Follow Up: Child/Family Space at Charité

On November 1, 1848 the first US women's medical school opens in Boston. Since then the rights for women changed a lot: In our society it is common that women can study and be doctors just like men. However, as nature can not be changed, it is still the woman who has to carry the baby and breastfeed. Unfortunately this can be an obstacle when a mother-to-be or a breastfeeding mum want to combine motherhood an work.


In our March edition of the newsletter (Vol. 10, Issue 1), we included a series of interviews with female members of the Charité research community. One of our participants mentioned the lack of a room in the CCO for breastfeeding women, or staff members who need a room to rest during their pregnancy (read the full interview here).
Kimberly Mason from the NeuroCure office pointed out that such a room equipped with a couch or mattress for anyone needing a rest was initially planned. Unfortunately, when the Charité highrise renovations began, the CCO had to absorb several groups and services. There was an intense scramble for space and the resting room got repurposed.

However, such a space does actually exist: on Campus Mitte you find it in Hufelandweg 9, Level K1, Room 006. There is also a parent-child room on the Virchow Campus. For details see: https://familienbuero.charite.de/charite_mit_kind/kinderbetreuung/kinderzimmer/

Since one room does not cover the needs of all pregnant women and parents with their children for the whole campus, maybe there is something we can do. We want to explore creative alternatives and would like to hear your opinion.

Thank you Kimberly for the helpful information!

by Claudia Willmes, Post-doc AG Schmitz

This article originally appeared September 2017 in CNS Volume 10, Issue 3, Spirituality in Science

Boys' Day: New Horizons for Young Men in Germany

Yesterday was not only Girl's Day, but also Bay's Day. First introduced in 2011 in follows the thought of gender Equality and acknowledges that there are also vocational fields dominated by female workers and seldom seen as career options for male jobseekers.

It’s a well-known fact that women are underrepresented in many STEM professions, but it turns out that societal expectations can go both ways: while a girl may shy away from a technical career because it is not perceived as “feminine” enough, boys may avoid many jobs traditionally held by women for fear of not seeming “manly”. Enter Boys’ Day, a German initiative that aims to introduce boys from grade 5 to 10 to skilled professions less commonly practiced by men.

Image source: gfairchild via flickr

One Small Step for Boy-kind…
Did you know that more than half of all male teenagers choose to pursue less than 20 careers [1]? Interestingly, these careers skew heavily toward technical work, such as being a car mechanic, and almost none have a social, caring-oriented focus. In a country with an aging population such as Germany, this is a serious problem. When entering the Boys' Day program, boys can choose from a list of 30 different professions to try out. Some of these “rare” professions for young men are also linked to (neuro)science. For example, boys can try out being a biologist, psychologist, nurse, or health researcher.

Future Payoff?
Since the program started in 2011, more than 194,000 boys have taken part in the program in Germany [1]. As the program is younger than Girls’ Day, it’s still hard to tell whether the impact will be as great. However, judging by success stories on the website [1], many young men have found their way into non-traditional careers that they turn out to love.
Working in life sciences means a challenging, but ultimately rewarding life. No-one should have to miss out on the opportunity to do science because of tradition or societal expectations! Boys’ Day serves as an important reminder that building a diverse scientific community means confronting our expectations about both men and women.

Many important jobs are not seen as "manly"
Boys’ Day takes place this year at the same time as Girls’ Day, on April 27^th.
For more information, please visit https://www.boys-day.de/

by Constance Holman, PhD Student AG Schmitz

[1] http://bit.ly/2kDGVUn

Girls' Day – Future Prospects for Girls

Tomorrow is Girl's Day in Germany and many other countries! A great opportunity for young girls to peek into jobs that are not typical "female jobs".

