>>>>Volume 2, Issue 4 (April 2009)
>>>>>>NIH Updates on Women in Science is brought to
>you by the <http://womeninscience.nih.gov/>NIH
>Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers. We
>encourage you to forward this e-newsletter to
>colleagues who may find it of interest.
>>>>>>************
>>>>>>Contents of this Issue
>>>>>><file:///Q:\NIH%20Working%20Group%20on%20Women%20in%20Biomedical%20Careers\Newsletter\April%202009%20newsletter.doc#One#One#One#One>Registration
>is Now Open for the Second NIH Regional Meeting
>to Seek New Dimensions and Strategies for
>Women’s Health Research and Advancing Women’s Biomedical Careers
>>>>>><file:///Q:\NIH%20Working%20Group%20on%20Women%20in%20Biomedical%20Careers\Newsletter\April%202009%20newsletter.doc#Two#Two>Kathleen
>Sebelius Confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services
>>>>>><file:///Q:\NIH%20Working%20Group%20on%20Women%20in%20Biomedical%20Careers\Newsletter\April%202009%20newsletter.doc#Three#Three>Reports
>Show that Men Still Outearn Women in the US and Australia
>>>>>><file:///Q:\NIH%20Working%20Group%20on%20Women%20in%20Biomedical%20Careers\Newsletter\April%202009%20newsletter.doc#Four#Four>Studies
>Examine Engineering and Graduate Education
>>>>>><file:///Q:\NIH%20Working%20Group%20on%20Women%20in%20Biomedical%20Careers\Newsletter\April%202009%20newsletter.doc#Five#Five>Rethinking
>Tenure and Part-Time Careers
>>>>>><file:///Q:\NIH%20Working%20Group%20on%20Women%20in%20Biomedical%20Careers\Newsletter\April%202009%20newsletter.doc#Six#Six>Highlighting
>Best Practices – University of California, Davis
>>>>>><file:///Q:\NIH%20Working%20Group%20on%20Women%20in%20Biomedical%20Careers\Newsletter\April%202009%20newsletter.doc#Seven#Seven>New
>Feature: Women Scientists in Action – Julie Brittain, Ph.D.
>>>> ************
>>>Registration is Now Open for the Second NIH
>Regional Meeting to Seek New Dimensions and
>Strategies for Women’s Health Research and Advancing Women’s Biomedical Careers
>>>>The NIH and Office of Research on Women’s Health
>is holding a series of regional meetings to
>update the women’s health research agenda for
>the NIH. The next meeting, Moving into the
>Future: New Dimensions and Strategies for
>Women’s Health Research at the National
>Institutes of Health, which will be held at the
>University of California, San Francisco on May
>27-29 will feature working groups on Global
>Health, Stem Cells, Environmental Health,
>HIV/AIDS, Information Technology, and Women in
>Science. The Women in Science working group will
>include issues related to career advancement for
>women of color and women in nonmedical fields
>such as chemistry, physics, engineering,
>dentistry, and pharmacology. Public testimony is
>being solicited on career development issues as
>well as on the future of women’s health
>research. The deadline for hotel reservations at
>the meeting rate is Tuesday, May 12. Future
>meetings will be held on September 21-23 in
>Providence, RI and on October 14-16 in Chicago, IL.
>>><http://www.orwhmeetings.com/movingintothefuture/>Moving
>Into the Future – New Dimensions and Strategies
>for Women’s Health Research for the National Institutes of Health
>>>>>>>Kathleen Sebelius Confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services
>>>>On April 28, his ninety-ninth day in office,
>President Barack Obama filled the last vacancy
>in his Cabinet when the Senate confirmed Kansas
>Governor Kathleen Sebelius as the Secretary of
>Health and Human Services. As the head of the
>Department of Health and Human Services,
>Secretary Sebelius will be responsible for an
>annual budget of over $700 billion and eleven
>agencies including the Centers for Medicare and
>Medicaid Services, the Centers for Disease
>Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug
>Administration, and the National Institutes of
>Health. Besides being intimately involved with
>the President’s proposed overhaul of the US
>health care system, addressing the current
>influenza outbreak, and overseeing the
>regulation of the US food supply,
>pharmaceuticals, and medical devices, Secretary
>Sebelius will shape the nation’s priorities for
>biomedical research funding and policies.
