PerspectivesBy Mary Childers January 27, 1996
Following is an opinion from the Director of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action, Mary Childers, on WISP Internships: Recently some students have raised important questions about the justness of the cornerstone piece of the Women in Science Project. Their belief is that it is sexist and generally unjust for individual women to get paid research internships in their first year when it is harder for a male first year student to find the same opportunity. Even some women who receive these internships consider them sexist or, at the very least, disturbing.
Such thinking about the Women in Science Project has to take place within an understanding of the history of discrimination against women in the sciences and the variety of effects it continues to have. I have no doubt that there are women whose individual circumstances have prepared them to pursue science in environments numerically dominated by men, even when the atmosphere of some of those environments is strongly affected by the minority of men who consciously or unconsciously do not welcome or accommodate women. Those women who can thrive in primarily male spaces are often pioneers. But many women develop differently. They are less comfortable in primarily male environments, and may choose as a result to opt out of fields such as physics and chemistry despite their interests. In helping them persist despite some obstacles, we are not assuming that women need to be showered with privileges in order to save themselves from wilting from low self-esteem. On the contrary, leaving an environment in which one feels unwelcome or vaguely uncomfortable can be an expression of high self-esteem. The intensity of the gender-related predicaments women may experience in the sciences varies a great deal among individuals and, of course, there are many sources of discouraging discomfort that are not gendered. Justifiable Imbalance The Women in Science Project, like most institutional programs, is aimed at a specific problem: it is designed to give more women students an incentive to persist in the sciences despite the fact that male students have an advantage in that they can count on having so many male classmates and a senior faculty in the sciences that is 85% male. They don't even have to think about how they benefit from being male. People who are untroubled by male predominance in the sciences or a historical in their thinking about discrimination, focus exclusively on what women are being granted and not on what men can take for granted and use to their advantage. Any man who feels resentment about the program should take the opportunity to understand how women sometimes feel. Any woman who feels uncomfortable about her privilege should resolve to take full advantage of the opportunity and to recognize that with rights come responsibilities. Individual men who complain because they also want an internship are being reasonable within too narrow a frame of reference. Any man who feels resentment about the program, who is not ruled by that resentment or desirous of turning it to simplistic ideological use, should seize the opportunity to understand how women sometimes feel. He should resolve to be part of furthering the equality of women so that men and women do not have to bicker about small compensatory programs and instead can collaborate on such projects as finding a cure for breast cancer or improving solar technology. We need to acknowledge that sometimes collectives, such as communities and nations, are improved when particular groups get opportunities that increase the likelihood that they will be equal participants. Sometimes we have to see ourselves as living in history together rather than in some simple one on one competition. The internships are a justified imbalance legally and ethically because they aim to correct an existing imbalance in the participation of men and women in most science majors. By Carolyn Rice February 10, 1996
Carolyn Rice '95, Th '96, is the President of Dartmouth's chapter of the Society of Women Engineers. She attended Paul Gaffney's Assertiveness Workshop in January and became impromptu instructor of the session. Here she shares her experiences: Gaining Confidence & Being Heard SWE and WISP co-sponsored an assertiveness workshop for women interested in improving their command in group-oriented situations. Unfortunately, Paul Gaffney took ill and was unable to lead the discussion. Fortunately, however, I had already attended a small workshop with Professor Gaffney, and was willing to attempt taking over the role as instructor. A small group of women attended the workshop, and it was a wonderful opportunity for sharing information and discussing personal experiences. The hints and suggestions from Paul Gaffney were applied to various situations encountered by members of the workshop. We covered hints on increasing confidence in interviews, making heads turn when you walk into a crowded room, getting your opinions heard in a group of dominant, aggressive, and interrupting colleagues, and how to cope with condescending or sexist remarks in school or in the workplace. Strategies for Power An example of the assertiveness strategies we learned from Professor Gaffney is how to gain control in a meeting or study group, and how to present yourself as a figure of power. Gaffney explained that while 20% of your first impressions are oral and 20% are verbal, 60% of your impression is based on visual clues. Therefore, when you first walk into a room there are crucial strategies for securing your position as a leader. Show others that you need to be reckoned with, and make your way into the group by forcing other people to move for you. If their legs are outstretched, walk in front of them and