On Girls' Day, female students from grades 5 to 10 can get an insight into vocational fields that girls seldom consider as careers. Primarily technical enterprises, companies with technical departments and technical training facilities, universities, and research centers organize an open day for girls.
On average, girls have better grades than boys [1]. Still, in scientific or technical study programs and professions such as engineering or computer sciences, females represent the minority. Girls' Day encourages schools, media and employers to change their common attitudes towards vocational orientation.

In 2001, the first Girls' Day was initiated by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research and the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. The idea came from the American “Take Our Daughters To Work Day”, in which since 1993 schoolgirls in the US visit the workplace of their parents or acquaintances for a day.

Girls' Day Is Effective
Since then, Girls' Day has become the largest career orientation project for female students. In 2016, nearly 9,600 institutions offered about 100,000 places for female students.
The vocational choices of girls are influenced in a very positive way. For companies, Girls' Day has evolved as an important instrument of their recruitment policy. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in female professionals in technical fields. Now, the growth in employment of women is stronger than that of men in almost all scientific and technical professions.
Want some solid numbers? 40% of the girls would like to do an internship or get training in one of the participating companies. 33% of the participating organizations get applications for internships from women who participated in Girls' Day as a student. One in every five participating organizations ends up employing female candidates [2]!  

International Girls' Day
Meanwhile, Girls' Day takes place in more than twenty different countries, among them many in Europe, but also Japan and South Korea, and more recently Ethiopia and Egypt.
For more information, visit http://www.girls-day.de

[1] Voyer and Voyer, Psychol Bull, 2014
[2] www.girls-day.de

By Claudia Willmes, PhD Student AG Eickholt / AG Schmitz

Female Voices of the Charité Research Community - part 3

What does it mean to be a female scientist at the Charité? We set out to interview researchers at all career stages, learning about their challenges, hopes, and unfiltered thoughts on being a woman in science. As you will see, not everyone shares the same opinion or experiences...

University women’s representative 

Why do we need woman’s representatives?
As women, we have come along way from not having any rights at all to being members of society that are acknowledged as such, with rights and potential that can be used. But there are still some improvements that need to be done, especially concerning the underrepresentation of women in leading positions- including in academia. Women's representatives are the conscious voice that demand these improvements and make sure that our progress doesn't come to a halt when we are getting close to equality. 
Do you feel that you are treated equally?
I feel treated equally and I cannot say I have encountered any discrimination due to my gender. I believe this is thanks to the hard work of generations of women who fought for their rights as women in society. However, I believe there is still some inequality when it comes to letting women advance to leadership positions and certain disadvantages that come with the biological role of women in having children.

GENDER EQUALITY IS NOT A TRADE-OFF FOR EXCELLENCE!

What needs to be improved?
We need to improve the opportunities of women to reach the top steps of the career ladder. This can be done by improving the compatibility of career and family, by increasing the acceptance of family as something that is a normal progression in life- even at competitive workplaces- and by making people aware that women are as capable as men. We need to stop thinking that gender equality in science can only come at a cost. Gender equality is not a trade-off for excellence!