>><http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aiBDawmVSDBQ&refer=us>Kathleen
>Sebelius Confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services (Bloomberg)
>><http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/levels_of_office/documents/prescabinet.pdf>Women
>Appointed to Presidential Cabinets (Center for
>American Women and Politics - PDF)
>>>>>Reports Show that Men Still Outearn Women in the US and Australia
>>>>Several studies examining the gender wage gap in
>a number of industries have been release
>recently. One report release by the National
>Bureau of Economic Research in January notes
>that just after earning their degrees, women
>with M.B.A.s generally work the same number of
>hours and make the same amount of money as their
>male counterparts. However, as women take time
>off to have children or chose different types of
>jobs that allow more flexibility, the
>interruptions and job changes are associated
>with gaps in experience and lower salaries. The
>authors note that the differences in wages
>between women and men M.B.A.s “are largely,
>though not entirely due to the presence of
>children.” They also note that just as women
>Ph.D.s tend to be married to men Ph.D.s, women
>M.B.A.s tend to be married to men M.B.A.s whose
>high salaries allow them a greater opportunity
>to opt for lower paying or part-time jobs.
>>A report from the Institute for Women’s Policy
>Research released on April 28 notes that “of the
>over 500 individual occupational categories for
>which there are sufficient data
in only five
>occupations do women earn as much as or more
>than men.” The study reports that men outearn
>women even in jobs traditionally held be
>women, and in the ten highest and ten lowest
>paying occupations for women.
>>Finally, a report released jointly by AMP, an
>Australian wealth management firm, and NATSEM, a
>research center associated with the University
>of Canberra, examines the salary gap between
>women and men in Australia. The report shows
>that there are still gaps in paid and unpaid
>work, wealth, and income. It also notes that
>women are more likely to work multiple jobs,
>have greater caregiving responsibilities, and to
>feel rushed or pressured frequently. Although
>women in Australia are waiting longer to have
>children and having fewer children than in
>decades past, women report that having children
>can lead to problems in the workplace and can
>have negative long-term career effects. Although
>gaps in salary and differences in types of
>employment still exist between women and men,
>the authors are hopeful that the progress women
>have made in the areas of education, employment,
>income, and wealth over the past few decades
>will mean the Gen Y women will close these gaps in their working lifetimes.
>><http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/C350a.pdf>The Gender
>Wage Gap by Occupation (Institute on Women’s Policy Research - PDF)
>><http://www.nber.org/papers/w14681>Dynamics of
>the Gender Gap for Young Professionals in the
>Corporate and Financial Sectors (NBER)
>><http://media.amp.com.au/phoenix.zhtml?c=219073&p=irol-irhome>She
>Works Hard for the Money: Australian Women and the Gender Divide (AMP.NATSEM)
>><http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-28-2009/0005014720&EDATE=>Men
>Out Earn Women in Almost All Occupations (PRNewswire)
>><http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/business/global/29iht-riedgenper.html?_r=1>Why
>the Earnings Gender Gap in Business? Women Work Less (New York Times)
>><http://www.watoday.com.au/news/lifeandstyle/lifematters/gen-y-women-earn-their-fair-share/2009/03/31/1238261579650.html>Gen
>Y Women’s Salaries Almost on Par with Men (WAtoday.com.ua)
>>>>>Studies Examine Engineering and Graduate Education
>>>>Measuring and Improving Effectiveness in Engineering Education
>>A recent study by the National Academy of
>Engineering, funded by the National Science
>Foundation, examines existing methods to
>evaluate and improve the teaching effectiveness
>of engineering faculty. The report also makes
>recommendations for the development of new
>metrics and faculty development programs. The
>report concludes that only if thoughtfully
>designed and agreed-upon methods of evaluating
>teaching effectiveness are developed will
>teaching and mentoring be seen as an important
>component of tenure and promotion decisions.
>This would provide faculty members with a
>powerful incentive to invest time and effort in
>becoming better teachers. It noted that faculty
>development programs should not be carried out
>by those making tenure and promotion decisions,
>as that would discourage faculty from seeking
>help to improve their teaching effectiveness.
>><http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12636#toc>Developing
>Metrics for Assessing Engineering Instruction:
>What Gets Measures and What Gets Improved (National Academy of Engineering)
>>Enhancing Diversity and Participation in Graduate Education
>>A report released by the Council of Graduate
>Schools “advocates for strengthening diversity
>and inclusiveness efforts in the graduate
>education enterprise as a key component of a
>national talent development strategy, that will
>ultimately strengthen our economy and maintain
>our quality of life.” It calls for an increased
>emphasis on minority recruitment by graduate
>schools and highlights initiatives which promote
>participation in graduate education, especially
>in science and engineering. It recommends that
>incentives be created to encourage all students,
>but particularly those from underrepresented
>groups to pursue graduate education. These
>incentives could take the form of fellowships,
>training grants, and loan forgiveness, etc. The
>report concludes that efforts to encourage
>participation in graduate education must be
>accompanied by support mechanisms to help ensure
>the success of all graduate students.
