The AWN Spring Dinner this year was held at Balaban's in the Central West End. Approximately 57 women attended. The speaker was former U.S. Congresswoman Joan Kelley Horn. Mrs. Horn spoke about her experience in the House of Representatives as well as her new job at the Pentagon which involves conversion of defense industry resources for utilization by private industry. She also described some of the options that are being considered by the task force on health care reform. A lively discussion of the health care issue followed her talk.

Thus far, 105 women have joined AWN for the 1993-1994 academic year. This is about equivalent to our membership of last year. If you know of any women who have come to WUMS since April, please let them know about AWN! Details on membership can be obtained from any of the AWN board members listed in your directory.

Dr. Susan Deusinger ( Dept. Of Physical Therapy) and Dr. Vita Land (Dept. of Pediatrics) attended a Professional Development Seminar for Senior Women sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington D.C. in March. Part of their travel expenses were covered by a special grant through the Dean's Office. On June 7, AWN sponsored a Brown Bag Lunch at which Drs. Deusinger and Land presented an overview of the major topics that had been covered in the seminar.

Dr. Land concluded her remarks by showing "The Ten Commandments" according to Dr. Lynn Behrens, President of Loma Linda University. They are:

I. You shall know your life's mission, celebrate your uniqueness, and identify your strengths and weaknesses.

II. You shall be a "winner" by regularly setting realistic professional and personal goals, prioritizing and consistently pursuing them, systematically removing identifiable barriers, but remaining flexible enough to grasp unexpected opportunities.

III. You shall maintain a balance between your professional and personal life, giving priority to your own health and wellness, intellectual, physical, emotional and spiritual.

IV. You shall know the academic rules and play by them.

V. Remember time is your most valuable resource--use it carefully and with accountability.

VI. You shall not kill yourself by over commitment--learn to say NO when it is appropriate and live within your means.

VII. You shall be an effective communicator--both orally and in writing.

VIII. You shall seek counsel and constructive feedback, especially from a mentor colleague.

IX. You shall live life with integrity, self discipline and good humor, taking ownership of your mistakes and learning from each life experience.

X. You shall do for others what you wish that they would do for you--enriching the world.

News from the First Annual Congress on Women's Health held in Washington, D.C., June 2-4, 1993.

This was an interdisciplinary conference designed to present information to improve clinical care and general wellness for women. The focus was on diseases that hold more risk for or are more prevalent among women. Topics included health issues of the reproductive-age woman. Discussions focused on the need for a bigger cafeteria of contraceptives. It was pointed out that for every new contraceptive available 6% more of the population makes use of it. One speaker noted, with regard to the women's condom, that we have only the Model T and we need a Lexus.

In the session of health aspects of gender discrimination, it was said that "sexual abuse in the work place is like air pollution--we breathe it in and we don't even notice it." It does, however, affect women's self-esteem.

The mental health sessions focused on depression in women, eating disorders and alcohol and substance abuse. The menopausal woman sessions centered on diseases of osteoporosis, heart disease and autoimmune diseases. Not surprisingly, there are many gaps in the area of estrogen replacement therapy.

In discussing the politics of aging, Florence Haseltine of NHI said, "Aging becomes an accumulation of small hits"--Have you noticed your eyes beginning to deteriorate? She mentioned that since women often live 7 years longer than men, they often deal with aging and disabilities in isolation. On a lighter note, she said "if the baby boomers declared menopause a national emergency when they had their first hot flash, just think what we're going to do when we start breaking our hips!"

On the subject of breast cancer, the only good news is $410 million--$200 million from the Pentagon. However, as Samuel Broder of NCI at NIH said "no one can be satisfied with out lack of progress with breast cancer." Breast cancer incidence has increased 32% since 1982. The mortality rate remains the same.

Beyond the medical issues of breast cancer, there is a political one. You can help. The National Breast Cancer Coalition wants President Clinton to make the breast cancer epidemic a national priority. To accomplish this, they plan to send him 2.6 million signatures representing 1.6 million women diagnosed with breast cancer and 1 million who have yet to be diagnosed but have the disease. The St. Louis Breast Cancer Coalition is a part of this national project. Attached is a copy of a letter to President Clinton. Please copy the letter and ask your friends, colleagues, etc. to sign one. If you want petitions to circulate, call 721-8778.

The most fascinating session at the conference was "Women's Health: A medical specialty?" The chair, Lila Wallis of Cornell University Medical Center, stressed the need to develop a women's health curriculum and perhaps a specialty. She said that since there are few female role models for women, women model themselves after men, therefore perpetuating gender bias even among women in the field. The two speakers on each side of the spirited debate Karen Johnson and Michelle Harrison made extremely convincing points. (I'll try to highlight their respective positions in the next issue.)

Bill Clinton for nominating Ruth Bader Ginsberg for Supreme Court Justice. Despite an Ivy League education, Ginsberg was unable to find a job after graduating from law school. She has subsequently become a strong advocate of women's rights and has been involved in many cases that have expanded or codified women's rights. Ginsberg will be only the second woman to sit on the Supreme Court.

AWN is hosting a mixer for women graduate students on Thursday, August 19, 1993 from 4 - 6 p.m. in the King Faculty Center (top floor of the library. Refreshments will be served and a "Dialogue about Graduate Studies will be led by Marion Peters and Rosalind Kornfeld with input from both faculty and students. Hope to see you there.

The next AWN-sponsored Brown Bag Seminar is scheduled for Wednesday, July 7 at 12 noon in Erlanger Auditorium. The topic of the session is "Strategies for Getting Research Funding" and has been organized by AWN member Sue Cullen, Assoc. Vice Chancellor for Research at Washington University.

Research, Academic Rank, and Compensation of Women and Men Faculty in Academic General Internal Medicine by Phyllis Carr et al. J. Gen. Int. Med. 7: 418-23 (1992). Guess what? Women work the same hours and get paid less. Where have we heard that before?

The Residency Experience: The Woman's Perspective by Karen Sandrick, American College of Surgeons Bulletin, August 1992. The ACS Bulletin asked 13 women surgeons about their surgical residency experiences. Their candid and illuminating comments about eliminating abuse, making the residency more humane, and supporting childbearing form the basis of this overview which would be helpful reading for any medical student considering surgery.

Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering: An Update by Patricia E. White, National Science Foundation, 1992. Despite notable increases in recent years, women constitute 45% of the total work force, but they are only 16% of all scientists and engineers in the U.S. The analysis found that women and minorities who acquire the necessary education occupy secondary roles in disproportionate numbers and receive notably lower salaries than do others with similar levels of experience and credentials.

Science devoted the April 16, 1993 issue to Women in Science '93. This represents the second year in which Science has specifically addressed women's issues in a special section of the journal. Many "true life" stories of successful women in science were included as were articles such as "The Pipeline is Leaking Women All the Way Along" and "Making Room for Women in the Culture of Science". The latter article described several programs that had been found to greatly increase the participation of young women in science and included names and addresses of individuals to contact for further information.

A news article in Science magazine described "the biggest faculty rebellion at Oxford University since academics blocked the award of an honorary degree to then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1985." The Oxford faculty members blocked the creation of about 15 new posts with the rank of professor. The reason was that few, if any, women were expected to be among the faculty members to win a promotion.

The debate focused on the university's dismal equal opportunity record. Only 4.9% of UK university professors are female and they are paid, on average, $2,300 a year less than their male colleagues. What so incensed many women academics was that the university authorities wanted to spend all of their promotions budget on creating new professors--against the advice of Oxford's own promotions committee. Most women academics are stuck at the lowest rung of the career ladder, with the title lecturer. It was argued that the money would be better spent promoting a larger number of academics to the middle-ranking position of reader. Thanks to the faculty vote, Oxford's general board must now do exactly that. Susan Greenfield, an oxford neuroscientist says the university should now combat "covert discrimination" by ensuring that there is more than one "token woman" on each of the faculty committees that control academic appointments.

Excerpted from Science 260: 1231.