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APRIL 2005

Dr. Bonnie Kaiser, Rockefeller U. Scientist Responds to Pres. Summers

By Liza Young

Harvard President Summers recent comments regarding women and science have hit a nerve or two, but his words have also generated intelligent and probing discussion. Such was the case at a recent meeting at the Women’s City Club (WCC) where prominent women in the field of science sharply presented their views on science and gender.

Laura Chang, Editor of the Science Time presented the case that Dr. Summers should actually on some level be thanked. While there is scientific data to suggest that women’s brains operate differently with men using more gray matter while women use more connective tissue.

However, the field of the difference in brain structure between the genders is still in a relatively primitive state. Much more research in the field remains to be conducted. Dr. Summers, according to Ms. Chang, essentially brought to light an issue which deserves much more scientific research and hopefully his words will stimulate the progression of necessary research.

At the same time, there is current evidence of women surpassing men in certain areas of science. Dr. Bonnie Kaiser, Director of the Pre-college Science Education Program at The Rockefeller University, related that women have reached the point today of surpassing men in medical school enrollment. She also brought attention to data with reference to students involved in the Science Outreach program. Dr. Kaiser humorously introduced the topic before the Women’s Club with “before you, is a statistical chart even though we aren’t supposed to be good at math.”

Dr. Kaiser then carefully examined data from the Science Outreach program, pointing out that there is evidence of girls surpassing boys at the program. Although at a certain level of achievement boys surpassed girls in the program, but looking at the tip-top levels of achievement, girls actually surpassed boys.

Dr. Rita Louard, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Director of Clinical Diabetes Program at Montefiore Medical Center, presented information consisting of scientific findings as well as historical data, which supported Dr. Kaiser’s data.

Dr. Louard reported on the historical progression of women’s enrollment in Medical School, from 8 percent in 1968 to 38 percent in 1974 up through over 50 percent in 2003.

According to Dr. Louard, women have tended not to enter the fields of specialized medicine at the same rates as men. She hypothesized that the trend of women to avoid these areas seems to be tied to women having a need for balance in their lives. Numbers, however, have been increasing for women entering specialized fields with a concurrent drop in enrollment of men in such areas.

Dr. Louard does see “in the not too distant future parity in the field of medicine in terms of gender.”

In the prognosticating words of Ms. Chang, “let us hope that by the time the time the next Alberta Einstein shows up we will be past the point of saying that the achievement is all the more remarkable because she is a woman.”#

 

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