Do women do science differently than men? It's a hotly
debated topic on newsgroups and in social studies. Regardless of
the answer, we do know that there aren't as many women doing
science: The higher the level, the fewer women there are. Our
experiences as women scientists can be quite different from those
of our male colleagues. Students see relatively few women faculty
at any level, leading to a paucity of role models in academic
science, and perhaps contributing to the so-called "leaky
pipeline." Perceived inequities, whether real or imagined, also
contribute to the loss of women from science. Thus, we often lack a
real community of other women, and it's always hard to be the only
one.
In a demanding profession, successful people often have mentors
who help them find strategies for survival and give them the
benefit of experience. Indeed, "mentoring" has become a current
catch-phrase, but finding mentors is not easy. Being an effective
mentor requires considerable time and effort, and many potential
mentors are themselves in need of mentoring by those further
upstream. Many women find it difficult to establish mentoring
relationships with older men, who make up the majority of senior
scientists. A wise woman should not expect to rely on anyone else
in shaping her career, and should be prepared to be independent. If
she finds a mentor, she should enjoy her good fortune; if not, she
should be equipped to survive without.
In the absence of a mentor, how can we learn from what others
have been through, without having to go through the identical
experiences? How can we find a virtual, if not a real community, so
we can thrive in science?
One strategy is to exchange information through discussion with
peers. The women-in-biology newsgroup has been
active since 1993. Most participants, however, are students and
postdocs. That means there is an ever-changing clientele on the
newsgroup, who end up asking many of the same questions that their
predecessors did. The newsgroup is helpful for the current
participants, but its history is easily overlooked by those coming
later. The few of us who have been there since the beginning see a
regular cycle of topics. Because most participants are junior, the
newsgroup chiefly offers a peer network and a place to air
concerns.
Another method of information exchange is the World Wide Web.
Better than a book, because it is dynamic and freely accessible,
the Internet offers an ever-expanding range of information on a
wide variety of topics. The breadth of information reflects the
Internet's roots in community and self-publication. There are many
sites on the Web relevant to women in science published not only by
individuals, but increasingly by institutions. Thus, even women who
are isolated can find a virtual community. But this leads to
another problem: how to find the relevant pages in a sea of
URLs?
I assembled the women-in-biology Internet Launch Page
to address this need. It grew from a very personal experience: my
reading of an obituary of Elizabeth Keller, who worked with Nobel
Laureate Robert Holley on transfer RNA structure. Despite my
long-standing interest in women scientists, I knew nothing about
her. My office at the Salk Institute used to belong to Holley, so I
was particularly intrigued in his collaborator. I turned to the
Internet to find out more, alas without much success. But I was
inspired to look more exhaustively for pages related to women in
science, which I had been collecting for some time in a
half-hearted fashion.
First, I sought information on historical contributions of women
scientists. I assembled a list of women-in-science organizations.
Then I used major search engines for keywords including "women" and
"biology" and trawled through the noise for the links worth
keeping. This occupied me for several weekends, but resulted in
numerous sites worth adding to my bookmarks file.
In late December 1997, I decided these bookmarks would be of
interest to others, and I created The Women in Biology Internet
Launch Page. In its first appearance, the site was organized around
several basic topics including history, education, careers, and
aspects of the chilly climate. Originally it was narrowly focused
on women in biology and their specific experiences, with the
intention of preparing women for good and bad aspects of a career
in science.
More recently I expanded the page to include a substantial
number of resources about careers in biology in general, and
academics in particular. These are equally relevant to men and
women, making this a general resource for biologists at all levels.
I am especially proud of a comprehensive set of links to so-called
"alternative careers" sites, as well as information about surviving
every step of the academic path.
The page thus fulfills several roles, mirroring my own multiple
positions. As a feminist and a scientist, I want to empower women
to succeed at every level of biology. As a tenure-track associate
professor, I seek insights as I manage my own career. And, as an
advisor to students and postdocs, I want resources to help prepare
them for the realities of a scientific profession. For example, I
added a number of links about interviewing strategies when a
postdoc in my lab was job-hunting.
The women-in-biology page averages about 20 visitors each day.
It is thus the little sister to my lab's primary Web
site , which accumulates about 250 hits per day. The lab site
highlights my own research and provides general information on
fission yeast genetics. I keep these pages updated because I
support the ideas of community and freely sharing information with
others who may need it. This idea of free exchange is also the
foundation of the Internet, at least in its original form, prior to
the current dot.com frenzy. In our publish-or-perish academic
world, there isn't a tangible reward for building such a community,
but we ignore it at our peril.