The New York Times: A report last month by the National Academy of Sciences documents widespread bias against women in science and engineering and recommends a sweeping overhaul of our institutions says Margaret Wertheim. The reason is not academia bureaucracy, but more than 2,000 years of convention that has long portrayed physics, astronomy and mathematics as inherently male.

However, Cathy Young in the Boston Globe writes that maybe the findings of the National Academy of Science report could be explained by the make up of the panel's members.

Says Young:

Ultimately, the report is a missed opportunity. It could have addressed the personal and family choices women could make to maximize their career potential, or looked at the factors in the high achievement of Asian-American women in science. (Asian-Americans are virtually ignored in all the talk of minority women in science.) Instead, it upholds an orthodoxy of female victimization. Women, and science, deserve better