Professor Karen Klahr Miller, M.D., Harvard Medical School and MGH,
Neuroendocrine Unit
Wednesday, March 17, 12 noon - 1 pm, MIT
The number of women graduating from medical and graduate school has increased dramatically, but the percentage of women at top academic levels has not kept pace. Dr. Miller will lead a discussion about succeeding in academics, including specific impediments to success for women and strategies to overcome these barriers.
Dr. Miller's talk stressed that success for women in science requires finding the right mentorship and environment. Choosing the right mentor is often more important than choosing the scientific project in which one is most interested. Good mentors will promote their trainees and help them to network and become established in their field. A mentor can suggest the trainee as a conference speaker or a committee member and promote the trainee's work among colleagues.
In the correct mentorship environment female scientists, who are often the primary caregivers to young children, can be judged on the quality of their work and productivity rather than on appearances. Some mentors are particularly sensitive to round-the-clock availability of their trainees, and schedule constraints can undermine a trainee's credibility. This can be true of professionals as well. This is one of the most serious types of sexism that persists in academic and medical departments, where overt sexism and harrassment is now fairly rare. These issues may contribute to the fact that women are well represented at the lower academic strata, but poorly represented in the upper levels. Approximately 50% of medical school graduates are women, but only 14% of tenured professors and 12% of full professors in medical departments are women.
Dr. Miller used her own career as an example. She discussed her desire to have children with potential mentors at the beginning of her endocrinology fellowship. One potential mentor was supportive of this decision, while the other was not. She chose the supportive mentor. This mentor provided funds for staff support of Dr. Miller's research when Dr. Miller had health problems during her pregnancy and when her newborn child was ill.
Dr. Miller said that it might not always be best to bring up the subject of children and family when interviewing for a position. Another approach is to talk with former trainees and colleagues of the potential mentor to find out how the mentor dealt with the trainee's family responsibilities.
Another topic was that of salary. Women are often much more reluctant than men to request salary increases. This, as well as overt underpaying, contributes to the lack of salary parity between men and women in the same jobs.
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