As a step towards promoting gender equity, a meeting entitled "Advancing Women's Contributions to Science Through Professional Societies" was held by the Office of Research on Women's Health in conjunction with other organizations in Washington DC on December 9, 1999. The 150 women attending the meeting represented diverse societies (i.e. engineering, cell biology, neuroscience, cancer research) and also included women involved in career development organizations such as the National Center of Leadership in Academic Medicine. The meeting was organized in part due to concern regarding the disproportionate representation of female scientists in middle and senior levels in academic centers. Some of the goals of the meeting were to share information on steps the different societies are taking to promote the careers of women and to develop initiatives or new programs to facilitate the advancement of women.
According to Dr. Ruth L. Kirschstein, acting director for the National Institutes of Health, women represent 50% of medical students and 45% of graduate students in the biological sciences, "[b]ut when you look for outstanding, well-experienced, high-level cell biologists, biochemists, biophysicists, [or others] to serve on outstanding committees or advisory councils as full professors or as deans, it's hard to find a sufficient number of women." For instance, the percentage of female basic science faculty at medical schools in 1998 was 32.8% at the assistant, 25.4% at the associate, and 13.6% at the professor level. The average number of female chairs at medical schools throughout the country is one. Some may argue that the high number of women receiving M.D. and Ph.D.s is a recent phenomenon and not enough time has elapsed in order to attain a higher percentage at the senior levels. However, this is not the case. In addition, an NIH study found that the success rate for women competing for RO1 grants was comparable to that of men so that this is not an explanation either. Problems in the climate for women at academic institutions have been widely discussed this past year after a study performed at MIT found that the university was guilty of systematically depriving distinguished women scientists of their fair share of salary, lab space, and other resources1.
I attended the meeting as Chair of the AAI Committee on the Status of Women. Most of the meeting was spent working in small groups to develop action plans, which were presented to all participants in the afternoon plenary session. The topics for the workshops were i) mentoring and networking, ii) career development for mid- and senior levels, iii) representation of women in scientific societies, iv) sharing model systems that work, and v) outreach and collaboration within and between societies and other organizations to advance science by promoting women in science. Some of the action plans included establishing a "best practices" clearinghouse, developing a web-based database of women scientists, and instituting national mentoring and networking programs. In most institutions mentoring is left to chance. In an article by Madeleine Jacobs2, editor-in-chief of Chemical and Engineering News, she wrote that "…more than anything else, the lack of mentoring and collegiality by male faculty members is seen as the key factor in failing to retain women in academia and move them up the ladder into tenured positions." Mentoring programs can benefit both men and women.
This meeting was an excellent initial opportunity for women from different societies to work together to address gender equity issues and to work towards advancing women's participation in science. I was proud to represent the AAI where we've had an active Committee on the Status of Women of the AAI for the past 20 years. The heightened awareness of the disproportionate number of females at the higher levels and the demand for highly trained scientists in this society make it likely that progress will be made on this front in the new millennium.
1Lawle, Andrew. "Tenured Women Battle to Make It Less Lonely at the Top." Science 286:1272 (1999).
2 Jacobs, Madeleine. "Challenges Await Women Chemists in the New Millennium." Chemical and Engineering News 76:43 (1998).
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