Intelligence is not gender specific, according to the researcher behind Viagra, who addresses a high-level forum in Dublin next week on sex discrimination in the sciences. Dick Ahlstrom reports.
The glass ceiling that keeps capable women from reaching the top echelons of academic and industrial research is as strong as ever in the Republic, according to the organisers of a forum on sex discrimination in the sciences. And change will not come easily in organisations that have inherited gender discrimination as a way of life.
The D-word, discrimination, comes up for discussion next Thursday in Dublin at an invitation-only forum organised by the lobby and support group Women in Technology and Science (WITS).
The woman whose name appears on the Pfizer patent for Viagra will address the forum, and then later deliver a free public lecture on the fight against the AIDS virus. The name of Dr Gill Samuels CBE, a senior director for science policy in Europe for Pfizer Global Research and Development, also appears as a co-author on the blockbuster study on institutionalised discrimination known as the SET Fair or Greenfield Report.
It famously described the "institutionalised sexism" that serves to keep women out of top posts in the sciences and engineering in the UK. Samuels will address a gathering of Irish science policy-makers from a number of Government departments and companies on recommendations made in the SET Fair Report and initiatives being taken in response by the UK Department of Trade and Industry.
Gender imbalance is a major problem in the UK, Samuels told Science Today ahead of next Thursday's meeting. "It is huge, particularly at senior levels whether in academia or industry." While matching numbers of men and women enter the sciences, women hold only one or two per cent of the senior posts, she says.
"It is partly to do with women's own attitudes," she suggests, but institutions do not deal well with issues related to childcare, short-term work breaks, part-time working and job shares. The net result however is a loss of scientific brain-power that should be making a contribution, she believes.
"Intelligence is not gender-specific," she says, and ultimately the loss of highly trained graduates is a serious business issue. "It is the issue of a leaky pipeline, it is an issue of attrition. If you lose these \ you lose all of the investment in them," says Samuels.
"If we in Europe are going to meet the three per cent of GDP investment in research target set by the EU, we can't do that if we don't keep more scientists working."
WITS organised Samuels' visit to get discussion going on how to overcome institutionalised sexism in this country, says WITS chairperson, Dr Euchaira Meehan. "She will tell us what they observed with their study and what recommendations came through as a result," says Meehan.
The Dublin forum will develop its own set of recommendations based on the open discussion and these in turn will be brought that afternoon to the Tánaiste, Mary Harney, says Meehan. "A lot of it is common sense," she says, but institutions need to be "incentivised" and given funding to ensure that real change takes hold and the glass ceiling is finally broken.
A physiologist and neuropharmacologist, Samuels will deliver a free public lecture on the AIDS epidemic next Thursday evening entitled, Where Life and Death Intersect: Can science keep pace with disease and demographic change?
She will provide a chilling exposition of the grip that HIV and AIDS already holds on humanity. "People really haven't come to realise the importance of this disease," she says. "It may already have overtaken us as a species."
She will talk about how diseases have altered the course of human history, and how the AIDS virus may be affecting it today. "The message is, here is the biggest challenge we have as a society. Don't believe it isn't coming to you," she says.
The free public lecture takes place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, December 11th in the Joly Theatre, O'Reilly Institute at Trinity College Dublin. Attendees are also welcome to come to the WITS Christmas wine reception, which starts at 6 p.m. at the O'Reilly Institute. More information and maps to the institute are available on the WITS website, www.witsireland.com