Gender Issues - WISMAC

Where’s the Girl Power? Executive Director of the American Association of University Women, Linda D. Hallman, CAE, was part of a discussion that aired September 10, 2008 on Minnesota Public Radio, titled "Where’s the Girl Power?" She joined a panel that tackled the question of why success in school is not a predictor of success in the workplace for women and discussed AAUW’s report Behind the Pay Gap. [From AAUW Mission & Action September/October 2008 email broadcast]
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/09/10/midmorning2/ (the program audio)
http://www.aauw.org/research/upload/behindPayGap.pdf

Re-thinking the Traditional Academic Career Ladder The dearth of junior leadership coming into the pipeline will have a direct impact on future leadership of academic institutions is examined in a new issue brief by the American Council on Education. For example, women aged 45 or younger working in permanent positions make up only five percent of faculty at four-year institutions, and six percent of faculty at community colleges. Likewise, people of color aged 45 or younger working in permanent positions make up only four percent of faculty at four-year institutions and six percent of community college faculty. http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfmSection=Home&TEMPLATE=
/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=28763 [from AWIS Washington Wire Sept. 2008 issue II]

It Pays to be a Sexist A new study has found that traditional gender role orientation continues to impact wages negatively for women. Men with traditional attitudes about gender roles earned $11,930 more a year than men with egalitarian views and $14,404 more than women with traditional attitudes. The comparisons were based on men and women working in the same kinds of jobs with the same levels of education and putting in the same number of hours per week. The study is significant in that it contests a popular notion of the gender-gap theory which suggests that wage disparity is the result of career choices that men and women make or the different hours that men and women work.
http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/apl935994.pdf [from AWIS Washington Wire Sept. 2008 issue II]

Awards to Women Ever wonder about how many of those scientific awards given by societies
are going to women? Check out the data collected via the raise project http://raiseproject.org/faq.php [posted 10/6/08]

No Female Lasker Awardees for 2008 The Lasker Award winners were announced in September. Although all are impressive scientists in medical research, again, there are no women on the list. Click on this link for the related article from the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/health/14lasker.html?ei=5070&emc=eta1 The new president of the Lasker Foundation, Marie Freire, will be a speaker at the Board Meeting of the Rosalind Frank Society Board Meeting on November 12^{th, 2008} in New York. Her insights and her vision will be quite timely. [Adapted from an email announcement from the Rosalind Frank Society; posted 10/6/08].

Gender inequity in Neurosurgery According to a new white paper developed by the leadership of Women in Neurosurgery for the Board of Directors of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, there are only 181 female board-certified neurosurgeons accounting for less than 6 percent of a neurosurgical workforce of more than 3,000. The new report discusses the challenges of attracting and retaining women to the field of neurosurgery. The source report appears in the September issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery which is available free to non-subscribers. The future of neurosurgery: a white paper on the recruitment and retention of women in neurosurgery [AWIS Washington Wire Aug. 2008, Issue II]

Lack of job confidence A study conducted by TIAA-CREF Institute found newly minted Ph.D.s felt unprepared for their first job in some areas. Among the men and women polled within the first five years of their first job, women reported feeling the least confident about their position. Women were significantly less confident than men in the areas of conducting research and teaching undergraduate students, but were equally or more confident than men in areas of interdisciplinary collaboration and the ability to serve on faculty committees. Confidence levels rose quickly as the young faculty member became more integrated into their career. From AWIS Washington Wire: July Issue 1 Confidence Gap for New Profs , Read the report

Equality in math A study released by Science July 25 found no gap between U. S. girls and boys in mathematics scores - not even the "trivial" gap that had been reported in an earlier study by the same author. Researchers sorted through scores from standardized tests taken in 2005, 2006 and 2007 by nearly 7 million students in 10 states and found "no gender difference" in scores from grades 2 through 11. The team did find that white boys outnumbered white girls two to one for the highest test scores, but among Asians the reverse was true. This suggests that cultural and social factors, not just gender, influence test performance. AWIS Washington Wire: July Issue 2 Girls = Boys at Math, Read the report

Data on women in science and engineering An InfoBrief released by the National Science Foundation analyzes 33 years of data on women in science and engineering (S&E) faculty positions. From 1973 to 2006, women grew from 7% to 30% of full-time S&E faculty (who earned their doctorate in the United States and now work in US universities). The InfoBrief is available at:
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf08308/
From Aug. 1, 2008 GreatMail News (AAMC)

Appearance of equity more important than reality, report says Interviews with 80 women at a large research university revealed individual and institutional discrimination still exists even while women are increasing in prominent authoritative positions. The report, conducted by the University of California at Irvine in conjunction with the National Science Foundation, says importance of these positions is often downplayed in these situations. Women in the study "attributed the persistence of gender inequality not to biology but to a professional environment in which university administrators care more about the appearance than the reality of gender equality and a professional culture based on a traditional, linear male model ." [from June, 2008 AWIS Washington Wire; posted June 23, 2008] Quiet Desperation
Read more about the report and possible solutions

Gender equity = Higher scores A report released by Science magazine correlated gender bias with mathematics scores. They found in gender equal cultures the gender gap within math scores shrinks while the reading gender gap widens in favor of women. Cultures were classified by several conditions of gender equity which varied greatly according to culture. Conditions included: the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Index (GGI), an index of cultural attitudes toward women, the rate of female economic activity reflected by the percentage of women age 15 and older who supply, or are available to supply, labor for the production of goods and services, and a political empowerment index computed by the World Economic Forum measuring females political participation. These four variables correlated highly. “DIVERSITY: Culture, Gender, and Math”Guiso et al.
Science 30 May 2008: 1164-1165
DOI: 10.1126/science.1154094
[from June, 2008 AWIS Washington Wire; posted June 23, 2008]

Supreme Court Decision Impacts Women in Academia Women in academia suffer from significant pay disparities in the workplace even when they hold the same rank as men. The recent Ledbetter decision by the United States Supreme Court holds a number of important lessons for women in academia:
http://www.awis.org/news/documents/PaydisparitiesafterLedbetter-JCUL2008-2.pdf [Posted June 2008]

Past Award Laureates Commit to Help Women in Science
In March, 2008, nearly forty past L'ORÉAL-UNESCO award laureates reunited in Paris, France to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the L'ORÉAL-UNESCO awards, which are the first international awards devoted to women scientists. The event was marked with the signing of a special charter designed to promote science, support the cause of women, and change the face of science in the world, the Charter of Commitment "For Women in Science." New Charter Launched by L'ORÉAL-UNESCO [From April 2008 AWIS Washington Wire] [Posted May 2008]

Gender Matters Being first a female scientist and then a male scientist has given Professor Ben Barres a unique perspective on the debate over why women are so rare at the highest levels of academic science and math. Read his News and Views article from Nature by clicking the Quick Link located top right of this page, entitled "Ben A. Barres Article: Does Gender Matter?". A video recording of his March, 2008 presentation entitled “Some Reflections on the Dearth of Women in Science” is made available by the Office of Faculty Development & Diversity at Harvard University; the URL for the video recording is given below. You will need RealPlayer software, which you can download for free. Sections of the video:

• Introduction & acknowledgements by Dr. Liza Cariaga-Lo, Assistant Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity at Harvard University: first 5 min.

• Introduction by Dr. Barbara Grosz, Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences at Harvard: 5-12 min.

Women in U.S. Academic Medicine Statistics and Medical School Benchmarking 2006-2007 is provided by the AAMC as an overview of gender differences among students, residents, and faculty. Responses to an annual survey were provided by Women Liaison Officers, Faculty Roster Representatives, and Faculty Affairs Representatives from 109 of 125 medical schools [posted 4/08]: http://www.aamc.org/members/wim/statistics/stats07/start.htm

The Representation of Women on the Editorial Boards of Major Medical Journals: A 35-Year Perspective: Jagsi and colleagues rigorously examine the representation of women as editors and editorial board members of 16 major biomedical journals that published research from 1970 through 2005. Arch Intern Med.2008;168(5):544-548[posted 3/08]

