculty were asked about the skills that were important for a graduate student to succeed, female faculty not only said that women had to be better all around, but they put a particular stress on the importance of interactive skills for women to succeed. A number of different programs were reported. The exciting one was a very successful program at the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins. The first phase was an anonymous survey of the faculty to identify the obstacles that women faced. The most exciting part about the survey was the way in which it articulated a number of informal and subtle problems.