al oncology at Genentech, says, “My path may have been somewhat unusual, since I had mostly female supervisors and mentors, and have also had the privilege of knowing many inspiring women in very senior positions as strong role models.” That experience gives Murray a positive outlook. She says, “Opportunities for women to rise to the top clearly exist in industry, and I have personally never encountered any prejudice because of my gender.”
Young women interested in careers in science or engineering would also benefit from seeing more female role models covered in the media. This year, one pair of women scientists—Elizabeth H. Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco, and Carol W. Greider of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine—gained considerable publicity as winners of the 2006 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research. That kind of recognition helps aspiring women scientists and engineers think positive and think big.
A Call to Computing
Some areas—including computer science—look very appealing for women in the future. Cynthia Breazeal, associate professor of media arts and sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, says, “This is an incredibly rich area careerwise.” She believes that young students might bypass this field because they think it’s just about sitting down and programming. “In principle,” Breazeal says, “this field can be applied to many different disciplines. As in any field, computer science is a constellation of techniques and theories and methodologies. It is much broader than simply learning C++ or Java.”
To encourage students to take up computing, Breazeal believes that introductory courses must take a new approach. Students should be shown the ties between programming and exciting fields, including artificial intelligence, multimedia applications, robotics, and so on. “We need to make it engaging, tangible, and more exciting,” says Breazeal. In part, that means getting students into labs where they can see computing in action. “This field hasn’t homed in on the best presentation yet,” adds Breazeal.
Overall, engineering complex systems demands a wide range of skills. For example, Breazeal says, “Robotics is extremely multidisciplinary—art, design, and technology. You must be more of a Renaissance thinker, so to speak.” Breazeal got excited about robotics when she stumbled over “the deep interaction between technology and the life sciences.” She wants to create an entity whose cognitive and affective processes are inspired by those that animals and people use when they behave in complex environments.
Despite all of the advances for women in science, some serious obstacles must still be surmounted. “The more elite the organization,” says Shalala, “the less likely you are to find women, whether you are discussing the National Academies, the National Institutes of Health, or full professors at research universities.” In the past, a lack of qualified women candidates supposedly explained that inequity. “Now, the pools have changed,” Shalala says. “There are no excuses anymore.”
Nonetheless, “Beyond Bias and Barriers” points out that a collection of unconscious actions creates a culture that does not support young women. For instance, Shalala says that the university system does not accommodate child-bearing among women faculty. Moreover, she says, “Academics has been a male culture, and a young female professor might not fit in as comfortably.”
Malcom also sees problems in the current system. “There are things that institutions must do,” she says. “Women need to be given the same front-end resources as males to go into high-end positions.” Dean agrees. She says, “There are necessary cultural changes. For that, I would cite ‘Beyond Bias and Barriers.’ It is absolutely fantastic at laying out all of the systemic changes and approaches that organizations and institutions should take.”
Some changes are already under way. At Princeton, for example, male and female faculty members get an extra year to work toward tenure if they have or adopt a child duri