A survey of thousands of US academics has found that the number one reason that women leave faculty positions is poor “workplace climate”, which can encompass discrimination, dysfunctional leadership, a feeling of not fitting in and other problems1. Even work–life balance was less important than workplace climate for many respondents. Work on academic retention has tended to focus on individual institutions, but the latest study provides a rare view of who leaves and who stays throughout the United States, says sociologist Kimberlee Shauman at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the research. For this reason, she says, the analysis “gives us a much more reliable and accurate picture of what the trends look like”.
