Spanish female scientists have joined their colleagues in Europe in advocating improvements in conditions and opportunities. A gathering of female scientists discuss their professional roles in We Spanish Bioscientific Women, published by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) and L'Oréal, and presented to the media in December in Madrid. The book gathers testimonies from 114 senior and 129 young female life scientists.

"My career was programmed for a more conventional job 'in agreement' with my condition of being a woman," writes Carmen Aragón Rueda, professor of biochemistry at the Autonomous University of Madrid.

Margarita Salas, a molecular biologist and the first woman to enter the Spanish Academy of Sciences, reminds readers that Spanish undergraduate women outnumber men by three to one in the life sciences, but women chair only a minority of the highest positions. The official release of the book coincides with a call by the...

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