We can wait around for a while longer in the hope that progress will slowly continue. In the meanwhile, a lot of money that could be used for good science will be spent on studies that try to determine why affirmative action has not worked more rapidly, and why young female scientists disappear somewhere between their Ph.D. or M.D. degrees and the assistant professor positions. Current strategies have an important flaw. No matter how hard we may work to have them succeed, they depend ultimately on other people, mainly men, changing their attitudes and expectations. But it seems to me that waiting around is insufficient.
Current strategies have an important flaw.
No matter how hard we may work to have them succeed, they depend ultimately on other people, mainly men, changing their attitudes and expectations. The contrast is powerful. We need a strategy that depends on women. One that assumes we will expend our energies on improving the opportunity for women to succeed in biomedical careers, not on complaining about the failure of others to do so. At their best, our networks help all of us cope with problems and disappointments.