Dearest Readers,
First, let me say "thank you" for how supportive you've been of my online activities. I think the internet is a tool with tremendous opportunity to allow us to connect as a scientific community, to exchange ideas, to support each other, and to promote initiatives. Touched by how supportive people have been with the funding of the 8th David Bruce Award for excellence in undergraduate research at this year's Experimental Biology, I have continued to think of new ways to use this blog as a platform to support scientists in training.
It's not a secret that the largest attrition among female scientists happens in the transition between trainee and faculty. I also think that, for better or worse, there are things that are unique to being a female scientist that affect the ability/willingness of women to pursue careers in science. I know from my time at ScienceBlogs that there is a large group of women who are eager for the perspectives of successful women scientists as they consider their own careers in science.
When I was a graduate student, I took a physiology class in which I was given the assignment to recreate my scientific family tree. When I did, I found that my family tree is composed some brilliant scientists. But, my family tree is also composed entirely of men, plus me. The same is true of the tree from my postdoc. I have scientific fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, but no aunts, grandmothers, or mothers. As I considered my career path in science, I found myself wanting and needing the perspective of more senior women scientists.
The inspiration for my Letters to Our Daughters Project comes from my hope that we can recreate our family tree here, creating a forum where the mothers and aunts in our fields (which I hope to not limit to physiology, but that's where I'll start because that's who I know) can share their wisdom with us. I think there is a wealth of information among these successful women and I hope to use this forum to share it with young scientists who are yearning for that knowledge.
I have written to a number of successful and well-known female scientists and asked them to write letters to you, their scientific daughters. A number of them have agreed and I will be collecting and sharing their letters as they come in. I'll share the first with you within the next day. I have offered these women no guidance, except to say that they have an open forum to tell you whatever important thing they think you should know. The first letters have exceeded my expectations.
Thank you, dear readers, for the continued opportunity to write to you and for allowing me to host a place where these women can share their thoughts with you. I think this is going to be fun.
All my best,
Isis the Scientist
Comments
Speaking of trees, lemme give a shout out to neurotree.org for my neuro peeps. If you have a woman neuroscientist in your lineage consider going over and make sure she has an entry.
Posted by: BikeMonkey | April 30, 2009 2:21 AM
What a wonderful idea -- can't wait to read the letters! I'm sure they will be applicable beyond the particular scientific fields of the writers.
The math department at my university has a nice framed "family tree" on the wall near their main office, showing the scientific genealogy of all their professors. It's fascinating how many of them are closely "related" (and come from illustrious "ancestors"). Of course most of the names are male, but women are starting to creep in toward the bottom of the chart...
As a new professor, I am finding that the most fulfilling part of my job involves helping my scientific "daughters" take the first steps on their own career paths. It is great fun to think about how I am connecting them with the big communal "tree." I will definitely send some of them here to read the letters you collect!
Posted by: Asphericity | April 30, 2009 2:21 AM
This is a great project. I just wanted to add that MentorNet also helps in connecting an interested protege with a mentor to get the mentor's perspective in the field/profession of protege's interest.
Posted by: Change | April 30, 2009 3:16 AM
Looking forward to the letters Isis. My scientific family tree (MSc and PhD level) is entirely male all the way to the roots...
Posted by: Jenn, PhD | April 30, 2009 7:05 AM
Dr. Isis, what a great idea! I'm looking forward to reading the letters.
My own scientific family tree is male all the way to the top, but I do have a few sisters and female cousins.
Posted by: Rebecca | April 30, 2009 7:32 AM
What an outstanding idea! I'm lucky enough to have a mother, 2 aunts, one very female savvy scientific father (and a number of sisters, no wonder!) but more female perspectives are always welcome. I look forward to them!
Posted by: Dr.FabulousShoes | April 30, 2009 8:03 AM
Same story here: all men in my tree. I've been lucky enough to find some cool women at my MRU though. Some of them are truly inspiring and encourage my charge through academia every step of the way. I feel grateful, in particular, to see such motivation and excitement from some of the younger female scientists around me. 'The times, they are a-changin'...'
Posted by: ElectroFizzz | April 30, 2009 8:03 AM
Cool idea! I'm extremely grateful that you're out there!!
Posted by: gnuma | April 30, 2009 8:11 AM
What a wonderful idea! I look forward to reading the letters!