by josemiguels via pixabay

Postdoc, mid 40s, one child

Do you have a female scientist role model?
Not really, because I do not differentiate between man and woman with respect to intellectual capabilities. And I never had the opportunity to talk to a female professor in this private way how she managed to get there and what she thinks is necessary and one has to leave aside to get there.
Do you feel that you are treated equally?
When I was younger I thought that yes, we are treated equally  But looking back now there are some occasions where I think that is just wrong.
My PhD was rather equal even though my supervisor was a bit more outspoken with his male students. During one of my postdocs I had one supervisor who was borderline sexist. Later on, I also had female bosses, who were far more research-focused and gender-neutral. One was a mother and the other wasn’t, but both welcomed women who decided to start a family. The most sexist man I encountered was when I applied for a postdoc and he asked me if I wanted to start a family and and so on. I reconsidered and retracted my application. However, there are also female professors who have an issue with female postdocs. It always boils down to whether you want to have a family or not. This is the most important fact in regard to gender equality: it is the woman who bears the child. It is almost a biological disadvantage. We have to welcome women who want to start a family. I always found it very strange that many bosses do not welcome children.
What did you struggle with most as a woman in academia?
I guess it gets more difficult the more you advance in your career. It is really difficult to have a break from academia for several month to raise your child – like I did when I became a mum. You are out of the job, out of contact with your colleagues, and out of the progress that happens in the lab. Despite being on maternity leave, the women need to come to the lab every now and then to keep up to date because science will not wait. This is hugely important.
What needs to be improved?
Both sides have to improve. Young people have to honestly ask themselves, "What is my capacity and strength"? The earlier you start thinking where you want to go in life, the better. Also, it is absolutely necessary that young people get more advice from experienced researchers.
What needs to change is the attitude of how we look at young mothers: For example, I remember an Icelandic politician who was in front of a congress with her baby, and breastfeeding while giving an important speech. I think this is so cool- they do not make a fuss about it at all. Another thing: This building (CCO) is great, but it does not even have a room where a pregnant of breastfeeding mother can go to and rest for a moment. There is not even a kindergarten here. The Charité is just starting to build one. Organizations like Charité need to make childcare easier for parents who want to return to their jobs.

Tell yourself every day that you are smart.

 
Another point is finances: The situation is bad in research. It's an insecure job in itself, because we don't know what comes out of our experiments. These short-term contracts are a disgrace for smart and ambitious young people. As women, we really need to consider whether we want to go the whole path from PhD to Professor. It is very difficult, and could be a waste of time.
Your advice for a female scientist?
Go for it! It's tough, it's rough, and it's a fight every day. The best one can do is find colleagues who you can rely on, and who you can collaborate with. Ask yourself "Where do I want to go?". "What kind of restrictions can I live with?". Tell people like your boss what you are willing to deal with and what you are not. Be more self-assured. Women are equally smart as men, but they tend to be more insecure and humble in the way they interact. This is not the right attitude. Tell yourself every day that you are smart.



by Claudia Willmes, AG Eickholt/Schmitz
These interviews have been edited lightly for quality and content.

this article originally appeared March 2017 in "Diversity in Neuroscience"

Female Voices of the Charité Research Community - part 2

What does it mean to be a female scientist at the Charité? We set out to interview researchers at all career stages, learning about their challenges, hopes, and unfiltered thoughts on being a woman in science. As you will see, not everyone shares the same opinion or experiences...



PhD Student, 28 years old


Do you feel that you are treated equally?
During my studies I had an encounter with a sexist professor that made inappropriate remarks. That was the first time that I realized that women are still not treated the same way as men. At the moment I have the impression – and this might be just my feeling – that I am looked at differently than a male person would be in my position. I am about to finish my PhD and I think that prospective companies and bosses are hesitant to hire me, because I might drop out soon due to pregnancy.

WE NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO PATCH THE “LEAKY PIPELINE”

 
What needs to be improved?
We need to figure out how to patch the “leaky pipeline” and help more women get access to leadership positions. It is especially critical to provide a surrounding for young woman where they have the certainty that they do not have to choose between family or career. It would help very much if the government would support research institutes more, so that the group leaders can give better contracts to their female PhDs and young postdocs that do not depend so much on getting publications. It's simply detrimental to having a family and pursuing a career; it's hard to get a grant if you did not publish for a year or so, because you were busy with your baby.
What is your fear / hope?
At the moment I feel under pressure to make the right choices so I can both pursue a scientific career and start a family. I hope to secure a job outside academia that offers me a contract that lasts longer than the average position in academia.

via pixabay

Postdoc who left academia, 38, married, kids

What did you struggle most with, as woman in academia?
I actually never had to struggle with being a woman in academia as I always had supportive and fair supervisor and peers.
Why did you leave academia?
Because I learned that I am not made for an academic career and that I have other priorities in my life.

EXCELLENT NEUROSCIENCE CAN’T BE DONE PART-TIME.

