A gender gap in academic science continues despite persistent efforts at multiple levels to attract and retain talented women. Thus, impediments to women pursuing careers in science, and particularly in academia, continue to exist. To learn more about how the barriers women in science face can be eased or circumvented, the authors examined how an undergraduate research program prepared female undergraduates for science careers. Their study presents evidence that undergraduate research and mentoring programs promote the success and increased representation of women in science. Thus, the career obstacles that contribute to the "gender gap" in science and that flow from the notion that differences are deficits can be eased by the implementation of similar programs. As a result, the potential talent that is continually lost by the attrition of women in graduate science programs and careers might be reduced or eliminated.