The following are ways to help counter the effects of bias and unfair treatment that women scientists still face at times.
Tips:
- Adopt allies: Your colleagues, both male and female, can be enlisted to help counteract conscious and unconscious bias against women in life science. Ask them to:
- Refuse to be on a panel that is predominantly male when that does not reflect the organization’s membership.
- Sponsor a woman for a job.
- Be vocal about any support they feel for a woman’s idea, when the woman delivers an idea that is met with silence.
- Talk with a participant in a meeting who routinely talks over women participants more than male participants.
- Ask funding agencies to set aside some funds for women-led businesses.
- Stay in touch with your female colleagues when you move to a new position and periodically meet to help each other practice pitches, prepare for job interviews, and read each other’s papers and grant proposals.
How Can You Address Unfair Treatment of Women Scientists? Our 2019 Focus Group Results
Many women scientists we talked with have had unfair treatment. Two common themes were being taken advantage of in sharing the workload and not being given credit for their work.
On being taken advantage of in the workload: Some women said they find themselves doing more of the foundational work that does not lead to recognition or advancement. They cautioned that a personal style of too much “niceness” can work against you.
On others taking credit for their work: Some women found they were looked at disfavorably when they pointed it out. In these discussions, we heard the following ideas on how to communicate your contribution without looking petty:
- Being proactive and letting bosses know of your accomplishments before someone can take credit was the most favored approach. To avoid the problem of not being given appropriate credit in a publication, talk about authorship early during collaborations.
- When someone takes credit for your work in a meeting, try agreeing that it was an accomplishment that you are also proud of along with the team (if appropriate) and follow with a description of your role in terms of the impact or benefit for the company.
- For example, “As a member of the team, I’m glad that [describe the impact on the company]. I enjoyed contributing [describe your contribution].”
Poll
Resource
Picture a Scientist – A film that chronicles experiences of women scientists from harassments to subtle slights with insights on how to make science “more diverse, equitable, and open to all.”
