Keynote: Shirley Tilghman
From Anita Borg Institute Wiki
Notes by Kimberly Blessing, GHC 2006 Live Notetaker.
Shirley's talk was titled "Changing the Demographics: Recruiting, retaining and advancing women scientists in academia". She encourages us not to lose sight of how far we have come, but says there is still much work to be done.
Research universities and Americans in general should care about increasing the number of women in science, math, and engineering. The U.S. depends on technological creativity, which is grown in universities (research engines) and brought to market by U.S. companies. To restrict pool of talent guarantees that outcome (prosperity of the U.S.) will be less than it otherwise could be.
The scientific method is universal, but the problems that intrigue women are not the same that attract men. If we increase women the number of women in these areas, we increase the range of issues that get addressed. (Also, with potentially very different solutions.) There is a moral obligation on our part to level the playing field for women that want to get into science.
Shirley asked, for those of us that make it through, what enables us? Her own answer had four points: supportive father, strong (male) mentors, women role models, and a her own perception of reality. Her refusal to acknowledge any issues or roadblocks - to not see herself as a victim - to go through with blinders - came from parents and mentors.
As a female leader (conference co-chair, employer, ec.), women see a broader pool of people, male and female, for positions (jobs, speakers ,etc) than men - women can imagine other women filling a specific role wheras often men can't/don't.
Shirley thinks the greatest issue with hiring women today (in academia) is the two-body problem. Quoted a statistic - not sure of source - 10% of married women have non-working spouses; 40% of men have non-working spouses.
She also said that the basis for deciding promotions - refering to academia (tenure) - needs to change. Decisions can't be based on numbers (of publications, etc.) if women are going to be allowed time for child bearing/rearing -- decisions must be made based on quality of output (research, papers, students, etc.).
Notes by Moya Watson
Shirley also related how for women, balancing work and life is key, whereas men practically don't report this as a concern at all. She talked about how it is difficult for women to succeed professionally and have children - but stated that this was both true and false because women also bring unique capacities to the mix.
Though she said there are "no silver bullets" to solve the gender gap, she talked about two things that are key for women:
- Hire more women
- "It's daycare, stupid" - accessible, affordable daycare close to the workplace, with a workplace that is responsive to the daily schedule and emergencies.
Notes by BJ Wishinsky
Dr. Tilghman also shared some scary statistics. For example, that women freshman are ten times less likely than men to declare Computer Science as a major, and the percentage of women who do so is declining. She drew a number of sobering statistics from the report Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering. This report, published in September 2006, is available online at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11741.html.
When questioned about the significant number of women that she has hired, she says the difference is that when she closes her eyes and thinks stellar scientist, she can imagine a woman in her head. When she closes her eyes, she can imagine that a female candidate is the best choice. Her male colleagues do not.
She also talked about the view that childcare is not compatible with career success, and work environments that are not well designed for women with children. Another study she cited was "Do Babies Matter?" which can be found at http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/deans/mason/Advice_Articles.shtml.