MIT Tenure Parity Nonexistent Despite the university's purported focus on attracting more women to academia in the last decade, only 16 percent of tenured faculty at MIT are female (up from 10.5 percent in 1997). Additionally, only one of the 26 faculty members granted tenure so far this academic year has been a woman. So what's MIT going to do about it? [from Dec.’07 Washington Wire] So much for practicing what you preach? [posted February 15, 2008]

An Equation for Success Reykjavik University in Iceland is reaping rewards from its innovations: it equalized pay for men and women, placed women in high-ranking leadership positions, and is emphasizing interdisciplinary work and communication. The result is that 95 percent of its staff is happy in their jobs [from Dec.’07 Washington Wire]. Innovation up north [posted February 15, 2008]

Study reveals reason for women’s departure from the sciences Women scientists are not pursuing advanced research careers because of a heavier burden of family responsibility and lower confidence compared to men, according to a study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of its own research staff appearing in the November 2007 issue of the "EMBO Reports". The first author is Elisabeth D. Martinez who is now an instructor in the Department of Pharmacology here at UT Southwestern. http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v8/n11/full/7401110.html [posted November 19, 2007]

The "pool" is no longer the problem: female science faculty and gender equity coverage of a recent hearing before the House Subcommittee on Research and Science Education highlights the ongoing need for targeted interventions to increase the proportion of female science faculty. Title IX, the 1972 gender equity law, applies to education, but is much more famous for its sports-related implications at colleges and universities. Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala testified that perhaps a body similar to the NCAA is needed to enforce Title IX and the equality it mandates [from AWIS Washington Wire 10/31/07]: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/10/18/womensci [posted Dec. 19, 2007]

Women can't win Too bold, too meek, too strong, too weak-women are never perceived as "just right" when it comes to their behavior on the job, or so the data suggests. This New York Times article surveys several recent studies and attempts to make sense of the conflicting signals women are sent about how they should act in order to get ahead. [from AWIS Washington Wire, Nov. 2007] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/fashion/01WORK.html?_r=2&ex=1194580800&en=91feaf95fabced83&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin&oref=slogin [posted Dec. 19, 2007]

Women in science debate still a source of contention: A day-long conference at the conservative American Enterprise Institute brought academics together to debate the reasons for women's underrepresentation in the sciences. The healthy and sometimes heated debates that followed seemed to transcend politics as the academics (scientists, social scientists, and even a lawyer) struggled to convince their audience that the disparity has more to do with nature than nurture, and vice versa. This "Inside Higher Ed" article has more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/10/02/science [from AWIS Washington Wire, Oct. 2007; posted Oct. 18 2007]

Future may look rosy, but women still disadvantaged in higher ed A Chronicle of Higher Education article discusses the fact that although women's enrollment in college seems to be far outpacing that of men, women still face several hardships that make their success less certain. Gaps in levels of stress and confidence still render women at a disadvantage when it comes to reaching their full potential. Still not a level playing field [From AWIS Washington Wire, Oct. 2007; posted October 17, 2007]

NIH announces Women in Biomedical Careers, a new Web site that provides information about the recently created NIH Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers. The Working Group was appointed by NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. to develop innovative strategies and tangible actions to promote the advancement of women in biomedical research. http://womeninscience.nih.gov/ [From NIH Nexus/May 2007; posted July 07]

AAUW Sheds Light on Gender Wage Gap The American Association of University Women (AAUW) Educational Foundation recently delivered new research which directly addresses the gender wage gap between college educated males and females. According to AAUW, the average pay of a college educated female is $46,000, where the average wage of a male with equal experience in the same field is $64,000. This $16,000 wage gap is illustrated on a map where statistics are compounded by state. For more info: http://www.aauw.org/research/statedata/index.cfm [from AWIS Washington Wire June 2007]

Despite Rapid Growth of Women Scientists, Agencies Still Not Cooperating with Title IX The Government Accountability Office (GOA), which seeks to sustain good government through the maintenance of the core governmental values; integrity, accountability and reliability, has recently released a congressional report on gender issues of women in the sciences. According to the GOA, women's participation in the sciences has drastically increased. However, agencies are not cooperating with Title IX. For more info: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04639.pdf [from AWIS Washington Wire June 2007]

Salary Supplement for Child Care Stanford has become the first university to offer a salary supplement to help pre-tenure faculty with child care. [posted 5/07]
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/april25/kidcare-042507.html?view=print

An Overview of Women in U.S. Academic Medicine, 2005-06 A new issue of AAMC Analysis in Brief reports on percentages of men and women in the pipeline of students and residents; examines gender disparities in areas such as faculty hires and promotions; and provides breakouts of the representation of men and women in leadership positions. For more information, see: http://www.aamc.org/data/aib/aibissues/aibvol6_no7.pdf.
To view the current Women in U.S. Academic Medicine Statistics and Benchmarking, see: http://www.aamc.org/members/wim/statistics/stats06/start.htm. [posted Jan. 07]

Education and Careers: Boosting Women in S&T
The future direction AAAS will take to advance science-related education and careers for women was the focus of a recent high-level strategy planning meeting hosted by the AAAS Committee on Opportunities in Science. Read about the recommendations that will comprise an interim report in December and guide the final planning session next February:
http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2006/1030wistem.shtml [posted 11/06]

National Academies New Report on Women in Science On September 18, 2006, the National Academies released a report, Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Promise of Women in Science and Engineering. An executive summary of the report can be accessed by the Quick Link on right side of this page. For more information, see the study website at http://www7.nationalacademies.org/womeninacademe/

U.S. Agencies Quiz Universities on the Status of Women in Science Over the last year, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy (DOE), and NASA have visited four departments at three universities to assess the status of treatment of women science and engineering students since the enactment of Title IX in 1972. For the full article: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/315/5820/1776.pdf [posted 04/07]

“Women in Biomedical Research, NIH Experience Mirrors that of NationalAcademy of Sciences Report” Thistopic is included in the January 2007 issue of the NIH Extramural Nexus: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/partners/0107Nexus.htm [posted 1/07]

Hopkins Endorses Gender Parity
A newly-released study recommends that Johns Hopkins University make efforts to achieve 50% representation of females in senior faculty and leadership positions by 2020. The three year study found that Hopkins lags behind similar research institutions specifically in the recruiting and hiring process. For example, the study found that in 2005, women comprised 51% of the student body, yet only 36% of the full-time faculty. The study suggests that more attention should be focused on issues such as career flexibility and that a special emphasis should be placed on recruiting and hiring women for leadership positions, which are noted to have a higher turnover rate than faculty positions. More. [from AWIS Wash. Wire, Dec. 06]

Women Make Leadership Gains in Medical Research
A new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that more women are taking leadership roles in medical research. The study shows that the percent of women listed as lead or senior authors on papers in top U.S. medical journals rose from 6% in 1970 to 29% in 2004. The number of women invited to write editorials in these journals has increased significantly as well. The complete brief can be read at http://www.nationalacademies.org/headlines/20060822.html . [This info from Association for Women in Science Sept. 2006 "Washington Wire".] posted 9/06

Women Turning Away from Math, Science Fields
Researchers at RTI International, the University of Minnesota, University of Michigan and Murdoch University show that due to concerns about balancing career and family, many young women don't enter male-dominated fields. The study, published in the August issue of Educational Research and Evaluation Journal followed female high school seniors from 1990 who aspired to male-dominated careers. Seven years later, 83% of these women had switched to female-dominated or neutral careers. Women are not only less likely to choose careers in male-dominated fields such as science, but those who do enter are more likely than men to drop out. The study shows that the key predictor of whether women will tend to leave a particular field is lack of flexibility. The researchers suggest that it is not enough to encourage girls to take math and science courses; they need women who have successfully pursued these careers while having a family as role models. The researchers also recommend implementing programs that address girl's lack of confidence in their scientific ability and classes to teach boys to take on an equal share of family duties. The full study can be found at http://www.journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/ . [This info from Association for Women in Science Sept. 2006 "Washington Wire".] posted 9/06

