The European Commission Gender Challenge in Research Funding report discussed in one of today’s Nature Editorials (Nature 459, 299; 2009 – free to access online). From the Editorial:
[The report] was written by a 17-strong expert group chaired by a woman and containing five men. That male minority is an inversion of the usual pervasive and regrettable imbalance of the sexes in European peer-review structures. Only in those countries that have been most proactive in supporting women’s careers — Finland, Sweden and Norway — do women constitute more than 40% of ‘gatekeeper’ scientific boards.
Many leading funders are trying to do better. Germany’s DFG, for example, has set equal opportunities as a statutory objective since 2002: but Germany’s overall performance is depressing. Between 1999 and 2004, the proportion of women acting as peer reviewers for the DFG rose — from 6% to 9% (!). Of all European Union countries, Germany has the lowest representation of women in the highest academic positions, despite an equal representation of men and women as graduates.
The pressures on women who want to excel in science are acute everywhere. This is particularly true for mothers of young children who, even in the most progressive countries, are generally expected to take on most of the responsibility for home and family while still being expected to write proposals, publish papers and spend long hours in the lab. Added to that is the committee work. Ironically, being a member of a minority that is targeted for positive action can lead to endless requests for advice and involvement, which cut even further into research time.
Many of these pressures will ease only when fathers regard themselves as having equal responsibility for parenting. But employers also have a responsibility to assist parents. Another report published last week by the EC, Women in Science and Technology — Creating Sustainable Careers, highlights the ways in which Europe’s employers provide support, including ensuring that important meetings are timed to allow parents to leave the office as necessary, and not overlooking part-time staff when assigning senior responsibilities.
According to the report, the Netherlands is a notable hotspot for promoting women’s interests. Over the past ten years, the funding agency NWO has given Dutch universities incentives to award senior lectureships and professorships to high-achieving women, without branding them as tokens.

Do you agree with the Editorial that such collaboration, perhaps with sticks as well as carrots, between agencies and the institutions they fund, is essential if robust change is to come more rapidly? And that without it, Europe will continue to include far too few countries for ambitious women scientists?