Posted by: Mrs.CH | April 30, 2009 8:24 AM
An excellent idea, Dr. Isis. This reminds me of some of the outreach to the next generation that I saw on Feministing. Have you considered the possibility of anthologizing them a la Open Lab?
I got to thinking about my own scientific family tree. Then I realized I don't have one. Therefore I am Toaster The Mutant Sprout!
Posted by: Toaster | April 30, 2009 10:16 AM
Marvelous idea! Speaking as a male in academia, I'm lucky to have both a mother, adoptive mother and aunts in my tree as well as uncles etc. I have to say most of the sagest advice I have received is from my female relations.
Posted by: Anon | April 30, 2009 11:38 AM
Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Female PhD candidates of the world need this.
You rock.
Posted by: L | April 30, 2009 12:58 PM
While you're at it, those of us who happen to have familial (as opposed to lab) daughters can also write letters. Even if they need to be put aside for a few years until they can be understood, daughters need letters of encouragement to think about entering the sciences, or at least understanding that they are an option. They need encouragement to get past the prejudices of the subject at all levels, from teachers and peers alike. My daughter is too young to get the point of such an exercise now, but a few years down the road, with some reinforcement on our part, it could be just the thing needed to open her eyes to the wonders of science.
If, in a half-dozen years, I hand her a letter sharing the amazing things she can discover about the world, maybe she'll be someone else's academic daughter, as well as my Little Asskicker (TM). And, the more girls like that there are, the better she'll have it in the long run if she chooses that path. At the very least, she'll know I was thinking and caring about her future long before she was aware.
Posted by: Ranson | April 30, 2009 1:21 PM
Great Idea! I have two direct "mothers" in my lineage. The first one was my M.S. mentor who is a well-known scientist in the field of ecological physiology and deep-sea biology and experienced a fair amount of discrimination during her graduate tenure in the 70's. I bet she would have a thing or two to say on this subject. The other "mother" is my current post-doc co-mentor who also experienced her fair share of it, especially in regards to raising her children in 80's. I have learned a lot about the issues surrounding gender discrimination in science from both of them and hope to instill that sensitivity and awareness in my students in a couple years once I start my faculty job at an East Coast State University.
Posted by: Dr. Glitterbear | April 30, 2009 1:49 PM
This is a fantastic thing you're doing. My granddaughters will thank you someday, but I thank you now.
Posted by: Donna B. | April 30, 2009 4:30 PM
that is such a lovely idea. And I am VERY, VERY lucky to havean academic mother and a few academic "fairy" god-mothers and Black Academic god-fathers, too.
Posted by: DNLee | April 30, 2009 10:58 PM
Yay! Looking forward to the letters.
Posted by: sciencegirl | April 30, 2009 11:45 PM
Fan-frickin-tastic idea, Isis! My family trees are all-male, all the time...although I do have an adoptive mother and some sisters, these letters sound like exactly what I need right now. Can't wait to read them. (As if I don't already check your blog often enough...) :)
Posted by: postdoc | May 1, 2009 12:08 AM
Isis, what a wonderful thing to facilitate! I really loor forward to hearing what these women have to say.
Posted by: Candid Engineer | May 1, 2009 8:21 AM
Isis,
Great idea! I am sure that the APS membership responds favorably to your invitation. If you want, we will make the entire membership aware of your project.
Marty
Posted by: Marty | May 1, 2009 1:57 PM
Marty,
That would be fantastic! I would be pleased to receive letters from other women in the APS who might have something to share with my readers.
And then, maybe someday, we';ll include the boys too.
Isis.
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | May 1, 2009 2:23 PM
Great work, Dr. Isis! Great idea!
@Change who plugged Mentornet- forget it. Not useful. Not enough female mentors to go around, not by a LONG SHOT.
I also think it's interesting that you mentioned this the same week that the Chronicle ran an article about how the Modern Language Association reported serious attrition at the level of associate-to-full professor status, leading some leading senior women scientists to assume that earlier attrition must not be such a big issue in science anymore (with zero data to support that assumption):
It's not a secret that the largest attrition among female scientists happens in the transition between trainee and faculty.
Also, I'm slightly bothered by some of the connotations of your choice of the word "mother", but for now I'll let it slide, in view of the bigger picture...
