Women in Biomedical Careers

Even as women continue to make huge strides in all careers, they still face considerable setbacks. In the general workplace, women can expect to earn just over three-fourths of what a man earns for performing the same job. In biomedical and other science careers, an underrepresentation of women continues to be an issue. Here is an overview of some of the issues facing women in this field.

Lack of Role Models

In both pop culture and science class, there continues to be a noticeable lack of women role models for girls who are interested in a career in science. Consider the affable Bill Nye, textbook heroes like Watson and Crick, and current science personalities like Richard Dawkins. No matter how long you think about it, it’s difficult to come up with even one analogous female role model.

It takes a courageous high school student to consider pursuing a career without an obvious model to emulate, and without much female support along the way. Women scientists in graduate school have a difficult time finding a female mentor to nurture their academic development; the NIH reports that only 11 percent have one.

Career Paths

Unfortunately, the underrepresentation of women in the sciences isn’t only a matter of numbers, but it’s also a matter of the type of science jobs that they hold. Women consistently hold lower or non-tenured positions, suggesting that the glass ceiling continues to be an issue in the sciences. Only 24 percent of life science faculty members are women.

Tough Choices

Women who are adjunct or assistant science professors often find that the hard fight for tenure also comes at another key life stage: having children. Many women discover that their college doesn’t provide childcare or part-time residency positions, making having children an obvious barrier to continuing their career. Combine this with the societal pressure to have the woman remain the principal caretaker of the children, and being both a mother and a scientist can become logistically impossible.

A Boy’s Club

At times, biomedical science departments can feel more like an old boy’s club, rather than an institution of higher learning. Overt sexual harassment can sometimes be an issue. Even if no overt sexual harassment is present, however, women can still feel isolated and left out of the surrounding scientific community.

Women’s Health Research

It has been shown that the more women are represented in the biomedical and life sciences, the more women’s health research initiatives are launched. Such a correlation implies that until women are fully integrated into the scientific community, there will be a significant underrepresentation of the health needs of women in these research institutions.

Minority Women

While women as a whole are underrepresented in the biomedical sciences, minority women are subject to a double barrage of obstacles. Besides the issues of gender, minority women must also face racism and prejudice, even, research has shown, from other minority groups. Minority women also experience gender issues and sexism to a much higher degree than white women.

Resources and Help:

Source:

Barriers to Biomedical Careers for Women. (2011) National Institutes of Health.