AWNings

The newsletter of the Academic Women's Network at Washington University

Vol. 6 No. 4 October 1997

From the President's Desk

by Diane Merritt, M.D.

As the seventh year of our organization begins, I'd like to summarize the issues that we have identified as being most important for our organization to support. Again, the AWN supports the recruitment and promotion of women faculty at the medical school and salary equity. We plan to monitor promotion on the tenure, clinical and research tracks, and movement within the tracks. We have advocated for increased access to quality child care and have published a Family Resource Manual (now in it's 2nd edition). We have proposed hosting an annual CME seminar on Issues in Women's Health as a new project.

One of the stated purposes of AWN is to promote professional and social interactions among the female academic faculty to discover and promote mutual goals. As many of us within the Medical Center are isolated from other faculty members by our job responsibilities, we have enjoyed the AWN functions which have fostered interactions across disciplines. The women faculty on the Hilltop campus have formed a new organization patterned after our successes in AWN names AWF (Association of Women Faculty). Our two boards have planned a joint meeting for all members which will be held November 6. Please plan to attend.

Another purpose of our organization is to assist and mentor junior faculty and trainees. Each of us is guilty of not having enough time. Writing the next grant, seeing the next patient, tending to family obligations, leave little time for ourselves or others. Make your lab or office a nurturing environment. If you have not already done so, consider selecting a young trainee to mentor and encourage. In the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, each new intern is assigned a faculty preceptor. We meet regularly during the four year training process. As preceptors, we review the clinical services, provide feedback on evaluations and in-service examinations, and most important, serve as faculty advocate for the trainee. Although this role is "assigned", there is tremendous potential to make a difference in a young trainee's experience. I challenge you to become a mentor! I know many of us feel that having a mentor would have been beneficial as we came up through the system.

In closing I would like to recognize the very significant contributions of two of our members. Past president, and founding member Sherida Tollefsen has devoted tremendous energies to keeping AWN on track. This February Sheri presented the status of women at WUMS to the Executive Faculty. To begin to address our concerns, Dean Peck established the Task Force on the Status of Women. The Task Force recommended and created a survey which has been compiled and is now in the hands of the Administration. We await the analysis of the results of the survey which addressed concerns encountered by all faculty at the medical school. Linda Pike, also past-president and founding member, has for seven years been the force behind AWNings. This quarterly publication is a vital link which has kept us aware of women's issues, promotions, and events at WUMS and nationally. Linda and Sheri both serve on the Task Force on the Status of Women and deserve our appreciation for their efforts.

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M'Liss Hudson,M.D., Dept. of Surgery, was featured in the Washington People section of the Record.

Rebecca McAlister, M.D., Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology, was named Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education.

Jean Nerbonne, Ph.D, Dept. of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology, was promoted to professor.

Carol North, M.D., Dept. of Psychiatry, was promoted to Associate Professor. She was the recipient of the Braceland Public Science Award and the Bruno Lima Award for Disaster Psychiatry from the American Psychiatric Association. She was also the recipient of the Mortimer Goodman Award from the St. Louis Alliance for the Mentally Ill and received a $199,000 NIMH grant supplement award entitled Longitudinal Mental Health Consequences of the Oklahoma Bombing Disaster.

Celeste Skinner, Ph.D, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, received a $115,000 grant from the Walther Cancer Research Institute for the project Genetic Risk Assessment Counseling for Colo-rectal Cancer. Alison Whelan, M.D. Dept. of Medicine, is Co-Investigator.

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Higher education has been called Byzantine, the Magic Kingdom, a puzzle palace," said Yolanda T. Moses, president of The City College of New York. Much of what happens in campus bureaucracies makes no sense, or seems woefully behind today's realities.

All the more reason for women to step in and take leadership roles, agreed Sandra Featherman, president of the University of New England and former assistant president at Temple University. They spoke at the AAUW's Symposium on Gender and Race on Campus: Beyond Affirmative Action held in Anaheim CA in June.

For instance, women are still clustered in the presidencies of two-year and small four-year schools, and only a few head large research universities. Yet women often dominate the administrative jobs known as the three A's: "assistant, associate, and acting,: she said. In addition, fewer faculty women have tenure, and schools often lag in communications on important issues such as diversity, affirmative action, race and gender.

