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Proactive Strategies for Advancing Women in Science ICI2004, Montreal, Canada US Universities and Faculty Women Paula Kavathas Professor of Laboratory Medicine, Immunobiology, and Genetics Yale University School of Medicine. Percentage of female students and faculty

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  1. Proactive Strategies for Advancing Women in ScienceICI2004, Montreal, CanadaUS Universities and Faculty WomenPaula KavathasProfessor of Laboratory Medicine, Immunobiology, and GeneticsYale University School of Medicine

  2. Percentage of female students and faculty in immunology programs of US universities(2000) 12 10 8 # of Universities 6 4 2 0 <10 `10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-80 Range(%) Faculty Students Data from: P Kavathas and L Soong, Nature Immunology 2:985 (2001) The percentage of female faculty is substantially less than expected based on the percentage of women receiving Ph.D.s during the last 20 years. It is not a matter of insufficient numbers in the pipeline but rather a clog.

  3. Why Does Gender Matter? • Women have made important contributions throughout history to the field of science with giants such as Marie Curie, Barbara McClintock and Rosalind Franklin. • The presence of women and the factor of gender have shaped disciplines and changed avenues of explorations, creativity, and policy. • By creating diversity in academia, we increase the range of scientific problems under investigation and the range of minds trying to understand our world. • Women in leadership roles contribute to the betterment of all women (e.g.their efforts led to requiring the involvement of women in clinical trials) • Women working in their chosen profession can be psychologically happier

  4. Women in Leadership Positions Matter Accept and Seek Leadership Positions in Your Career.

  5. Strategies • 1. Running a lab is like running a small business- Get some management training. Don’t be afraid of ‘big’ You won’t be able to do everything quite as well as you may like-but in the long run you will make a difference • 2. Build a support network • 3. Envision a “women” majority department where you will get the best women and they will be productive. • 4. Take the long view of an academic career Personnel, Academic, and Professional Lives

  6. Balance • Balance between Inner Directive and Societies Expectations (risk taking) • Balance Work and Family The goal within reach is a world in which parents of both sexes mix work and family responsibilities; the reality is a world that’s often split between a well-educated male wage earner and an equally well-educated female caregiver. “At Home and Work, Still a Man’s World” by Emily Bazelon and Judith Resnik. • Get as much help at home as possible. • Create a partnership with your spouse. • Make choices-there are different times in life for different things • There are different models of a “good mom”. • Children were raised by extended families throughout history so having multiple adults involved in a child’s life can be very positive.

  7. Women’s Faculty Forum (WFF) At Yale‘Women Coming Together’ The WFF began with a group of female faculty coming together from different departments to organize a conference at Yale’s Tercentennial celebration to highlight the lives and works of Yale alumnae that were female. Its broader purpose was to build a sustainable base for a stronger community among the women faculty at Yale and for a stronger connection between women faculty and alumnae. This effort was supported by the offices of the President and Provost by providing money to hire a program coordinator, a research associate and to fund events. Overall purposes: • To promote scholarship on gender and scholarship by and about women • To foster gender equity throughout the university • To promote collegiality and networking on these issues between faculty, students, administration and alumnae.

  8. WFF Initiatives • Welcome new women faculty and administrators • Seminars : Structures of Work and Families Citizenship/borders and Gender Professional Development Workshop Series Women Mentoring Women Marie Curie Centennial: Celebrating Women in Science Women in A Changing World • Prepare Reports and Publications: • Childcare Report • Parental Leave Policies • A Snapshot-Status of Women • Task Force on Promotion and Retention of Junior Faculty • Gender Matters: Women and Yale in its Third Century

  9. Picture from HHMI Bulletin June 2002 “Accomplished Women” by Kathryn Brown A young woman is aiming high and creating her own ladder. I would modify this picture by adding senior faculty sitting on the branches cheering the young girl on and giving advice. I would also add some monkey-like humans eating their bananas ignoring the issue. Since the MIT report in 1999 documenting tangible inequities in salary, space,administrative positions for senior female faculty in biology, inequities at other schools have been revealed. Attempts to address those inequities are being made. Less tangible barriers are harder to erase such as men seeing women as “stars” or as true peers. That will only change when we have a sufficient number of women so that the female faculty have a real voice in deciding who are the “stars”.

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