[wrp]

> my male colleagues are, generally speaking, outpaced by my female colleagues.

I've worked in academia, mostly the humanities, since the 1980s, and have observed a clear difference in how much effort women put into social networking and how this affects career progress. On the negative side, this can lead to cliquishness. I even once had a gay colleague who complained bitterly that his sub-field was dominated by lesbians who resisted male inclusion.

It seems to be a frequent observation, such that it may now be uncontroversial, that women generally approach things with a broader contextual awareness while men are in general more narrowly task-oriented. The implication is that we should expect women to generally lead in social advancement while men will tend to have a lead in technical prowess.

An illustration that has given me much cause for introspection, as a teacher and researcher, is my working library. I have about 200 books on a shelf near my desk, that I thought were of such quality that I wanted my own copy always at hand. On that shelf, there is just one book by a woman. I have often considered how it could be that there are so many women in my working life but so few on my shelf.