Meanwhile, the challenges for higher education are mounting. Most administrators can recite them in their sleep. For example, there's the loss of public confidence in higher education, and parents are asking what they're getting for their money. In many cases, the response is institutional inertia. Yet these challenges "require institutional change, not tinkering,: Moses said. There is dissonance within the internal structure, she observed. "Higher education is more diverse than ever, yet the institution remains the same."

Featherman noted that the increasing challenges may have had at least one positive result. "There is anecdotal evidence that women are getting more and more presidencies because men don't want the jobs," she said. Having provided an overview of the playing field, they addressed specific questions important to women interested in moving up the ladder to serve a student body whose majority is female on most campuses.

As more women step up to address the challenges confronting higher education, how should they prepare?

Moses described her own experience. "As a dean, I looked at all the white males and realized I was making a difference just by being there," she said. "They couldn't bring the issues to the table." She explained her game plan. "I decided I was going to be a damn good dean and a president someday. I decided to look at role models, find the best ones, and get them to mentor me." Among her mentors: Johnnetta Cole, president of Spelman College. "At some point I became very deliberate. I was picking a path, and every single commitment I made was to fit into that path."

But deliberation requires patience. "Give yourself plenty of time to get the right presidency," Moses advised. "You may have to turn down several along the way." Aspiring presidents also need to put in the time required to "know budgets inside and out, and learn how to do fundraising," she said. "Be very sure you fully understand sports and alumni," Moses added.

"Be very patient, because you have to educate people along the way," she observed. "I'd assumed I'd meet enlightened people along the way." Instead, she used information from Women's Studies 101 to educate them.

Featherman agreed. "Very few women move up by accident, and even fewer the higher you go. If you want to be dean, president or provost, look at what you need." She cited a need for credentials--either a Ph.D or EdD, whichever has the best program--and devoting much time in the application processes. She advised job candidates to read up on the school: "Nothing turns off the search committee more than ignorance about their school."

Women face intense scrutiny and criticism during a job search, and even more once they've landed a senior leadership post. "Learn to separate criticism because of your role from criticism because of who you are," Featherman suggested. A top leader must make many decisions, and "Whatever you do, somebody will be angry. Get comfortable with it. You get paid to take a certain amount of heat."

Moses concurred: "Criticism is there; it goes with the territory." Sometimes in the course of the job, the president has to do a tough thing. For example, when students took over a building, Moses told them they had to leave or they'd be arrested. "They didn't want to negotiate," she said. "I stuck by my guns . . . . and I got a reputation for integrity. If you waffle, it's worse."

"Develop a tough hide," Moses said. This is particularly challenging for women because some people on campus will decide, "Let's see how far we can push the envelope," partly because a woman is in charge.

Featherman recalled an interview where a trustee said he feared she was "one of those liberals who support benefits for gays and lesbians." Featherman responded, "I am." She explained, "You can't go somewhere and live a lie."

Moses called discrimination "a regular thing that happens when a person in charge is female and black. It's so predictable. They expect you to think a certain way."

She reported "I once had a finalist for provost who was a black male. People were surprised when I didn't pick him. I picked the best person for the job." If you make a decision in a straightforward way and with integrity, people will see that "Your decision was based on not the color of your skin but your ability to be a leader," she said.

What are the rewards?

Besides the obvious status and financial rewards, a presidency offers a chance to make a real impact on society. Featherman noted, "You get to shape institutional policy and an academic program."

Moses said, "I've always been a change agent. I consider myself an enabler. I want to enable, empower, and enlarge the circle, and model the kind of behavior that gives young people out there the sense 'that was a person like me,'" she said. Many CUNY students are first generation students, poor or immigrants, and hungry for role models.

Even though "the world is in chaos, you see where you want to go," Moses said. "You can fill the leadership void and take the institution where it needs to go." Featherman believes despite current challenges, "This is really an exciting time to be in higher education."

Both Featherman and Moses indicated they'd had help along the way themselves. For instance, both attended the HERS leadership program at Bryn Mawr and the ACE leadership program for women. "They told me I could do it, and opened up the possibilities for me," Moses said.