The behavior shown by students or co-workers which would require the assertiveness strategies described above is actually quite common. Women at Dartmouth may see it in the science classes, labs, study groups, or problem sessions, and often feel frustrated with their inability to change their situation. Next term we are planning another workshop with Professor Gaffney, and we will discuss many of the same issues we talked about this January. If you are interested in the topic and would like to attend the workshop to learn more about how to assert yourself, keep your eyes open for advertisements early next term. By Pam Brockmeier March 30, 1996
Pam Brockmeier '95, Th '96 is studying environmental engineering and participated last term in the ENGG 179 course, Environmental Science and Engineering, because of her interest in the synthesis of environment and business. Here she writes of one particularly inspiring speaker, Karen Blades, who guest lectured for the class. The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades Every senior (or 5th year engineering student as the case may be) spends a great deal of time trying to figure out what the future will hold. What will I do next year? What kind of career do I want? What will I be doing in 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? How do I know that I'm doing what I should be doing? These are the questions that have been running through my mind, and I wouldn't be surprised if they crossed a few other minds as well. So, when I met Karen Blades, a former engineer at AT&T, I thought perhaps here is someone who can give me some answers. Karen was a lecturer in Eng 179: Industrial
The Road to the Perfect Job Listening to Karen tell me about her move to LLNL, all I could think was how wonderful it sounded - how much it sounded like something that I would love to be a part of. As a senior looking for a job, I have this image of simply jumping into the perfect career. After discovering how Karen's career path led her to this point, however, I realize that it is not quite that easy. Karen was a chemical engineering major at Stanford and went directly from there to Bell Labs in New Jersey. After a few years there, her personal interests led her to become more involved with environmental issues within AT&T. While working for AT&T she began giving seminars about industrial ecology to people within AT&T as well as outside companies. This was what eventually gained her the attention that led to her position at LLNL.
By Paula Gouvea April 27, 1996
Paula Gouvea is a Ph.D. candidate in Thayer School of Engineering. Here she writes of one particularly inspiring speaker, Dr. Susan Stanton, who guest lectured for ES 200. Women in Science I'm a Ph.D. candidate at Thayer School of Engineering. Like all Ph.D. students, I am required to take 3 terms of ES 200, a course about Science, Engineering and Public Policy. Professor Ian Baker, in charge of ES 200, invites one or two speakers a week to talk to us about various subjects. This past Winter, Prof. Baker asked Dr. Susan A. Stanton to talk to us about women in Science/Industry/Engineering. Dr. Stanton has a Ph.D. in Chemistry and is currently working at Ashland Chemical Company and her seminar was one of the most interesting of the term. I'd like to share with you some of the things that I have learned from her. Even though 51% of the US population are women, we are only 16% of the scientific work force. Only 3% of the Nobel prizes have been given to women! Also, while the starting salaries for men and women are about the same, men get promoted more often than women do. In other words, men's responsibilities and compensations at work increase faster than women's. One of the reasons for this is that some women stop working or switch to part time to raise a family and slow down their career for some years. Another reason is that many men who are now in power do not feel comfortable with working with women and therefore do not promote them. Skills For the Long Haul These statements made me worry about my future professional situation. Of course I was glad to hear about problems that I will face once I start working in the "real world." What I was not happy about was that a less qualified person might get promoted
In her talk, Dr. Stanton also mentioned a few skills and traits required by employees nowadays: integrity, ethics, work orientation and risk taking. In the skills and traits
Dr. Stanton's class was very interesting and I do not have enough space to write here everything that she told us. If she comes to talk to next year's ES 200 class again, I would urge you to come and listen! By Cristy Nguyen August 9, 1997
