Dean of Duke University’s School of Medicine on WUNC’s The State of Things – Listen to Frank Statio’s November 8th program: http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/Meet_Nancy_Andrews.mp3/view “Nancy Andrews grew up in Syracuse, New York. She had two grandfathers who were college deans and parents who encouraged her interest in science. Andrews got an MD from Harvard and a PhD from MIT with a plan to put medical practice in the context of scientific research. Her easy way with people sent her climbing the medical school administrative ladder and today she is the Dean of Duke University's School of Medicine. Andrews joins host Frank Stasio to discuss the role of women in science, and what future doctors need to know.”
Female Scientists: Survey Results – In June 2010, L’Oréal USA commissioned a national survey of U.S. scientists in partnership with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) "to better understand the barriers that female scientists experience in their pursuit of scientific careers." Survey respondents included male and female scientists who hold doctoral degrees and are registered users of Science online. Survey "questions focused on the barriers that scientists face when beginning and advancing their professional careers, the extent to which the barriers affect females and males differently, and solutions to overcome these obstacles." A summary of the survey results have been posted on-line. http://www2.lorealusa.com/_en/_us/FWIS2007/downloads/survey_fact_sheet_9_8_2010.pdf
Writing or requesting a letter of recommendation? Check out the results of a recent study, “demonstrating that female applicants were more likely to be described with communal terms (e.g., affectionate, warm, kind, and nurturing) than male applicants. Letters of recommendation for female applicants also mentioned more social–communal terms, such as student(s), child, relative, and mother. In contrast, male applicants were more likely to be described in agentic terms (e.g., ambitious, dominant, and self-confident) than were female applicants…[further results] revealed that communal characteristics were negatively related to hireability ratings and that the communal ratings mediated the relationship between applicant gender and hireability ratings for a research-oriented university.” See the full article: Madera, JM, Hebl, MR, and Martin, RC. 2009. Gender and letters of recommendation for academia: Agentic and communal differences. Journal of Applied Psychology 94(6); 1591-1599.
