Women Changing Science
Empowering women in science: Infinite possibilities There’s power in numbers. Even if the number is just two. This is what Courtney Miller, PhD, learned early in her career when she met another female researcher, Ghazaleh Sadri-Vakili, PhD. “We were both postdocs and both exploring epigenetics in neuroscience, something very new at the time,” says Miller, now an associate professor of neuroscience at Scripps Research. “I raised my hand and asked about a technique she’d described. It was something I wanted to learn but had been told it was too difficult to teach. Ghazaleh said, ‘Come up to MassGeneral and I’ll teach you.’” Miller and Sadri-Vakili, now director of neuroepigenetics at the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, became friends and came to realize they had both experienced numerous challenges as female scientists and that neither had scientific mentors who were women. “We decided that had to change,” says Miller. “Even though we were young, we decided to take action.”
Overcoming the hurdles to diversity Study after study has demonstrated that diverse groups—those comprising a mix of gender, race and ethnicity—are more innovative in their thinking, thereby producing more impactful scientific discovery. Yet women continue to be underrepresented in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, especially at the upper levels. Multiple factors stack the deck against women and underrepresented minorities in the life sciences. The momentum of numbers, for one. Faculty and leadership positions at universities and other research institutes have been overwhelmingly held by white males, at least until recent years. This means that decisions on hiring and promotions were made by men who, whether consciously or not, may have favored other men. Across the industry, males continue to be paid more than their female peers and are promoted sooner. >>
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SCRIPPS RESEARCH MAGAZINE | WINTER/SPRING 2020