Featherman said that she now tries to support women leaders in higher education: "I give institutional support to every woman who comes to me if they've thought it through and have a reasonable career path." She said, "I'm bothered by women who don't think they have any responsibility to women. Lots of women pushed me up; I couldn't have done it alone. I made it because a lot of other women put blood on the street."

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The AAMC has just released its annual publication "Women in U.S. Academic Medicine Statistics, 1997". This annual publication includes six tables, three figures and an overview of findings. Highlights this year include:

The proportion of women in the U.S. medical school applicant pool has plateaued in the past six years at 42%. In 1996-97, women constituted 42.7% of new entrants and 42.2% of total enrollment in U.S. medical schools. Women made up the majority of new entrants at 25 schools, up from 19 in 1995-96. (At WUMS, women account for 51% of the incoming medical school class.)

The proportion of women in residency programs has grown from 22% of all residents in 1980 to 34%. Of the 33,218 women residents, almost one-quarter are training in internal medicine (including specialties), 16% in pediatrics (including specialties), 13% in family practice, 9% in obstetrics/gynecology, and 6% in psychiatry.

Women faculty now number 22,196 or 26% of faculty (25% at WUMS, but 41% of them represent instructors compared to 18% overall for AAMC).. For the first time, the proportion of women faculty at the full professor rank exceeds 10% (10.2%); 31% of men are full professors. (At WUMS 6.7% of women are full professors compared to 26% of men). The distribution of the proportions of men and women at each rank have remained quite stable for over 15 years.

Approximately 183 women currently chair medical school academic departments in the 125 AAMC schools and 394 women head divisions. Seven schools are headed by women deans. (There are no women chairmen at WUMS.)

The Academic Women's Network from the medical school and the Association of Women Faculty from the Hilltop campus are planning a joint dinner on November 6 at 6:30 p.m. The dinner will be held at the Joy Luck Buffet at 8030 Manchester Rd (at Hanley) and will feature a buffet of Chinese food. The cost is $9.50. Please join us in getting to know our main campus colleagues. Invitations were mailed in mid-October. If you did not get one, please contact Kathy Sheehan at 362-8744.

by Helen Kornblum

Heidi Hartmann, Director of the Institute for Women's Policy Research spoke at the Olin conference at Washington University. Hartmann founded the think tank on women's issues in 1987 to improve the lives of women. Hartmann said that "women are become more like men economically speaking--working longer hours at greater pay. The answer to what women want is money--in a capitalistic society one needs money.

Yet, discrimination continues. The gap is closing because women's wages are growing, but men's are not. So the net effect is closing the gap." She said in the "high touch" fields--health care, child care, more women are included. But in "high tech" fields women have more trouble breaking into the job market. She stressed the need for publicly financed child care and paid maternity leave. Regarding gender issues/gender changes: men are doing more driving kids, more shopping, more cooking, but not doing more laundry." Can anyone relate to this?

This question was posed by the Women's Health Advocate, "Do women encounter special problems with medications because of physiological differences from men?" Most experts today would concede that women do metabolize some drugs differently, particularly antidepressant, antianxiety, and antipsychotic medications. If gender makes a difference in how women handle certain drugs, does that mean that older women are even more susceptible to side effects? Or, are older women and men more similar, thanks to menopause and older menÍs increase in body fat? Does hormone-replacement therapy complicate drug prescribing? Is menopause itself accompanied by physiologic changes that could affect how older women handle drugs? Most of these issues haven't been studied."

Katherine Sherif, M.D. assistant professor of medicine at the Medical College of Pennsylvania pointed out that "even some of the apparent progress made in this area in recent years has gaping holes. For example, although the FDA now requires that women be included in clinical trials, the agency doesn't require that study results be broken down by gender." She also wrote that "the gigantic Catch-22 of the FDA's mandate: Women must be included in clinical trials only if there is evidence of a gender difference. But evidence comes from research. No evidence, no research--and no research, no evidence."

The FDA has issued a rule that trials can be put on clinical hold if they do not include women. When life-threatening illnesses are concerned, there can be no exceptions.

Susan Blumenthal, M.D. has been asked to step down from her position as deputy assistant to the Secretary for Health (women's health). As of November 1, an acting replacement will be in the position. Blumenthal will become the senior advisor to the President on women's health. There is evidently much discussion (gossip) in the Beltway.

