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.”#
