As many, many studies and articles have told us, there are not enough women in science, and in chemistry in particular. Similarly, those who are in the field are not getting the awards, opportunities, or promotions that they deserve. While a discussion of the reasons why this is happening would probably be redundant, I’m not sure that I have seen a discussion of simple ways to move forward. So, I would like to suggest a meeting of the minds to put forward some very simple ideas that we could start doing right now, and don’t require governmental funding or a revision of the tenure system, etc. I’ll kick things off with a couple of thoughts:
1. Although we probably know a lot of great women doing science, I wonder how often we talk about them. For example, I was recently at a conference and asked a fellow scientist who she knew in a particular field that was doing great work. She (note: a woman) gave me the name of a man (note: a man).* In retrospect, there are also some women doing great work in that field. The point is: keep tabs on other great women and help to spread the word. Great!
*Of course many situations are more complicated than just “I have two scientists that are relevant in my head and I picked the man”, but I think the general idea may hold.
1 (part 2). On a related point, the ‘word’ we should be spreading is not that they are really nice, or that they have a cute child, or that what is happening in their respective two-body problem, but that their scientific contributions are important, and that they have some profound insights into their field. Let’s get away from talking about women’s personal lives, as I can only hold so much information in my tiny brain, and it would be more useful to know about their professional interests and successes.
2. Nominate a woman for an award.
3. If you are a woman, ask questions at talks (and introduce yourself first).
4. In terms of getting opportunities to work with a journal (assuming that my experience holds true on a broader scale): if you are in a position where you might be expected to have a website, PLEASE put one together and keep it updated on a ~yearly basis (this actually holds for men too). While of course you can find out a lot about someone by their publications, having a clear, concise message about what you’re interested in really makes a big difference. After all, these days it’s not clear just by looking at a paper whether the topic is something near and dear to a particular scientists’ heart or whether they were perhaps just helping out with a technique, etc. Knowing what really drives someone makes it much easier for me to feel confident that you are the right person to ask to write a Review article, or to referee a paper, etc.
What else can we do?
Catherine (Associate Editor, Nature Chemical Biology)
Re No.1(part 2): that really needed to be said!
Other things that would help probably involve making conscious efforts to highlight the research results of women in undergrad teaching – use full names when discussing examples from literature. Make the next generation of chemists expect to see women doing research in equal measure to men.
Ensure that conference programs and seminar series are fair reflections on the gender balance in the field. Often contributions are overlooked from less vocal/social researchers (the ones not asking questions and drawing attention to themselves). Also, make sure the session chairs and the like are an appropriate representation of the field both in gender and in nationality.
Make conference social events suitable to all genders: smaller events tailored to specific subfields facilitate better interactions and are less intimidating to walk into. Massive beer filled poster sessions are difficult to navigate. Smaller, quieter events facilitate good conversation.
I could probably go on and on…but I wont.
It is a great question.
I think that what needs to be done has to be done by all. Those with influence and the women themselves. I like mentoring programs, because of that. It requires input from the mentee and uses the good conections of the mentor.
Thanks for asking this question.
Hi…came here from Propter Doc. Good ideas! I notice it’s hard in my field for people to bring up the women first because it is the men who dominate the field and if you mention them your door tends to open wider, less so with women. But it is a very good point, why not say both?
Thanks for these ideas, and keep ’em coming! Also, stay tuned for next week, when I talk about other groups of people that can be overlooked (as I will need more feedback then!).
As a woman, a Chemistry Ph.D. candidate, and trying to figure out what to do next as graduation looms … I’ve been asking myself whether I should postdoc and try to get better prepared for trying to get a tenure-track faculty position, look for an industry job that will allow me the level of freedom and creativity that I’d like to have, … or should I jump ship entirely and go into public policy, consulting, or patent law technical advising —In light of my personal musings, a few things come to mind re: your question.
I have been weighing applying to postdoc with women v. men. One of the concerns I’ve had is whether working for a woman will hurt my career, because she isn’t likely to have as much name-recognition. How many people know the names of famous women chemists? The only women chemists I can think of off the top of my head are Hillary Godwin, Emily Carter, Joan Valentine, and Mildred Dresselhaus. On the other hand I can name at least 100 of famous men in chemistry. The truth is, however, that there are actually very few women working in the area I want to move my career towards. I can find a lot of reasonably good men, but not many women.
A second concern is that I want to get married at some point. Will a male boss/advisor be more or less flexible? more or less encouraging of my chasing the plan to become a professor or first-class scientist if I also want to get married? Will a male boss/advisor be more or less nurturing and willing to teach me or help me learn the skills I need to manage my own group successfully? In general, I’ve found many men want to be supportive, but also don’t really know how to be. I suspect that a woman who is a successful chemist will know the hardships I’ll face and might be able to help me more and steer me away from landmines.
So my suggestions regarding your question are borne out of my own wishes, regrets, and frustrations.
1) If you are a woman, find and create ways to link up with other women who are also in similar situations and develop a supportive network for yourself. Unfortunately, there are few mentoring programs to take advantage of. Maybe you can make one of your own.
2) If you are a professor or head of a research group in industry, encourage the women to talk with each other about their experiences so they can learn how other women achieve the balance they need to work well. If you are a woman chemistry professional -give talks, write, etc. about how you are working to balance your life and handle the pressures of your job.
3) Nominate your female students for fellowships and awards or encourage them to compete for fellowships and awards. Be aware of what opportunities are out there and send them after those. Be willing to read over personal statements, research proposals and help get their names out there. It seems to me that the more a female student gets fellowships and awards the more she is likely to build her own confidence and to get offers for jobs that are high caliber and high-profile.
4) Insist that when your department invites speakers that they invite more women than they currently do. We all know invited talks matter. Suggest women speakers when the polling for a special lecture series comes around.
5) Send your female students out to give talks, posters, etc. so their names get out. Train them first on how to give a good talk and how to field the questions. So often academics let almost-Ph.D.‘s or newly-minted-Ph.D.’s out there to give a talk without any preparation and the women often come back saying, “I don’t want to do that too often. It was so stressful.”
6) Reach out to female undergraduates who think about going into academia or at least into grad school and begin helping them to gain the tools, awards, accolades they need to succeed.
I really believe that women need more encouragement in science still than men do. I remember when I read this article by Emily Carter (who is one of the very few successful women chemists I’ve ever heard of) I applauded while sitting at my computer. https://prince-web1.princeton.edu/archives/2005/01/31/opinion/11842.shtml
Me, I realized about 6 months ago as I began facing the penultimate year of my life as a graduate student … I have no idea how various woman have succeeded in science. I remember Joan Valentine told me when I started out on the graduate school path and visited schools that I should pay a lot of attention to which schools I applied to have a lot of women on their faculty. UCLA at the time was the only place on my list that had more than one woman. I stupidly didn’t listen to her advice, declined their offer, and have regretted it. The departmental culture matters.
BUT -I have learned since then that you can battle the departmental culture if you have enough awards, papers, fellowships, etc. to prove that you’re good or better.