>><http://www.cgsnet.org/Default.aspx?tabid=365>Broadening
>Participation in Graduate Education (Council of Graduate Schools)
>>>>>Rethinking Tenure and Part-Time Careers
>>>>In a recent commentary in the Chronicle of
>Higher Education, author Mary Ann Mason, Ph.D.,
>of the Berkley Law Center on Health, Economics &
>Family Security writes that the tenure system,
>as it is currently designed, is extremely
>unfriendly to women and is “fast fading away.”
>Due to the up-front demands that force young
>academics to work extremely long hours at the
>same time they are starting their families, many
>women make the choice very early in their
>careers to pursue positions such as lecturers or
>adjuncts, which are much more flexible but also
>offer lower salaries, fewer benefits, and little
>or no job security. In fact, since these types
>of employees cost the institution less than
>tenured faculty, there has been a shift in
>recent years to use more part-time staff and
>reduce the number of tenured faculty positions.
>Dr. Mason argues that eliminating tenure is not
>the right answer for either women or academia,
>since tenure ensures high quality research and
>promotes intellectual freedom. Rather, she
>recommends redesigning the tenure system to make
>it more flexible, to allow part-time faculty to
>apply for tenure-track positions, and to
>encourage search committees to be mindful that
>time gaps in a CV do not indicate a lack of ability or dedication.
>>In the January issue of Academic Medicine,
>authors Rebecca A. Harrison, M.D., and Jessica
>L. Gregg, M.D., Ph.D., of the Oregon Health &
>Sciences University present a study examining
>the attitudes of internists and department
>leaders towards part-time work. The study
>focused on the Society of General Internal
>Medicine Horn Scholars Program, which is
>intended to “foster a new career track for
>physicians centering on successful balance of
>career, family, and social responsibilities.”
>Horn Scholars hold a half-time appointment as a
>clinical educator, which includes spending two
>half days a week working in clinics which serve
>the indigent, and spend the equivalent of the
>other half of the appointment focusing on
>family. Through interviews of the Horn Scholars
>Program applicants – who were all women, junior
>faculty – and their division chiefs – who were
>all men, senior faculty – the authors compiled
>lists of the perceived positive and negative
>aspects of part-time work. They also noted the
>applicants and chiefs either looked at part-time
>work as “working less” or “working differently”
>and that this distinction affected their overall
>view of part-time work. They concluded that
>physicians and their leaders must
>reconceptualize their model of work to focus on
>organizational satisfaction rather than simply
>number of hours worked or patients seen. They
>also noted that many physicians say that if
>part-time work were not available or the
>barriers to it were to high, they would likely
>choose to leave academia rather than stay in it full-time.
>><http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2009/04/2009042201c.htm>Is
>Tenure a Trap for Women (Chronicle of Higher Education)
>><http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2009/01000/A_Time_for_Change__An_Exploration_of_Attitudes.25.aspx>A
>Time for Change: An Exploration of Attitudes
>Towards Part-Time Work in Academia (Academic Medicine)
>>>>>Highlighting Best Practices – University of California, Davis
>>>>Contributed by Sylvia Parsons
>>For over ten years, the University of
>California, Davis has been focused on taking
>aggressive measures aimed at recruiting and
>retaining a diverse faculty in research and
>leadership positions. The process began with a
>task force commissioned in 2000 to collect data
>on faculty diversity, recruitment statistics,
>and other demographic data from the science and
>medical departments. The task force proposed
>several initiatives designed to increase
>diversity, with incentives for success and
>consequences for continued failure. These
>initiatives led to a 22% increase in women and
>minority faculty throughout the university
>between 1997 and 2007, with a 30% increase in
>women faculty in the school of medicine. Some of
>the “best practices” instituted by UC Davis
>include hiring more faculty at the junior level
>where there is a more diverse applicant pool;
>“cluster hiring” in which several positions are
>identified in a broad area which can lead to a
>larger pool of outstanding candidates and can be
>particularly effective in preventing the
>potential isolation of new faculty; and
>carefully monitoring the recruitment process to
>address problems early. The active involvement
>and support of the deans has proven to be a key
>factor in the university’s success. Addressing
>work/life issues through programs that extend
>the tenure clock, modifying active service to
>accommodate family needs, providing employment
>opportunities for partners, and initiating
>career reviews to ensure equity and fairness
>have also been important. New training programs
>that offer tools for hiring and retention and
>overviews of hiring and retention policies have
>been implemented for department chairs. In
>addition, workshops for new hires on how to
>navigate the merit and promotion process, apply
>for grants, and career resources available from
>the university have sought to address some of
>the roadblocks mentioned in surveys by women and minorities.