I think it's great timing, actually. I'm tired of hearing all these reports on how we need more junior high women to go into science... it's such crap. What we have are plenty of women in grad school and postdoc who are dropping like flies. I'll take all the help I can get at this point (even if it's too late to help).
Posted by: msphd | May 2, 2009 1:53 AM
Yes!
Posted by: SC | May 2, 2009 10:35 AM
"I have scientific fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, but no aunts, grandmothers, or mothers. As I considered my career path in science, I found myself wanting and needing the perspective of more senior women scientists."
I don't like that kind of thinking. So what if they were all male? Maybe all of the scientists in your family were at least 5'7'', and the rest were below that height. Although their sex almost definitely is the reason your family tree didn't have any female scientists, thinking of people in terms of whether they're male or female is part of the problem. If people just looked past the sex they happened to be born with and the sex others were born with, none of this would be an issue, and since this project promotes this type of thinking, I honestly dislike it even though it has good intentions. The project should be about scientists and children, not female scientists and daughters.
Posted by: Alex | May 2, 2009 2:56 PM
Dude, are you fucking kidding with this arrant bullshit?
Posted by: Comrade PhysioProf | May 2, 2009 3:18 PM
It really was just a matter of time, wasn't it?
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | May 2, 2009 4:07 PM
I'm not a feminist. I'm a humanist.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Comrade PhysioProf | May 2, 2009 4:28 PM
What a cool blog you have - I myself admire that you are a prof with young kids. I'm a mom of two, and ended up having to drop out of a PhD program (despite being a PhD candidate and an NSF Fellow) due to a divorce and other frustratig situations. Academia is a tough route for women with kids. I am a full time science writer now (am Animal Planet's news blogger, and write for several mags...Sci Am, National Wildlife, Audubon, Smithsonian, BioScience etc) and had actually written a humorous essay called On Being a Woman in Science. I'd love to send it to you for possible inclusion in your letters to daughters project if you're interested. It never ended up published but to me it exemplified much about the struggles women/moms face in science!!
Posted by: Wendee Holtcamp | May 2, 2009 4:39 PM
You guys don't understand. Alex is gender-blind and we should all give him a cookie for being so enlightened and progressive. It's not like our culture makes women's experiences inherently different from men's. And even if it did, we should just ignore it and pretend we're all the same.
Posted by: LostMarbles | May 2, 2009 4:47 PM
I personally liked the part where Alex told Isis that "The project should be about scientists and children, not female scientists and daughters"
he he heh... Alex said "should"
Posted by: jc | May 2, 2009 4:57 PM
Personally, I think we should all be thankful that Alex came by to tell us were playing feminism wrong. PhysioProf, why didn't you set us straight before?
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | May 2, 2009 5:05 PM
I'm much too busy with my daughters photographing wildflowers, classifying them, geo-locating and timestamping each image, and creating a google map of our "discoveries", to write 'em letters.
So can I borrow some of yours, please? I think both of 'em would get a real inspirational charge out of it.
That said. Both my daughters like flower. I like bugs. Vive la difference, I suppose.
Posted by: Paul G. Brown | May 2, 2009 11:22 PM
Dearest Isis,
I have a couple of names for you. Could you please email me at the provided email address, so that I can put you in touch with them?
Posted by: SisterCoyote | May 3, 2009 1:23 PM
I tried to email you but it bounced back. You can reach me at isisthescientist at gmail dot com.
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | May 3, 2009 1:31 PM
"Dude, are you fucking kidding with this arrant bullshit?"
Posted by: Comrade PhysioProf
"It really was just a matter of time, wasn't it?"
Posted by: Isis the Scientist
"You guys don't understand. Alex is gender-blind and we should all give him a cookie for being so enlightened and progressive. It's not like our culture makes women's experiences inherently different from men's. And even if it did, we should just ignore it and pretend we're all the same."
Posted by: LostMarbles
"Personally, I think we should all be thankful that Alex came by to tell us were playing feminism wrong. PhysioProf, why didn't you set us straight before?"
Posted by: Isis the Scientist
A bit of an over-reaction maybe? He made a pretty legitimate comment and even openly accepted the good intentions behind this. I can appreciate that activities like this may be warranted to draw attention to an unwanted norm in the hope of changing it - but where you guys find the need to snipe like that at Alex is beyond me. At the end of the day he is correct in principle and hopefully in time changing attitudes will mean that this kind of action doesn't even need to be taken anymore.
