Women in Science at Harvard-Radcliffe Hosts National Symposium

Last March, a statistical report issued by MIT admitted subtle gender bias had created unequal treatment for the school's tenured women faculty in the sciences.

This weekend, in the first annual National Symposium on the Advancement of Women in Science, prominent women scientists argued that discrimination was present not only in statistics, but also in the attitudes of their male colleagues.

The conference, hosted by Women in Science at Harvard-Radcliffe (WISHR) and held in Maxwell-Dworkin Hall, attracted over 100 students, faculty and community members.

In the opening speech Friday afternoon, Helen C. Davies recounted the challenges she and her colleagues faced when they established the Association for Women in Science (AWS) 27 years ago. A professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania, Davies is now National President of AWS.

"Women have to be 2.2 times more productive than their male counterparts in order to reach the same level of success," Davies said, citing a 1997 study in Nature conducted by the Swedish medical council.

Davies spoke on the importance of networking among women in scientific careers. She warned against the self-defeat that causes isolated women in a department to drop out of the profession.

Shirley Malcolm, who serves on the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology, gave the next keynote address on current and future problems for women in science.

As the only African-American woman in her classes as an undergraduate, Malcolm began to question the presence of women minorities in science, now called the double bind.

Malcolm also presented figures for women in different fields of science. She noted the declining number of women at the bachelor's level in computer science and the dramatic increase of women in the life sciences.

"It seems that once you get to a certain number of women in a field, it's easier to keep and grow that number," Malcolm said. "But then what happened in computer science, where we reached numbers in the high 30s percentage-wise, only to slide downhill? Is it the subject or is it the numbers?"

Attitudes about the value of women and diversity in science need to change first, she said.

"If we're too successful in getting the numbers in but not changing attitudes, we will raise all sorts of tensions," Malcolm said.

"At some point, you have to find perverse pleasure in making the powers that be accountable and miserable," she concluded.

The conference continued on Saturday with an address by Nancy Hopkins '64, chair of the committee that wrote the MIT report on the status of women faculty in science.

Hopkins warned her audience to stay aware of the pitfalls present in scientific careers, and not to assume everything would go right.

The MIT study found that "junior women faculty feel well supported within their departments and most do not believe that gender bias will impact their careers." But tenured women faculty feel marginalized by disparities in salary, space, awards and resources compared to their male counterparts.

The conference included four panels of speakers aiming to define the issues for women in science. The panels examined women in the physical sciences and engineering, barriers to success in academia and industry and women in positions of leadership.

Luncheon workshops were also offered. The workshops enabled conference participants to discuss particular fields of science.

The closing keynote speaker, Professor Dudley Herschbach, a Nobel laureate in chemistry, could not address the conference Saturday because of rain delays affecting his flight from Chicago. Professor of physics Howard M. Georgi '68 replaced Herschbach.

Georgi agreed with speakers who saw the need for more men to learn about the issues surrounding women in science. He also aimed to dispel several myths about science, noting the most pervasive as the unclear conceptions about what it takes to succeed, which encourages males in leadership to choose successors who are like them.

"One of the best examples of what it takes to go into science is the spectacular collection of undergrads who organized this conference," Georgi added, applauding the women who headed the effort.

Elizabeth D. Chao '01, the former WISHR president, helped get the conference off the ground.

"There were a lot of questions in my mind about whether a conference like this should exist," she said.

But Chao also stressed that the challenges women face in science will not go away.

"Undergraduates might not understand it now because the issue is not pressing, but it hits hard. There are CEO's and full professors at top institutions who say they face discrimination and are extraordinarily disappointed. They're happy with the work they're doing, but not with the situation," she said.

The sponsors of the conference included the Departments of Physics, Mathematics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Psychology and Women's Studies; University Health Services; Kaplan; the Harvard College Observatory; the Institute of Politics; and the Ann Radcliffe Trust.