NRC Releases a Report on Women in Science and Engineering
The National Academies’ National Research Council recently released a report, "To Recruit and Advance: Women Students and Faculty in U.S. Science and Engineering." The study committee was charged with preparing "a guide that will identify and discuss best practices in recruitment, retention, and promotion for women scientists and engineers in academia." For information, the committee reviewed existing literature on programs and policies and made site visits to four universities recognized for successfully advancing and retaining women students, faculty, or leaders. The issues that the guide addresses are: (1) recruitment of undergraduates and graduate students; (2) ways of reducing attrition in science and engineering degree programs in the early undergraduate years; (3) improving retention rates of women at critical transition points—from undergraduate to graduate student, from graduate student to postdoc, postdoc to first faculty position; (4) recruitment of women for tenure-track positions; (5) increasing the tenure rate for women faculty; and (6) increasing the numbers of women in administrative positions. The report (including a free executive summary) is available at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11624.html. Other reports relating to women in science in engineering can be found on the website of the NAS Committee for Women in Science and Engineering. [This info from Association for Women in Science May 2006 "Washington Wire".]

Progress on Hiring Women Science Faculty Members Stalls at MIT
“The number of women faculty members at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge has declined or remained flat in five of its six science departments since 2000, whereas the number of women in other areas, such as engineering and architecture, increased significantly during the same period," according to a report released last week. The findings, say academics researching the issue, "underscore the difficulty in removing obstacles for female scientists, despite high-level attention by some deans and administrators.” The full article* can be found at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/312/5772/347a. [This info from Association for Women in Science May 2006 "Washington Wire".]

Societies Spurn Women Editors
Nature magazine reports that Theresa Markow, president of the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), has stepped down to protest that women were not adequately considered for the editorship of its journal. Markow has served as this journal’s only female editor, from 1995 to 1999. Some point out that this is not a problem unique to this society, while others who try to rectify the situation state that it is difficult to find qualified women who are willing to serve. You can find this article* at http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060417/full/440974a.html. [This info from Association for Women in Science May 2006 "Washington Wire".]

New Take on the Gender Gap
Increasingly, colleges are observing that their applicant pools and student bodies are lopsidedly female. A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that the enrollment patterns colleges are seeing today result from much longer term shifts. The study examines gender-based enrollment trends over the last century and attributes them to economic, political, and social factors. For example the authors noted influences such as the increase in bans on married women working, the importance of the GI Bill as a source of funds for college for veterans — the vast majority of them men — returning from World War II, and the desire of a subsequent generation of men to avoid the Vietnam War draft by enrolling in college. They also note that current high female enrollment rates may be partially explained by the wage differential between college-educated and non-college educated woman which has always been greater than that for men. An abstract of the report is available on the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Web site, where the full report may be purchased online for $5 and the article is available at http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/04/26/gender. [This info from Association for Women in Science May 2006 "Washington Wire".]

Introducing Women's Adventures in Science books
The National Academy of Sciences has announced a new book series called, “Women's Adventures in Science”. They describe the books as “a fresh and engaging biography series about contemporary women scientists and their fascinating careers. The ten-volume series shows that the path from intellectually curious girl to talented innovator is as unique as the personality and circumstances of each scientist.” You can also look at the biographies, enjoy videos, games and other activities on the website. Please visit www.iwaswondering.org. [This info from Association for Women in Science May 2006 "Washington Wire".]

Gender Differences among Contingent Faculty: A Literature Review This report from the Association for Women in Science discusses the two different categories of non-tenure track faculty, full-time faculty and part-time faculty. A large number of women choose to be in one of these non-tenure track categories, especially during child-bearing years. [Posted 1/06]

Want to know how many women receive NIH funds? The average size of their grants?
NIH has created a website on the involvement of women in its various grant
programs! see:
Sex/Gender in the Biomedical Science Workforce
http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/policy/sex_gender/q_a.htm

Missing reference to female accomplishments. In July 2005, the journal Science celebrated 125 years of publication. In an editorial of the July 29 issue (Vol. 309, page 1153), Donald Kennedy, editor-in-chief, aired troubling comments received regarding the 125th anniversary issue of Science (vol. 309, pages 1-204), which addressed scientific questions and accomplishments during the tenure of the journal. Among these comments were objections by two female scientists that the photographs accompanying the opening article did not include any women [such as Marie Curie]. This comes, Dr. Kennedy writes, "…just when the issue of women in science has become a topic of intense and sometimes corrosive discussion in the academic community." He goes on to say "…we must make special efforts to make science more attractive to women by strengthening the incentives for undergraduate women to undertake doctoral work, and by ensuring that there are highly visible women in science leadership positions to demonstrate what is possible. On p. 1190 of this issue Jo Handelsman and a distinguished group of senior academic women scientists provide exactly that sort of demonstration. They step around the minefield of largely discredited intellectual differences and provide a rich assessment of the cultural issues that may discourage women." The article is entitled More Women in Science.