If Alex is someone who regularly disparages the feminist cause, I guess I can understand the response - but just from the comments here you guys seem a to be over reacting.
Posted by: thomas | May 3, 2009 6:09 PM
A bit of an over-reaction maybe? He made a pretty legitimate comment and even openly accepted the good intentions behind this.
No he made a highly ignorant comment from a privileged position.
I'm sure it makes him feel better about himself when he says that he doesn't think in terms of gender, but that kind of thinking lets people ignore sexism and gender issues. When he says that this type of effort should be non-gendered and geared toward "scientists and their children", he's dismissing the women scientists who are telling him that their experiences were different because of gender. How many men have the experience of being called a bitch because they want to be treated like an equal (the letter from Dr. Pascale)? How many men have to deal with being pregnant in the middle of their careers? How many men have to deal with sexual harassment from colleagues?
If Alex is someone who regularly disparages the feminist cause, I guess I can understand the response - but just from the comments here you guys seem a to be over reacting.
If telling women that they shouldn't discuss women's issues or that women's issues don't exist, isn't disparaging the feminist cause then I don't know what is.
Posted by: LostMarbles | May 3, 2009 9:39 PM
just from the comments here you guys seem a to be over reacting.
no, i think the reactions are justified. the early generations of women in my subfield started college roughly 40 years ago, and they kicked ass against all odds. unfortunately, that is not enough time to turn a totally hostile environment into a totally welcoming environment.
finding footsteps of older generations to follow is INCREDIBLY helpful when dealing with issues specific to women that also created barriers to our gender in the past. i am beyond thankful for my totally ass-kicking female role model, who i can discuss all of these things with... many are not as fortunate as i am.
Posted by: leigh | May 3, 2009 11:26 PM
One word: Awesome.
Posted by: GirlPostdoc | May 4, 2009 1:06 AM
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!! Poor widdle menzes is just twying to hewp, and you mean laydeez is huwting dere widdle feewings! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!
Posted by: Comrade PhysioProf | May 4, 2009 8:31 AM
"No he made a highly ignorant comment from a privileged position. "
It may have been ignorant. I may be labouring under the same ignorance. If so, hopefully with time that ignorance could be overcome.
How you infer he is speaking from a priveleged position is beyond me.
Why shouldn't it make him feel better if he doesn't think in terms of gender - if by that you mean he sees different genders as equal. No doubt you also regard different genders as equal. That doesn't preclude any ability to recognise an unfairness when confronted with one.
"When he says that this type of effort should be non-gendered and geared toward "scientists and their children", he's dismissing the women scientists who are telling him that their experiences were different because of gender."
I don't see how he is doing that. In what way is he dismissing such a thing? What is wrong with him making a polite observation that any scientist, man or woman, should be proud of their forebears in science - be they men or women? Ideally, such a thing would not be gender oriented. Ideally, such a venture wouldn't even be needed.
"If telling women that they shouldn't discuss women's issues or that women's issues don't exist, isn't disparaging the feminist cause then I don't know what is."
I didn't catch the part of his post that told women they shouldn't discuss women's issues or that women's issues don't exist. I did happen to read the part where he said that the project should be about scientists and their children. That seems to clearly include female scientists and their female children.
"finding footsteps of older generations to follow is INCREDIBLY helpful when dealing with issues specific to women that also created barriers to our gender in the past. i am beyond thankful for my totally ass-kicking female role model, who i can discuss all of these things with... many are not as fortunate as i am."
That's a good point and something that didn't immediately occur to me. I was thinking more along the lines of scientists of either gender being of value in a family tree, but of course you are right that a female relative who has been through the difficulties would be more of an encouragement to a female scientist starting off today that an equivalent male relative. I should also accept LostMarbles' point when asked "How many men have to deal with being pregnant in the middle of their careers? How many men have to deal with sexual harassment from colleagues?"
I still think there would be been more merit in plainly saying what your point was as opposed to replying in the way you did to Alex. I don't think he was any ruder than me - but I got clear earnest replies and he didn't.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!! Poor widdle menzes is just twying to hewp, and you mean laydeez is huwting dere widdle feewings! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!"
