<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 14 (filtered medium)">
<style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.xxapple-style-span
{mso-style-name:x_x_apple-style-span;}
span.xapple-converted-space
{mso-style-name:x_apple-converted-space;}
span.EmailStyle19
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal">Boston Globe comment on the JAMA article posted yesterday…<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt">Gender gap is wide in research funds, study shows</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">By Priyanka Dayal McCluskey <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">GLOBE STAFF SEPTEMBER 15, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">A stark gender gap persists at Boston’s big biomedical research institutions, where<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">young male scientists receive more than twice as much in funding to support their work<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">as female colleagues, according to a study.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">The findings, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">said male scientists beginning careers as faculty researchers received a median of<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">$889,000 in startup funding from their employers, while women received just<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">$350,000.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">Startup money is critical for young scientists who are establishing labs, allowing them to<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">buy equipment and hire workers until they can apply for other grants from government<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">agencies and foundations.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">“The difference was striking,” said Dr. Robert Sege, vice president of Health Resources<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">in Action, a Boston nonprofit, who led the study. “Men early in their careers get far<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">more funding from their research institutions than women.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">The results are especially concerning given Boston’s role as a global hub for biomedical<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">research and a major destination for scientists, Sege and other specialists said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">The gender gap, they added, also has implications for how women advance in careers in<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">science and medicine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">The gap is the worst at the largest hospitals and universities — those receiving more<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">than $120 million in federal research funding annually, according to the study.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">The study examined more than 200 researchers at 55 hospitals, universities, and other<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">research institutions in New England from 2012 to 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">The study did not name any organizations. But according to the National Institutes of<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">Health, the Massachusetts institutions that receive the most federal research dollars are<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">School, Boston Children’s Hospital, and the University of Massachusetts Medical<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">School.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">If women get less money than men initially, that makes it harder for women scientists<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">to publish findings from their research and attract grant money throughout their<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">working lives, said Nancy Hopkins, a retired professor at the Massachusetts Institute of<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">Technology who has studied women in academia.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">“These are the things that make your career hard or easy,” said Hopkins, who was not<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">involved in the JAMA study. “[Women] are going to have to work harder to make up for<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">that.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">The study helps answer why women do not advance in science at the same rate as male<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">colleagues, added Dr. Karen M. Freund, a professor at the Tufts University School of<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">Medicine. “This study provides one of the pieces of that puzzle.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">Susan A. Slaugenhaupt, scientific director of the Mass. General Research Institute, said<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">she was concerned by the findings and said Mass. General, which got more than $320<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">million in NIH funding this year, should examine how startup packages are awarded.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">The packages are usually negotiated confidentially between researchers and department<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">heads, she noted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">“There isn’t any transparency there,” Slaugenhaupt said. “At the hospital, we need to<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">look at it closely.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">As in the broader workplace, part of the reason for the disparities might be that women,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">unlike men, tend to accept compensation packages without negotiating, specialists said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">Mary Gehring, for example, fielded several offers before taking a job in 2010 as an<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">assistant professor of biology at MIT and a member of the Whitehead Institute, a<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">research institution in Cambridge. But Gehring, 39, didn’t negotiate startup funding for<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">her lab.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">She said she feels fairly treated and well paid, but acknowledged, “I actually don’t know<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">if [I] had a good startup package. You don’t find out what other people get.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">Executives at research institutions say they have taken steps to promote the careers of<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">qualified women. Mass. General, for example, has a grant program designed specifically<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">for women in their “childrearing years.” UMass Medical School in Worcester is one of<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">several institutions that have hired more women to leadership positions; six<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">departments are chaired by women, up from just one department that was led by a<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">woman in 2007, said Dr. Terence R. Flotte, dean of the medical school.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">“They’re still underrepresented,” he acknowledged, “but it’s progress.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">Dori Schafer, hired as an assistant professor of neurobiology at UMass Medical School<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">this year, said that thanks to strong woman mentors, she negotiated a startup package<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">of more than $1 million, money to hire staff for her lab and buy costly equipment,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">including a $350,000 microscope.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">“I’ve gotten the impression that women don’t stand up for themselves and negotiate and<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">say, ‘No, I need this,’ as much as they should,” said Schafer, 36. “It’s getting better, but I<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">think it’s part of the problem.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">Executives at research institutions said they welcomed the study’s findings but said<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">more research must be done to determine why the pay gap is occurring.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">“The burden is on all of us to identify what is the cause of [the disparities] and what are<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">the strategies we have to deal with it,” said Dr. Anne Klibanski, chief academic officer at<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">Partners HealthCare, the parent company of Massachusetts General and Brigham and<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">Women’s hospitals.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">Priyanka Dayal McCluskey can be reached at <a href="mailto:priyanka.mccluskey@globe.com">priyanka.mccluskey@globe.com</a>. Follow<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333233">her on Twitter @priyanka_dayal.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>