I haven't read the book, but I have to say, after hearing from some bloggers who were Ph.D. students in scientific fields, this is really true and even worse if you are female in your field. It seems that many academic science fields hasn't truly caught up with feminism.
I think the trick is finding a good adviser. The most important advice I'd give any Ph.D in science is really, really, really think about who you want as an adviser before you sign on the dotted line. Talk to other students of theirs, see what kind of jobs they get afterwards, make sure you're interested in their field of interest etc. For the most part I've had a really positive experience in a large part due to my adviser.
In German they refer to the Ph.D adviser as the Doktorvater (doctor father). I think it's pretty much those most accurate description I've ever heard. It really is like a parent/child relationship and as like parenting you can have great parents or abusive parents. However this time around you actually get to choose who you want as a parent!!
