Identifying the causes underlying the under-representation of women in academia is a source of ongoing concern and controversy, yet it is a critical issue in ensuring the openness and diversity of academia.

In this paper, Dr. Allison Shaw and Dr. Daniel Stanton present a simple model of the academic career in which all gender differences in career transitions and retention are absent, which allows the effects of historical disparities to be separated from any ongoing gender differences. We apply the model to data on academics collected by the National Science Foundation (USA) over the past three decades.

Dr. Allison Shaw is postdoctoral fellow working with Hanna Kokko in Ecology, Evolution and Genetics, Research School of Biology, ANU.

Dr. Daniel Stanton, is postdoctoral fellow working with Marilyn Ball in the Plant Sciences Division of the Research School of Biology, ANU.