Issue 72 Contents

Where Have All the Women Cell Biologists Gone?

The American Society for Cell Biology prides itself as home for all cell biologists irrespective of gender or ethnicity. The ASCB Annual Meeting and the smaller Summer Meetings typically enjoy about equal attendance of women and men. Graduate students in cell biology disciplines are more than 50% women. Yet in organizing the 2005 Annual Meeting, despite all good intentions and vigilance, the Program Committee had notable difficulty first identifying and then convincing enough women to take on major roles like speaking in symposia or chairing mini-symposia. A similar problem affected the ASCB Summer Meetings.

Over the past 10–15 years, the proportion of women hired as assistant professors has increased dramatically and their promotion up through the ranks has also accelerated, but the proportion of women faculty is still much lower than the cohorts of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Sitting on more than ten faculty search committees over the past three years, I am amazed how few women are applying or being nominated for junior faculty positions. It is a crisis of enormous and immeasurable cost, since academia is losing so many of the best and most gifted scientists. Industry unfortunately experiences a similar attrition of women in positions of responsibility and leadership.

The societal cost of not capturing this highly trained and talented workforce for the most challenging scientific opportunities is enormous. Women have been educated at universities at great public and private expense. Creativity is precious and every mind not utilized is a discovery not made. Since scientific research is not linear, a discovery not made may not be made eventually by someone else.

Women scientists are different from men scientists. There may be differences in scientific approach and perspective in women compared to men that could be invaluable. It is usually impossible to separate the biologic woman and mother from the biologist and scientist. My favorite picture of the Nobel Laureate Marie Curie is with her daughters. In contrast, I was struck by the autobiography of the Nobel Laureate Sir Peter Medawar which mentioned his wife only in passing and neglected to mention that he had fathered several children, so little influence did his personal life have on his career. Can you imagine any woman scientist whose family is not an integral part of her scientific life? We need to celebrate the differences between men and women and exploit them because they help give a fresh perspective, which can lead to scientific discovery.

Where are all the women who were graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in cell biology disciplines going? They are clearly shunning the most research intensive careers and ending up by desire or default in less challenging positions in academia and industry or even leaving research. In industry, a large proportion of women are hired into the bottom rung, but the number of women decreases dramatically as the positions become more significant and are virtually absent at the top. We are seeing a trend in which women scientists seek, take or are offered less challenging positions, as well as a continuing trend in which women rise through the ranks less efficiently. In addition, while pay disparities at rank are being eroded, relegating women to lower paying positions in non-leadership, non-tenure track positions means that they are as a group paid less. In our society, “women’s work” traditionally is less well compensated than other work, and lower pay often brings with it less prestige and independence and societal power with all their subtle consequences, including less peer recognition, fewer invitations to speak at meetings, and less grant support, [1,2].

Why is the pipeline leaking and what are we going to do about it? How much of it is due to unequal opportunity or lack of family friendly policies, and how much is due to perceived bias or choice?

Despite the advances in the 80’s and 90’s in hiring and retaining women scientists, we still have not changed the culture of academic and private sector research and development sufficiently. On the positive side, we have succeeded in educating our girls in science, and in making them feel as if they have all the opportunities for a satisfying scientific career. And that sustains them and encourages them through graduate school into the postdoctoral experience. Then the biological imperative checks in. As a result, women take jobs that they perceive to be less demanding and stressful, often in soft money positions. At the same time they are underrepresented in major research intensive universities and medical schools, where almost all Federal grant funding goes, as well as in power positions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. There is not an even playing field for women scientists. As more women are educated and work outside the home, we have not succeeded in giving them the privileges that free them from the mundane tasks of a world in which the traditional male may enjoy child care and elder care. In Germany the situation is even worse, because women are expected to be full time homemakers, and childcare and household conveniences are hard to come by. Indeed, Nobel Prize-winning biologist Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard set up a foundation to fund women scientists who are also young mothers, [3].

What is the solution? We must actively shun and reverse the culture of the 19th and 20th centuries that glorified the (male) scientist as workaholic, unaware of any aspect of life beyond the bench. We must remember to value quality and innovation in science, not quantity and hyperbole. Universities and public sector research institutions must become family friendly; if they do, private sector companies will match or better benefits in their competitive self-interest. Childcare and increasingly, eldercare, must become a standard work benefit so employers can hire the most talented women and men. Young women cannot be passive and opt out for an “easier” life. They must rise to the most exciting professional challenges and help change the culture from the inside. We also must create opportunities that encourage and support women for a second chance to move up to more challenging positions once their children are grown.

Over a full career of 40 years, having a life as well as doing research is more productive and balanced and fun than giving up one for the other. The ASCB will benefit as more of its women members are available for lectures and leadership. As we go forward, the ASCB intends to stay at the forefront of this change.

1. Jacobson, J. (2005). NIH Grants Go Much More Often to Men Than Women, a New Study for Congress Finds.

The Chronicle of Higher Education, 9/23/2005.

(http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/09/2005091404n.htm, for subscribers only).

2. Hosek, S.D., A. G. Cox, B. Ghosh-Dastidar, A. Kofner, N.l Ramphal, J. Scott, S. H. Berry (2005). Gender Differences in Major Federal External Grant Programs.

http://chronicle.com/extras/2005/09/TR307.pdf

 Issue 72 Contents