Lessons from the Stories of Women in Neuroscience

Abstract

Women have been contributing to the field of neuroscience since its inception, but their accomplishments are often overlooked. Lack of recognition, among other issues, has led to progressively fewer women at each academic stage; although half of neuroscience graduate students are women, women comprise less than one-third of neuroscience faculty, and even fewer full professors. Those who reach this level continue to struggle to get their work recognized. Women from historically excluded backgrounds are even more starkly underrepresented and face added challenges related to racial, ethnic, and other biases. To increase the visibility of women in neuroscience, promote their voices, and learn about their career journeys, we created Stories of Women in Neuroscience (Stories of WiN). