Minority Women In Science

The idea for the film Minority Women In Science developed from observing the obstacles and frustrations experienced by my sister and some friends of mine, as women academics in the United States. Most are struggling to be considered for tenure or tenure-track positions in their university departments.

Unlike other countries, in the US only a tenured position can secure you stable lifetime work in higher education. Typically, these positions are scarce and extremely competitive. And even if promoted to full professorship, women are rarely considered for the top leadership jobs such as department chair, head of a research center or dean of a school, never mind president of a university.

I remember asking my sister: "What exactly is the root cause of this gender gap problem? I thought universities were research institutions where objectivity prevails and people, irrespective of gender or race, are hired and promoted based on merit, where everybody is competing on equal terms, at least in theory."

Little did I know how far reality diverges from theory. I started going to conferences and workshops and began educating myself by listening to the testimonies of women who were either overlooked for promotion because they were unable, due to their child rearing obligations among other things, to work sometimes up to 80 hours a week — as did most of their male counterparts — or were paid significantly less for the same amount of work. Not to mention the hidden biases that tend to credit men more than women for identical accomplishments. All these testimonials were quite moving and shocking even but where was the quantifiable data to put the issues into perspective for a wider audience?

Fortunately, numerous reports such as Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering by the National Academies, documenting and analyzing the barriers that women face in academia, have been published recently. These studies are based on data gathered over decades and from which a disturbing pattern of gender inequities emerges.

For example, according to the above study:

For over 30 years, women have made up over 30% of the doctorates in social sciences and behavioral sciences and over 20% in the life sciences. Yet, at the top research institutions, only 15.4% of the full professors in the social and behavioral sciences and 14.8% in the life sciences are women—and these are the only fields in science and engineering where the proportion of women reaches into the double digits. Women from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds are virtually absent from the nation’s leading science and engineering departments.

In spite of this rather depressing state of affairs, there has been remarkably little public debate over this issue. Interestingly, however, former Harvard President Larry Summer’s controversial remarks about women’s innate inabilities stirred up a major controversy that was picked up by the main stream media in the United States. But the issue still remains marginal if not invisible to the public eye.

On the other hand, as digital technology has evolved and film making has become more accessible to the average person, it certainly has enabled me to produce and distribute this film. By inviting my friends to tell their stories and to share their experiences in front of the camera, the focus became inevitably not only more personal but also more relatable.

Given this context, Minority Women In Science presents an insightful look at four women scientists from the Boston area, all from different countries of origin (Bangladesh, India and Venezuela), as they describe their personal experiences working in the United States, confronting issues such as gender and its impact on professional advancement, quality of research, and quality of life. The format is a lively round table discussion complemented by footage of the scientists at work.

The featured scientists include Saeqa Vrtilek, Senior Astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Irene Bosch, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School Worcester, Magaly Koch, Research Associate Professor, Center for Remote Sensing, Boston University, and Sucharita Gopal, Professor, Geography and Environment, Boston University.

Minority Women In Science was originally shown in Cambridge Community Television as part of the Cambridge Science Festival, the first of its kind in the United States.

Click here to watch the video.