 
What needs to be improved?
The whole scientific evaluation system. It is detrimental for good, wide-ranging science to evaluate researchers only by the journals they have published in.
What is your advice to an aspiring female neuroscientist?
You should find out and decide for yourself what is most important for you and then go for it. Try to find good mentors, not necessarily limiting yourself to women or individuals from your field, and ask constantly for advice.
I also believe that excellent neuroscience can’t be done part-time.





by Claudia Willmes, AG Eickholt/Schmitz
These interviews have been edited lightly for quality and content.

this article originally appeared March 2017 in "Diversity in Neuroscience"

Female Voices of the Charité Research Community - part 1

What does it mean to be a female scientist at the Charité? We set out to interview researchers at all career stages, learning about their challenges, hopes, and unfiltered thoughts on being a woman in science. As you will see, not everyone shares the same opinion or experiences...

Master's student, 24 years old

Do you feel treated equally to your male peers?
I feel treated equally- I do not have any trouble with gender inequality.
Do you perceive gender-equality in a different way in Germany, compared to your home country?
Gender equality is more common here in Germany than in my home country. Especially after the latest political developments at home, where the government just decided for woman and their bodies. That is a lack of freedom in a way, which is also inequality.
What needs to be improved?
There is always room for improvement, though the situation is already quiet good. The problem for many women in science is that they cannot come back to work easily when they had a child. They do not know how to be in both roles at the same time, and only chose one path. It would be good if co-workers, bosses, and companies would help them more to come back to work and at the same time to be a mother to the children.

I WOULD RATHER USE MY ENERGY TO DO SCIENCE INSTEAD OF FIGHTING FOR MY RIGHTS.

I think that my generation has to understand that we still have to fight for some rights. We shouldn’t just adapt. As I said, the situation is already very good, but there are still things to improve. I think that the younger generation is the one that should do it!
What is your fear / hope?
My fear is that I will burn out too quickly. Women still have to fight for their positions in science and I feel that can be very exhausting in a way. I would rather like to use the energy to do science instead of fighting for my rights.
Do you have a female scientist role model?
I don’t have a specific role model, but I feel that all woman that achieved something in science can be a good role model to look up to.

by Claudia Willmes

Professor, mid 40s, married, kids

Do you have a female scientist role model?
No, most woman in history of science which are famous were somehow cheated by their male counterparts.
Do you feel that you are treated equally?
Now: Mostly. Earlier: No. With my colleagues at the moment, there is equality but there are also circles that I chose not to participate in, as they are not equal
What did you struggle most with as a woman in academia?
Probably the perception from the male counterparts is one of the problems. In Germany women still have the less well-paid jobs. And of course children: As soon as you enter child-bearing age, even if you have no children, it sort of sends a signal to everyone. If you have a child it automatically gets interpreted that you have a second job now, therefore you can’t be 100% a scientist. Men can be fathers without as many problems as woman being mothers.

THE THOUGHT THAT A MOTHER IS NOT PRODUCTIVE IS ACTUALLY COMPLETELY WRONG!

 
What needs to be improved?
There have been a couple of things moving in the right direction. But they haven’t gone far enough. There are some grants for woman to come back to work (though I heard now that the one at the MDC has stopped… ). They used to give you two years after maternity leave – not enough time at all!
The DFG gives you a couple of years grace for every child you have, but again they do not go far enough. It is not just the time that you are pregnant which you need. A child does occupy a lot of your time until it is three or so. The thought that a mother is not productive is actually completely wrong! You actually get more productive. You are less productive during pregnancy and in the first year, but after that you become so good at organizing and multitasking! Once the kids go to school, you are up early – you will always be one of the early birds. And you do not mess around. You have aims. You do not go for your second cup of coffee, you actually do not have a coffee at all. You eat while you work, and you really are much more goal-oriented than others.
What is your advice to an aspiring female neuroscientist?
If you want to have a family, make sure you have a very understanding partner who will do at least 50% of the childcare. It is not possible without a good partnership. It gets really hard in a situation with two people with careers that are equally important. That would be my biggest advice: make sure that your partnership is up to the challenge.