Special section on women's health in the journal Science: Womens Health
Once neglected, studies of women's health are finally coming of age, due in large part to the efforts of the Women's Health Initiative (see related Editorial by V. Simon). In a collection of articles published with the 10 June 2005 issue, Science and its online companion sites explored the many dimensions of women's health. In a special section of Science, News and Review articles offered insights into female-male differences in areas such as drug metabolism, HIV/AIDS susceptibility, cardiovascular disease, and mental health -- and discussed conditions specific to women including endometriosis and preeclampsia (a circulatory disturbance between mother and fetus). Two Policy Forums debated the refusal by some pharmacists to dispense prescriptions for contraception, and a Book Review highlighted a recent volume on pregnancy loss by Science correspondent J. Cohen. The Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment focused on estrogen signaling as it relates to cancer and vascular health, as well as on signaling associated with infection by human papillomaviruses; articles in the Science of Aging Knowledge Environment explained how understanding male-female differences in longevity and the course of age-related diseases might improve health care for both sexes. Finally, Science's Next Wave offered perspectives from three women scientists who returned to work after illness and, through GrantsNet, a sampling of current funding opportunities for research on women's health.

It's Still a Man's World at the Top of Big Pharma Research. Here is a link to an article in the July 29, 2005 issue of the journal, Science, which features a number of articles on drug discovery.

Beyond Parity Workbook
The Beyond Parity Workbook for Action is available on-line. The Beyond Parity Workbook for Action was created to help you identify barriers to women's advancement at your academic medical center and begin the process of equity transformation. Successful efforts to increase the promotion, recruitment, and retention of women academics at medical institutions across the US are highlighted. To view the workbook, go to: Beyond Parity Workbook

Speaking Out for Women in the Work Force
Long dedicated to the development of the S&T workforce, AAAS adds its voice to a call for continued collection of job data on women workers. On 13 May 2005, in a letter to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, AAAS strongly opposed a plan to stop gender data collection stating that monitoring the participation of women workers is critical to policymaking that can identify and support talent within the underrepresented population needed to renew the science and engineering work force. Read about the initiative. Read the letter to OMB.

Dr. Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, director of the Max Plank Institute for Developmental Biology in Germany and Nobel Laureate, has created a novel grant program to finance women scientists who can use her money to pay for help with the children, the cooking, and the cleaning. She admits that German women with children who want a career "are socially not well accepted". Read all about it in: "What every Woman Needs: A Wife"

Congress Urged to Help Women in Science
In a letter presented to Senators Ron Wyden and George Allen, more than 6,000 scientists, engineers and other experts urged Congress to increase opportunities for women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Read the Associated Press article on this topic by Matthew Daly by going to "Congress Urged" quick link at right side of this page.

Enhancing the Environment for Women in Academic Medicine: Resources and Pathways
Compiled to assist department chairs, deans, women liaison officers, and other medical center and university faculty, this resource covers, professional development issues and programs, family and flexibility issues, women's health in medical education, leadership challenges facing women and ways to improve equity and address sexism in medicine. Each chapter also includes an extensive bibliography: Women in Medicine Guide

"Promoting Science for Everyone" is the title of a letter in the April, 2005 issue of ASBMB Today. "Having a life" matters for both men and women. There are many scientists who work 80-plus hours a week, and some will argue that that is the only way to succeed. But as long as this is the norm, science will be seen as forbidding and inaccessible to anyone who wants to have a family or other interests. Read more on page 3 of this link: ASBMB

"Rebellious Daughter" Leads Harvard
Drew Gilpin Faust was recently chosen as the next president of Harvard University. An accomplished historian, who has spent much of her career studying change and resistance, the former Radcliffe Institute dean is now making history herself by becoming the first female president of the University. Her appointment follows on the heels of a very controversial statement in 2005 by former Harvard president Larry Summers about the general aptitude of women to succeed in science. More. [[This info from Association for Women in Science Feb. 2007 "Washington Wire", posted here March 07].

Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers Resigns In a letter to the Harvard community, Summers states that "...I have reluctantly concluded that the rifts between me and segments of the Arts and Sciences faculty make it infeasible for me to advance the agenda of renewal that I see as crucial to Harvard's future. I believe, therefore, that it is best for the University to have new leadership."
posted: February 2006

Harvard Faculty Decry Widening Gender Gap in Science 2004 305: 1692
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/305/5691/1692b
In the last five years, percentages of women faculty offered tenure have dropped by half, from 37% in 2000 to 16% in 2003, in Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). The result of this drop has been disputed to be either the unintended result of policies put in place by current president Lawrence Summers in 2001 or search committees not seeking out strong women candidates. Concerns about the dropping number of tenured women faculty were brought to the attention of Summers and FAS Dean William Kirby in a written letter by tenured women faculty. Summers and Kirby met with women faculty in early October 2004 to discuss the issue. posted: December 2004

Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers suggested that one reason for the low numbers of women in science might be a lack of intrinsic aptitude, setting off a firestorm of debate. This is a link to the transcript of his comments.

In response to the controversy over Laurence Summers' remarks concerning innate differences between men an women, the March 7, 2005 issue of Time Magazine delves into the disparities between men and women including research in the area and experiences from current women in science. (an online subscription is required for the full article, but this link gives abstracts of the cover stories)
"The Math Myth - the Real Truth about Women's Brains and the Gender Gap in Science." This is the link.

Dallas Morning News article: Success and gender debate: What new millenium? Five female scientists, including three from U.T. Southwestern (listed below), responded to a reporter's questions relating to recent controversial remarks made by Lawrence Summers, president of Harvard. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6838216/). He reportedly questioned whether innate differences between men and women may help explain why fewer women than men succeed in science and engineering. He also seemed to downplay whether discrimination has been a factor in the lack of advancement by women in such fields. The female scientist's responses were summarized by Sue Goetinck Ambrose in the Jan. 30, 2005 issue of the Dallas Morning News. You may find the article by searching www.dallasnews.com.

Scientists quoted in the article:
Melanie Cobb, professor of pharmacology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and Dean of the Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

Bonnie Jacobs, assistant professor and director of the Environmental Science Program at Southern Methodist University.

Carole Mendelson, professor of biochemistry and obstetrics-gynecology at UT Southwestern, and co-director of the North Texas March of Dimes Birth Defects Center at UT Southwestern.

Inga Musselman, associate professor and associate department head in the chemistry department at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Ellen Vitetta, professor of microbiology and director of the Cancer Immunobiology Center at UT Southwestern, member of the National Academy of Sciences. posted: January 2005
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MomMD
Online community for mothers who are physicians or medical students. Includes resources, discussions groups, personal stories, and a bookstore. posted Oct.'04

Information for Health Professionals and their patients...The Link Between You and Women's Health
posted Oct.04

A short selection is shown here; for a more extesive list of articles please click on, Suggested Reading under Quick Links (at upper right of this web page)

“For women in sciences, slow progress in academia” is an article by Sara Rimer, which appeared the April 15, 2005 issue of the New York Times. To read this article, click on title listed in the quick links at right hand side of this page.

The American Association of Medical Colleges has published the premiere issue of Faculty Vitae, which is located at:
aamc.org. The theme of this issue is Diversity and Equity. Faculty Vitae is password-free, so feel free to forward the full issue or any of the articles to your colleagues. Below is a listing of what this issue offers.

Feature: Salary Equity -
A case study and lessons from four medical schools who have conducted
studies of salary equity of men and women faculty highlight
opportunities for faculty skill development and institutional
leadership.

Bakken, L, et al., Gender differences among physician-scientists in self-assessed abilities to perform clinical research. Acad Med 2003;78:1281-86.

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