Once greatly underrepresented among the ranks of scientists, women have made tremendous gains over the past 20 years. In the natural sciences, for instance, the percentage of master's degrees awarded to women jumped from 21 percent in 1975 to 41 percent in 1995.
Women now snap up nearly half of all Ph.D.'s in many of the social and biological sciences.
Although the number of women in the field has grown, women still earn just 19 percent of master's and 12 percent of doctoral degrees. Far fewer women than men apply and are accepted to graduate engineering programs. But more women also drop out, most educational experts agree. Instead, many women leave at least in part because of their department's chilly attitude toward women. In recent years, many engineering schools have taken steps to attract and keep women, instituting, for instance, mentoring programs for female students.