I am of the first generation of American women scientists who dared to say out loud, "I want to soar"-that is, professionally. As a few of us clawed our way up the steep and slippery slopes, we also showed the audacity and determination not to forgo the rewards and pleasures of family and personal lives. I am so proud of us. By any standards we have done well. But it is still lonely at the top. The climate is rather chilly, and many of us are hovering rather than taking off. We would like to have the company of more women at the top-neither for moral reasons of social justice and the ideal of equity nor for selfish and myopic reasons, but because this great nation and the world as a whole will be losers unless we ensure that women's perspective is brought to bear, fully, on the national science...

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