The first nurses' summit on domestic violence will take place this month. Nurses are on the front line of this ever-expanding crisis of domestic violence. The summit will plan strategies for screening and referral by nurses in E.R.'s and primary care.

Also, on the political front--the FDA has published its final regulations on mammography quality standards.

The Women's Caucus will celebrate its 20th anniversary. Madeleine Albright will give the keynote address. It is an especially noteworthy celebration, because although the Caucus had its "wings clipped" by the Republican Congress, the Caucus has survived. Much of its work involves working for women's health issues.

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There are many highly productive women scientists in the ASCB but, in general, are women scientists less productive than men scientists? Studies have shown that women scientists publish fewer articles per year in peer-reviewed journals than men. Let's look more closely at the recent data on the average annual number of articles published by women and men, the change in publication rates over time, and another measure of productivity, the citation index.

Data from earlier studies indicated that compared to men, women scientists published fewer papers per year, and the women's publication rate was apparently unrelated to their marital status or parental status. Recent studies have confirmed that women continue to publish at a lower rate than men. In the most recent study, men published, on average, 2.8 papers per year compared with 2.3 for women. However, two factors which contribute to this difference were identified. First, there is a greater proportion of women than men who do not publish: 30-40% of women with PhD's were non-publishing compared to 20-30% of men. If only the actively publishing scientists are compared, the overall differences in productivity are reduced. Second, recent data confirm the previously recognized impact of differences in the upper extremes of productivity. The mean is sensitive to the record of those men who publish at a significantly higher rate.

In long-term studies, differences in productivity between genders decrease over the second decade of careers. At that point, the women's productivity is increasing while the men's is leveling off. Others have noted that different career patterns for women and men may be related to their differing familial responsibilities, especially in the first decade of an academic career. These data suggest that a woman scientist's career development may be somewhat delayed but successful in the end. Fortunately, women have a longer life span. Similarly, a delayed pattern may explain the finding that women were first or second author for more years after their postdoctoral positions than men. One interpretation of these results, based upon common unwritten rules of authorship order, is that women scientists are active at the bench for a longer period than men. An alternative explanation is that women are more likely to draft the manuscripts rather than their graduate students.

Another important measure of productivity is the citation index. In two studies--one of biochemists and one of biologists--papers by women were cited significantly more frequently than those by men. Thus, although women publish fewer papers per year, the average number of citations per year was similar for men and women scientists by their fifteen career year. Even more impressive, when citations per article were evaluated, women's articles received significantly higher number of citations throughout the period studied. Over 18 career years, women's articles had an overage 9 to 13 citations per article vs. 7 to 9 for men's. In the most recent study of a small cohort of biologists, the women's citations per article averaged 24.4 vs. 14.4 for the men's. A high citation index is a strong indication of the impact of the research: the work published by women is not marginal. The high citation index in conjunction with a lower publication rate is consistent with commonly held beliefs that women scientists are more cautious and careful in methods, pay more attention to detail, show greater thoroughness, and attempt to present the whole story.

Whereas it seems that one's publication record can be, and is, used as a gender neutral variable, gender may play a role in professional advancement in some instances. For example, in an early study, men without publications in the first 7 or 8 years of their careers were in academic positions at institutions with greater prestige than the women with no publications. Presumably, in the absence of independent "objective" indicators, gender bias takes over. Thus, gender may be a handicap for the "less outstanding women scientists."

A recent finding is that a greater proportion of women's publications are in non-peer-reviewed publications like book chapters and articles in conference proceedings. Possibly, women perceive difficulty in publishing in peer-reviewed journals and/or want to avoid rejection. When I put the question of dealing with manuscript rejection to the larger scientific community, the frequent recommendation was that one must start the process of writing manuscript (and grants) while acknowledging the prevailing rejection rate. However few are the immediate acceptances, the number is still better than zero--which is the number if you do not submit. And you do not have to be a cell biologist to figure that out. In the words of hockey great Wayne Gretsky, "you miss 100% of the shots you never take". It is important to develop mechanisms for coping with rejection in order to prevent paralysis, thus failure, in science. Many scientists would probably agree with Winston Churchill who said "success is nothing else than going from failure to failure with undiminished enthusiasm".