>>These policies were presented by Barry Klein,
>Ph.D., Vice Chancellor for Research, at the
><http://womeninscience.nih.gov/bestpractices/>Women
>in Biomedical Research: Best Practices for
>Sustaining Career Success” workshop which was
>co-hosted in March 2008 by the NIH Working Group
>on Women in Biomedical Careers and the NIH
>National Center for Research Resources.
>><http://academicpersonnel.ucdavis.edu/facdiv/index.htm>UC
>Davis Office of the Chancellor and Provost - Faculty Diversity
>><http://popprogram.ucdavis.edu/>Partner Opportunities Program
>><http://academicpersonnel.ucdavis.edu/toe.cfm>Target of Excellence Program
>>>>>New Feature: Women Scientists in Action – Julie Brittain, Ph.D.
>>>>Starting this month, the NUWS will present
>profiles of successful women scientists. This
>month, Julie Brittain, Ph.D., a junior faculty
>member in the Departments of Biochemistry &
>Biophysics and Obstetrics & Gynecology at the
>University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC) will be featured.
>>Dr. Brittain is a recipient of a Building
>Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's
>Health
><http://orwh.od.nih.gov/interdisciplinary/bircwhmenu.html>(BIRCWH)
>scholar award. The BIRCWH program was developed
>and implemented by the NIH Office of Research on
>Women’s Health to promote the career development
>of junior faculty members who are commencing an
>independent career working on women's health
>issues by pairing scholars with senior
>investigators in a mentored, interdisciplinary research environment.
>>Dr. Brittain is a graduate of UNC and is
>currently a member of the
><http://medicine.med.unc.edu/centers/unc-comprehensive-sickle-cell-program-1>UNC
>Comprehensive Sickle Cell Program. She is an
>interdisciplinary scientist whose research, both
>as a graduate student and a postdoctoral fellow,
>has focused on helping people with sickle cell
>anemia (SCA) through a better understanding of
>the mechanism of the disease. In people who
>suffer from SCA, the red blood cells, which are
>normally disc shaped and flow feely through
>blood vessels, can become crescent-shaped or
>“sickle” in cells with low oxygen density. The
>sickled cells have a tendency to adhere to one
>another and can occlude blood vessels. These
>blockages prevent blood from reaching tissues
>throughout the body, causing damage and severe pain.
>>Currently, the main treatments for this disease
>are pain killers, which only treat the symptoms,
>and a drug called hydroxyurea. Hydroxyurea was
>originally used as a chemotherapy agent for
>cancer patients but has been found to help SCA
>patients by causing the body to produce fetal
>hemoglobin, which carries higher levels of
>oxygen than adult hemoglobin. Women with SCA are
>discouraged from becoming pregnant, and if they
>do, they can not take hydroxyurea because it could be dangerous for the child.
>>As a graduate student, Dr. Brittain’s research,
>which compared the adhesiveness of red blood
>cells of unaffected people to those of SCA
>patients, challenged the hypothesis that red
>blood cells were simply non-responsive “bags” of
>hemoglobin and demonstrated that adhesion of
>sickled red blood cells could be regulated by
>processes that were activated by naturally
>occurring chemicals in the blood of SCA patients.
>>In her current research, Dr. Brittain studies
>the role of white blood cells in SCA. She has
>discovered an entirely novel mechanism of vessel
>blockage in these patients – sickled red blood
>cells adhere to a type of white blood cell, both
>in a model system that she developed and in the
>whole blood collected from SCA
>patients. Furthermore, she has elucidated the
>mechanism of the adhesion between the two types
>of cells and identified the protein the mediates
>the interaction, a4 integrin, as a feasible
>target for cost-effective, small molecule
>therapy. She is also looking at risk factors
>that are specific to pregnant women in an effort
>to develop novel drugs that will be safe for both mother and child.
>>When asked why she chose to study SCA, Dr.
>Brittain said, “The very first time I looked at
>a blood smear from a SCA as a graduate student
>at UNC, I knew that this illness was my calling.
>The angry, sickled shape of red blood cells
>ignited a passion in me that cannot be
>extinguished until I can offer some relief, some
>solace, for these patients that is not found in
>a bottle of prescription narcotics. These
>patients, deserve the best, the best minds, the
>best medicines that science can offer. These
>patients deserve to have their best life – a
>normal one, free from pain, but filled with
>family, children, careers and control of one’s own destiny.”
>> ************
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