A Snapshot of Female Representation in Twelve Academic Psychiatry Institutions Around the World

•Unequal representation of women exists in psychiatry and neuroscience across countries•Data from twelve institutions from Africa, South America, European Community and North America indicate negative correlation between women representation and career stage in academia•There are some differences in the degree of leaky pipeline across institutions. Leaky pipeline refers to the attrition of the number of women such that at early career stages, women outnumber men but at senior ranks, men greatly outnumber women. Leaky pipeline may reflect the fact that women leave academia at higher rates than men or/and by women facing significant barriers in attaining academic promotion, the so-called 'bottleneck' effect.•Both common and country-specific underlying mechanisms appear to be at the root of unequal representation of women in psychiatry and neuroscience across countries