Of particular concern is the impact of one's publication record on her/his academic advancement and funding. The recent studies suggest that peer review of CVs takes into account journal standing and citations index and, thus, does not rely on the single factor--absolute number of publications per year. The practical advice from these studies is that when your productivity is under evaluation, check you citation index. If it is strong, then make sure that it is brought to the attention of those who are evaluating you. Lastly--hang in there. Keep publishing regularly. With time your publication record will reflect your contributions to the body of scientific information which is, after all, the point of measuring productivity.

(by Susan K. Masur, Dept. of Ophthalmology and Cell Biology/Anatomy, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, from the American Society of Cell Biology Newsletter, Vol. 19, No. 7.)

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In the July AWNings, it was erroneously reported that Barbara Monsees was the continuing clinical counselor on the AWN Board. Diana Gray is the continuing clinical counselor.

Have You Received an Award or Been Promoted Recently?

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Differences in how women and men communicate made the best-seller lists with Deborah Tannen's You Just Don't Understand and John Gray's Men Are From Mars, Women Are from Venus. Now these are texts in a Wesley College pilot course called The Gender Difference. Two of the four professors who taught it spoke at the AAUW symposium on gender and race in June 1997: Lucille Gambardella, professor and chair of the Division of Nursing, and Kathleen C. Jacobs, professor and chair of the Division of Business.

Women use conversation to establish rapport or emotional ties and process their own emotions. Men use words to report, heading straight to the bottom line. Women speak privately, men publicly; women emphasize the relational aspects of what's said, men the competitive aspects. Despite many exceptions, these generalizations are true enough to mess up intimate, casual and business relationships. The exceptions confuse people, too, when they assume others must follow gender type.

Workplace communication was a big reason students enrolled in the course, especially seniors. The class taught them to work with people, understand others, and be aware of their own behaviors. Problems arise because it's hard to encode a message so both females and males understand.

Workers need access to both styles to move easily from one organizational culture to another. A task-oriented "don't explain, just do it" style predominates in engineering and the military. Other cultures demand more chit-chat before handing over the data. Women make many mistakes in business. Having learned as girls to cajole and please, they may make unwise promises or fail to take a hard line when necessary.

But those who reach leadership positions by staying focused on task can irritate the women who report to them, Jacobs said. Most women say they'd rather work for men. Their gender stereotypes lead them to expect more relationship from a woman, and to condemn her if she seems inaccessible. If a female and a male boss each stop to chat once a day, employees see the woman as aloof and the man as jovial. Students who take the class will see it differently. They'll see the woman in management is just doing her job, Jacobs said. Unreasonable expectations can make us our own worst enemy.

The presence of both genders in the class made the classroom its own laboratory. Participation, counting for 20% of the grade, came more easily to the female students than some of the males. "Boys learn to behave in teams. Girls raise their hands and try hard. We'll do anything to get attention," Jacobs said. While boys are trained to compete and win, girls learn fairness and a desire to please. Women were more receptive to role plays, which student evaluations rate one of the most useful course elements. Students were invited to bring in real life situations. "If you put people in other people's shoes, they can experience where they're coming from," Jacobs said. That makes it much harder to get angry.

Gender differences in communication has no academic niche. Taught at Wesley College by senior faculty from four different fields, the course belongs everywhere and nowhere in the departmental structure. Liberal Arts thought Women's Issues should take responsibility. Psychology considered making a claim. The subject also touches communications, sociology, biology, history, literature and business.

That suggests just how novel the idea is. While several colleges offer similar courses, most do not, Jacobs said. Several male administrators at the AAUW symposium said they'd like such a course on their own campuses.

(excerpted from Women in Higher Education, Vol. 6, Sept. 1997)

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The AWN Promotions and Recruitment Committee is looking for information on women's professional organizations such as Women in Endocrinology or Women in Cell Biology. The goal is to establish a database that can be used by departments as a resource for the recruitment of women to WUMS. If you belong to such an organization, please provide Mary Zutter with information on how to contact this society (E-mail: zutter@path.wustl.edu or Box 8118.) .

Last modified: November 16, 2007