Yes, he got stuff closer to that. I didn't know how to make my initial post more civil and do not understand why you respond like this.
Posted by: thomas | May 8, 2009 12:07 PM
Ideally, if my grandmother had balls, she'd be my grandfather.
Posted by: Comrade PhysioProf | May 8, 2009 12:15 PM
I thought the point was about academic mothers and grandmothers. I've got biological parents, yeah, but I've also got an academic family tree that includes (at least) my thesis advisors and their thesis advisors, and maybe my committee members and undergrad advisors.
I did my graduate work with a female advisor, so I have an academic mother, but no grandmothers - my advisor's advisors are all male. But in a sense, the female pioneers in my field, those women who got their PhDs in the 60's and, in some cases, did work that transformed the discipline... they're my academic foremothers, too, because they made it possible for me to have imagined doing the work I do today.
My male academic parents are important, too, but they aren't inspiring in the same way. I don't look at them and wonder "wow, how did he do it?" When I look at my graduate advisor, that's how I feel.
Posted by: Kim Hannula | May 8, 2009 11:31 PM
Yes, I take your point Kim. I'd say maybe I'm in the wrong a bit in not grasping the real meaning of the post suggestion. I get what you're saying, anyway and I'll be more mindful in future.
"Ideally, if my grandmother had balls, she'd be my grandfather."
It's tempting to be baited into replying with something snarky. Leaving it be would be more civil so I'll opt for that, since there doesn't seem to be any point to respond to.
Posted by: thomas | May 9, 2009 8:57 AM
Dear Dr. Frank,
I wish I was 25 years younger and still working, and could learn from your leadership at the APS. At 77, while my mind still functions well, the body is complaining!
All the best to you and in your commendable efforts in helping the rest of us Physiologists,
Dinkar.
Posted by: Dinkar K. Kasbekar | May 15, 2009 8:28 AM
My name is Jessica and I completed my Ph.D. in Nutrition Science at the University of California at Davis in 2004, which by the way is a "biological science" in every sense of the phrase at UC Davis and is not a "home economics" degree as it is at some institutions. My only comment is that going through a Ph.D. program in the sciences often offers few female role models. You do have to seek them out and when you do, you have to pick and choose the ones to emulate. I seemed to have 3 kinds of female role models during my doctoral studies:
1) The hardened, harsh, childless, work-a-holic woman who had to fight her way, tooth and nail, into her tenured position. She seemed unhappy with the world in general but was wildly successful in her career. I knew I didn't want to become this woman.
2) The harried, overburdened, mother, wife, researcher, professor who was generally put-upon by everyone in the department and seemed to be ready for a full mental breakdown around every corner. I wondered, if this would be me. I could see myself in this role though I wasn't sure it was the best choice.
3) The woman who left the life of a researcher/professor for the life of a community college professor. This woman seemed to have the best of all worlds but she was no longer able to run a research lab. This was eventually the pathway I chose. I chose this path because the women I saw on this path were able to teach in their field, continue their professional development and yet were able to maintain a family life as well. I have found this perception to be a reality.
I don't mean to sound negative but to me, there really is very little room for family in a research institution (whether you are a man or a woman). In fact, to me it seemed there was no room for anything but the research. I don't know if this will ever change. The few people (all of them men) who WERE able to maintain a happy family life while being faculty at a research institution said they suffered through and somehow survived until they obtained tenure and then they found a way to back-off and re-focus on family.
Good luck to all of you making your way in this world.
Sincerely,
Jessica
Posted by: Jessica Coppola | May 18, 2009 4:59 PM
I think this is amazing. I'm also happy that I have sisters and aunts on my scientific family tree, and possibly even a grandma.
Posted by: Avery | June 4, 2009 6:50 PM
if we're talking about gender issues, it's absolutely fucking relevant if you want to say if you're a man or a woman. one of the points of feminism is to promote open discussion of gender.
Posted by: ugg boots | October 12, 2009 2:46 AM
My family tree is full of brilliant scientists, from Erasmus and Charles Darwin to Lord Adrian and Profs. Keynes at Cambridge University. ALL MEN. I'm the first woman in the family to go for a doctorate. It makes me sad to think of all my grandmothers who might have been brilliant scientists - or whatever - if only they'd been educated to believe that they could!
Posted by: Laura Keynes | October 28, 2009 3:57 PM