Cristy Nguyen, Dartmouth '95 and former WISP Newsletter Editor, describes her experiences in the field of public health, where professionals are "concerned not only with the quality and outcomes but also with the equity and efficiency of health care delivery." Public Health Profession As someone who always wanted to work in the healthcare sector but considered the pre-med track, the emphasis of medicine, and the lifestyle of a physician to be less than rewarding, I have found public health to be a challenging and satisfying alternative. I entered public health school at Yale the fall after my Dartmouth graduation. After receiving my Master's in Public Health (MPH) degree two years later, I arrived in Washington, DC to work on health policy issues in the office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services. In this position, I have been able to help shape health legislation to reflect the needs of the population. In the fall, I will be working at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where I will evaluate public health programs to identify the most cost-effective strategies for tuberculosis prevention. Many undergraduates are unaware of public health as a "profession," mainly because no public health classes per se are offered at Dartmouth. Public health students have tended to be mid-career professionals who decide to go back to school to gain more expertise in their field. These individuals can represent such varied professions as medicine, nursing, epidemiology, hospital administration, law, governmental policy analysis, political science, environmental advocacy, and social work. However, many public health schools will accept students straight out of college who have work or volunteer experiences or have demonstrated an intense interest in improving public health and advancing social policy. Awareness from Many Fronts I became interested in public health through courses I took in the Environmental Studies department at Dartmouth. Through a combination of ethics, policy analysis, and
What sets public health apart from medicine is the infinitely larger scope of its concern. In graduate school I learned that public health is dedicated to improving the health of large numbers of people. I also learned that treatments that constitute the "best practice" at the individual patient level do not necessarily equal "best policy" at the population level. Not Just Quality, but Equality Unlike clinical medicine, public health is concerned not only with the quality and outcomes
Having known many (and lived with two) medical students for the past two years, I still find this distinction to be true. Although I don't doubt that my medical school counterparts are equally concerned as I am about the public's health (we all wrote on our applications that we wanted to "help people"), the nature of their training is such that they must focus on the individual patient, one patient at a time. And in many cases, it is beyond their duty or ability to deal with the socioeconomic factors that may be contributing to the patient's condition. Overall, there are many roles to be played in securing the health and well-being of the population. I guess figuring out where you fit into the picture depends on your own interests, beliefs, and talents. Science, Policy and Ethics
By Nicole R. Eftychiou August 8, 1997
Nicole R. Eftychiou '99 tells about her leave term internship at the Albert Einstein Medical School, where she researched the transport of bile acids in the liver. Bio Skills When I began looking for internship opportunities last fall for my off-term in the winter, all I knew was that I really liked biology and I wanted to go to medical school. Fortunately for me, I live in the New York City area, so finding internships which matched my interests was not hard. I applied to a few, and in the end I decided to work at the Albert Einstein Medical School in the Bronx. I worked for a Dartmouth alumnus who is an MD and professor at their Marion Bessin Liver Research Center. This internship proved to be well worth the hard work and in the end, I feel like I really accomplished something.
Transporting Proteins The particular project which Dr. Wolkoff put me in charge of was a study to see if the protein oatp could transport bile acids. Oatp, which stands for organic anion transporting polypeptide, was first discovered and cloned in rat liver cells by the lab I worked for, a few years back. It turns out that there is an equivalent protein in the liver cells of humans. Working with a line of HeLa cells I carried out experiments three days a week on cells that had either been induced with the protein 48 hours before, or had not (our controls). On the day of the experiment, all of the cells were given a dose of a particular bile acid. The cells were allowed to incubate, and then after being washed were put through a counter. Since the bile acids were radioactive, the counter could access how much was incorporated into the cells. From this data we could tell whether or not the cell (with or without oatp) transported the bile acid. Hard Work Paid Off The importance of bile acids stems from their key role in cholesterol degradation and in solubilizing fats. I worked with primary bile acids, such as cholic acid, as well as secondary bile acids (deoxycholate), and glycine and taurine derivatives of the bile acids. These derivatives, or conjugated bile acids, are more water soluble and thus better detergents. They are also the ones found in the rat and human body. The results of my uptake studies showed an interesting trend. Cells induced with the hydrophilic bile acids (the conjugated ones) were all transported by oatp (with the exception of glycocholic acid). Likewise, the unconjugated bile acids (the hydrophobic ones) were not transported (with the exception of cholic acid). The control cells showed no uptake. What this means is that it appears that oatp is at least one of the major ways that hydrophilic bile acids are removed from the circulation, a key function of the liver.
