In our article On Gender Equity in the Geosciences (Eos, 5 August 2003, p. 292), we are not advocating a quota of 50% women in the geosciences, but rather, suggesting that the field would be strengthened if all the individuals with doctorates in the geosciences (including the 28% of all Ph.D.s who are women) were to remain active in these fields. Currently, only about 13% of employed Ph.D.s in these fields are women, which means that there is a considerable loss of trained scientists in the Earth, atmospheric, and oceanographic sciences. Even the entry-level hires at Ph.D.-granting institutions are only 20% female. As to Floyd Herbert's argument that hiring more women would lower the quality of the academic workforce, we know of no study showing that the women Ph.D.s who choose not to continue in academia are less qualified than either the women or the men who do choose to continue. To the contrary, we know of many excellent female scientists who are lost to the field. Creating work environments that keep these women as active scientists has the potential to raise, not lower, the capability of the workforce.