by Claudia Willmes, AG Eickholt/Schmitz
These interviews have been edited lightly for quality and content.

this article originally appeared March 2017 in "Diversity in Neuroscience"

Women’s Participation in Science: Crunching the Numbers

Before attempting to solve anything, as scientists, we know that we ought to first map out the extent of the problem. In this article, let’s take a look at gender disparities in terms of some of the most crucial outputs reflecting (and ultimately dictating) a scientist’s success. Here, I focus on some of the metrics that probably cumulatively contribute to the gender bias in attainment of faculty and tenure-track positions and general career progression. 

Overall Participation in Research
According to UNESCO, 28% of researchers and 43% of PhD students in science and engineering are female [1]. But there’s a lot of variability between countries - for example, in many of the former Soviet bloc states, as well as Malaysia and the Philippines, the number of women researchers equals or exceeds male researchers in the natural sciences. Gender parity is also present in many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (Bolivia, Venezuela, Argentina, and Paraguay have more female than male researchers). Women are generally well represented in the medical sciences, but very poorly represented in engineering.

Figure 1. Authorship and gender composition in the JSTOR network dataset. Shaded bars = male authorships, unshaded bars = female authorships. Black line = fraction of authorships that are women, red line = fraction of first authorships that are women, blue line = fraction of last authorships that are women. West, J.D., et al., 2013. The Role of Gender in Scholarly Authorship. PLoS One

Publication Authorship
Publications are scientific currency. Whether a researcher is looking for a new job, or a department is seeking more funding, the number and quality of publications is very often the difference between success and failure [2].
In total, fewer than 30% of authors of scientific papers (in any authorship position) are women. In neuroscience, only about a third of authors of papers in “high-impact” journals are women. A few countries are doing admirably though: women make up more than 50% of authors in Finland, Poland, and Argentina who publish in top neuroscience journals.
An analysis of the JSTOR corpus in 2013 found that more and more women are publishing as first authors, from about 9% in the 1960's to 31% nowadays, possibly reflecting the increasing proportion of female graduate students [3]. But in the same timeframe, the proportion of last authorships (in biomedical research, a prestigious position reserved for “senior authors”, usually group leaders) by women has increased by just 8%. 

FEMALE PHD STUDENTS ARE LESS LIKELY TO BE LISTED AS AUTHORS 

THAN THEIR MALE COUNTERPARTS

Women are particularly underrepresented as last authors in cell and molecular biology, a field where authorship position matters a great deal [4]. In six leading medical journals, however, senior authorship by females rose sharply from 3.7% to 19.3% from 1970 to 2004 [5]. This underrepresentation might reflect less access to research resources by women, who are more likely to work in low-resource institutions and spend more time teaching than men, than discrimination by journals [6].
A somewhat alarming finding, however, is that female PhD students are less likely to be listed as authors than their male counterparts for the same effort. A recent study followed 336 biology PhD students from 53 institutions throughout the first four years of their programs [7]. They found that, compared to females, males were 15% more likely to author a journal article for every 100 hours they spent on “research tasks”. 

Conference Participation
This one is closely related to publication output. There’s very little data out there on gender balance in conference participation in general (posters, oral presentations), but arguably what really counts in terms of career progression are invited talks. These boost a scientist’s visibility and supports their establishment as a successful researcher.
Jonathan Eisen, a microbiologist at UC Davis, has a collection of self-compiled statistics on different conferences and meetings in his field [8]. His results are far from reassuring - many conferences have no female invited speakers, and the ratios in the others are far from balanced (Professor Eisen often declines invitations from conferences with a marked lack of diversity). In an analysis of participation by gender at emergency medicine conferences, 30% of the speakers were women [9]. A similar figure was found in the language neurobiology field [10]. 

