Tilghman speaks on women in science

NEW YORK — President Tilghman on Thursday rekindled the debate over why some women do not advance as far as men in science and engineering, saying they face a host of social challenges including a "natural human instinct" by men to hire other men.

The view contrasts with recent controversial comments by Harvard University President Lawrence Summers that "intrinsic aptitude" might account for the difference in male and female success in the sciences.

Speaking at an initiative to promote women in science at Columbia University on Thursday, Tilghman said, "For the foreseeable future, we will have to be eternally vigilant to the way in which the societal image of what constitutes a successful scientist or engineer is working against women in those fields."

She emphasized that there is no "silver bullet" and that combating gender stereotypes does not mean applying different standards to men and women.

"I have a huge advantage," she said. "When I close my eyes and picture a stellar scientist, I can picture a woman in that frame."

Tilghman was invited to speak on "Changing the Demographics: Recruiting, Retaining and Advancing Women Scientists in Academia" to inaugurate a lecture series through ADVANCE, an initiative to boost the recruitment and retention of women scientists at Columbia.

The five-year program at Columbia's Earth Institute is funded by a $4.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation and aims to include more women in the recruitment process and implement institutional changes such as high-quality childcare.

Tilghman has previously criticized Summers's remakrs on the differences that result in gender disparities in university faculties.

During her talk, Tilghman identified several barriers to female advancement aside from discrimination. Though the feminist movement has opened the doors of the workplace for many women, employers have done little to accommodate the responsibilities of motherhood, she said.

"I am perfectly confident that women in science and engineering compete very effectively once given the chance," she said, noting that men who have children early in their career are "strikingly more successful" in earning tenure than women who do so.

Tilghman pointed to her own experience balancing a tenure-track position with the demands of raising two children.

"I used to place my children, who were two years apart, [in the car] and drive aimlessly until the motion put them both to sleep," she said. "As soon as they were asleep, I would stop wherever we were and read the Week in Review [of The New York Times]. That's what life as woman scientist, as a mother, is like."

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Tilghman acknowledged that balancing the responsibilities of a family and a career will always be difficult for women, but she said more family-friendly workplaces would benefit men and women alike.

If science and engineering departments do not achieve the gender parity already present in law, medicine and other professions, they will become less attractive to the brightest minds, Tilghman said. She cited figures that only 17 percent of engineering Ph.D.s are women, compared to 45 percent of medical school graduates.

Tilghman also suggested a scientist's gender might influence the way in which he or she frames intellectual problems.

"I'm not suggesting that women conduct research any differently than men," Tilghman said. "[But] the problems that intrigue women about the natural world are not always the same as those that intrigue men."

Tilghman said the most successful women in science are those who refuse to acknowledge negative stereotypes. This "absolute inability to recognize the reality" of discrimination helps them to deflect the discouragement that often affects other women, she said.

"As mentors and as parents, we should be encouraging this trait in women, this inability to see reality, rather than engaging in extensive hand-wringing about how tough things are," she said. "[Successful women] refuse to allow themselves to become victims."

The lecture series continues today with a talk by Massachusetts Institute of Technology biology professor Nancy Hopkins, who gained national attention for leaving the room during a January lecture on women in science by Summers.