Nobel prize winning mothers help science and other women
The nice thing about this story is that the two women who won the Nobel Prize did something good for other women and for science. That’s a great double whammy. In an article published in the Atlanta Journal Constitution from the Associated Press we learn what these two Nobel winning scientists said.
Nobel Laureates Dr. Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Dr. Carol W. Greider recently shared the Nobel Prize for their work in understanding how chromosomes protect themselves as they divide. The benefit to their work so far is in creating new experimental cancer therapies and in understanding the aging process better. While their work in science earned them the Nobel, a rarity as only 10 other women have won the Nobel prize in Medicine, their thoughts on how science is conducted on a personal and institutional level by the scientists themselves, women in particular, bears consideration.
Dr. Blackburn noted with regards to the career structure for scientists that, “The career structure is very much a career structure that has worked for men”. This should come as no surprise as the foundations of science came up from organizations built by men. They’ve certainly done many great things but maybe now is a time to rethink how we conduct science to give more room for women’s equal brilliance to have impact. Brilliance isn’t constrained by gender but institutional bias against gender, womens in particular, can artificially trap brilliance and creativity.
Dr. Greider said, “a more flexible approach to part-time research and career breaks would help women continue to advance their careers during their childbearing years.” My guess is that many men might balk at such an approach due to the institutional sense that intense focus on a problem is needed to solve the problem. Dr. Greider qualifies her statement by saying, “I’m not talking about doing second-rate quality science, far from it. You can do really good research when you are doing it part-time.” Her call is for a more flexibility for women in their involvement in pushing the envelope in science. I can’t help but think that would be a good thing for men too and perhaps for science overall.
Dr. Blackburn and Dr. Greider may be the most visible promoters of this issue, (and mother’s themselves) but they are not alone. A book published in 2008 by Cornell University Press entitled, “Motherhood, the Elephant in the Laboratory: Women Scientists Speak Out” provides a platform for this same topic. The book, edited by Emily Monosson, an independent toxicologist, brings together the stories of 34 women scientists around this issue of being scientists in mostly male dominated science spaces and yet trying to live the balanced lives they need as mothers and as dedicated scientists. The books stories are static but the companion blog has even more stories that are quite alive on this important topic.
The blog Science Mom’s, which grew out of the book, “Motherhood, The Elephant in the Laboratory” seeks to capture these living stories, provide a forum to publicize them, and to share them to foster the debate and discussion on this issue. And the blog Mama PhD. takes a similar tack recording stories of women trying to make life balance, motherhood and rigorous science all work together in a system that was conceived for success by men but, for which a time has come to rethink the structure of how to successfully “do” science.