Peer Review
Being invited to review manuscripts for a journal indicates that your colleagues recognize and appreciate your work. Regular exposure to manuscripts and gaining experience in critically evaluating other’s work also likely benefits one’s own research, ultimately fuelling career progress.
Even when taking into account the unbalanced gender ratios in science, women take less part in peer review than men. In an analysis of the 20 journals of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), 20% of reviewers were female, substantially less than the proportion of female first authors in the field (27%) [11]. The explanation wasn’t that editors sought out more senior researchers (who are mostly men), because the low peer review participation was evident across age groups. The study also found that women received fewer invitations by editors and declined them more often than men. In contrast, female editors of the journal Functional Ecology recommended more often female reviewers, who were more likely to agree to review a manuscript than male reviewers [12]. 

Figure 2. Numbers of grants awarded to men and women for different scientific disciplines in the Netherlands, 2010 - 2012. van der Lee, R., Ellemers, N., 2015. Gender contributes to personal research funding success in The Netherlands. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A.

Research Grants and Scientific Awards
In the UK [13] and the US [14], women and men are equally successful in acquiring funding for biomedical research. However, even when accounting for experience, female applicants were awarded almost 45,000 GBP less funding than male applicants from the Wellcome Trust between 2000 and 2008 [15]. Similar results were found in an analysis of infectious disease research funding awarded from private and public sources between 1997 and 2010 [16]. Women received 54,000 GBP less funding than men, with no improvement over the past 14 years. 

MEN WERE EIGHT TIMES MORE LIKELY TO WIN A SCIENTIFIC AWARD

Male applicants for personal grants in the Netherlands had a 20% higher success rate and were perceived as more competent than female colleagues despite similar appraisals of proposal quality [17]. The only field where female success rates were higher than male’s was medical science.
Unfortunately, these discrepancies are not being remedied by the increasing participation of women in science - men continue to receive more than their expected share of scientific prizes (the so-called “Matilda effect”). Between 2000 and 2010, men were eight times more likely to win a scientific award in the physical sciences, mathematics, and biomedicine than women [18]. The same study found that, even when adjusting for the representation of the genders in the pool of nominees for a particular award, men were twice as likely to win than women.


Progress for Science, Through Science
By and large, women are grossly underrepresented in science and they receive less recognition for their work than their male colleagues, a classic vicious cycle. Investigating these gender discrepancies and finding potential solutions should be made a priority. But first we need to recognize that the issue’s complexity warrants the same systematic and rigorous approach that we dedicate to our work as scientists. Striving for equality for the sake of fairness, while extremely important, is only one part of the story. The status quo is such a waste of precious potential - just think about how much more could be done if gender equality in science were a reality. 

by Ahmed Khalil, PhD Student AG Fiebach
this article originally appeared March 2017 in "Diversity in Neuroscience"

[1] UNESCO Science Report, 2015
[2] van Dijk et al., Current Biology, 2014
[3] González-Álvarez and Cervera-Crespo, Journal of Informetrics, 2017
[4] Wren et al., EMBO Reports, 2007
[5] Jagsi et al., NEJM, 2006
[6] Ceci and Williams, PNAS, 2011
[7] Feldon et al., CBE Life Sci Educ, 2016
[8] http://bit.ly/2knYv0N
[9] Carley et al., Emerg Med J, 2016
[10] Peelle, The Winnower, 2016
[11] Lerback and Hanson, Nature, 2017
[12] Fox et al., Funct Ecol, 2016
[13] Blake and La Valle, National Centre for Social Research, 2000
[14] Hosek et al., National Science Foundation, 2005
[15] Bedi et al., Lancet, 2012
[16] Head et al., BMJ Open 2013
[17] van der Lee and Ellemers, PNAS, 2015
[18] Lincoln et al., Soc Stud Sci, 2012