I highly recommend that anyone interested in science or medicine try to work in a lab sometime during their undergraduate experience. It helped me learn about what life in "real" science is like, and that was a very valuable lesson. By Lynn Proctor '99 and Yeechi Chen '00 February 22, 1998 Lynn Proctor and Yeechi Chen met for lunch on February 6 with visiting woman physicist, Dr. Bernadette Johnson from the MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Following are some reflections on their conversation with Dr. Johnson. Dr. Bernadette Johnson, Plasma Physicist Two weeks ago, we had the opportunity to have lunch with a visiting physicist from the MIT Lincoln Lab. We met in the Hanover Inn, knowing we were waiting for a Dr. Bernadette Johnson, who had received her Ph.D. from Dartmouth in plasma physics, a B.S. from Dickinson and an M.S. in solid state theory from Georgetown University. We were told she worked in the Laser and Sensor Applications Group. Both of us were nervous considering Dr. Johnson's achievements, but Kathy Weaver assured us that she was very "down to earth." Sure enough, when Dr. Johnson arrived in a long skirt and snowboots, she greeted us warmly and with a big smile. Over lunch, we shared our experiences in and out of science. We had a lot of questions for her: How did she get her position? How did she balance a personal life with her work? What got her interested in physics? What is it like being one of few women working in her field? From Pre-Med to Plasma Physics Dr. Johnson openly answered our questions. Surprisingly, she started college as a pre-med student considering a biology major, but after taking a physics course, she was inspired to change her major. Despite her interest, she was still uncertain as to what she wanted to do with a physics major after she graduated. She knew she wanted to go to graduate school, but she couldn't decide where. With a playful smile, she then told us that she fell in love, and that helped her make the decision. She said that she never did any long term planning, and just took the next logical step as it came. After completing grad school, she fell in love again, and that eventually brought her to the Lincoln Lab in 1985. The Common Thread We then asked more about these men she fell in love with and her personal life. She is currently married and has children. She talked about balancing family with her career and told us we could look forward to being happy with both, but never being fully satisfied
It's this thread that makes her feel comfortable at work, even though she is oftentimes the only woman in the group. She actually looked a little surprised when we asked her what it was like working with only men, and explained that she feels like she is "one of the guys." She feels confident that she can freely express what's on her mind in her group. All in all, it turned out to be a very positive, reassuring experience for both of us. It was encouraging to talk to someone who had once been as confused as we are now, but has achieved much of what we hope to in the future. By Heather Walling '98 February 22, 1998
Conversations with Potential Faculty Heather Walling '98 is getting a lot of exposure to visiting physicists this term. The physics department is looking for a junior professor of experimental condensed matter physics (an area of physics which she is currently studying with Professor Geoff Nunes) and they have asked the junior and senior physics majors to help with the decision making process by taking the candidates out for dinner. She recently went to dinner with Dr. Andrea Markelz who is doing her post-doc at NIST (the National Institute for Standards and Technology). Heather reports, "It's nice to chat with these young physicists about what grad school and the job market are like now." Heather is waiting to hear back from several graduate schools and has recently heard good news from one of them. "Many of my professors haven't been through the grad school application process in decades, so they're not always the best people to ask for current advice. Faculty candidate dinners offer a good opportunity to interact in an informal setting with professionals in my area of interest. Also, I hear that the selection committee actually takes the undergraduates' recommendations pretty seriously in the decision making process." Heather's preparation for graduate level research was also expanded by a 1997 summer internship at the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility in Bloomington, Indiana, where she worked in experimental nuclear physics. |
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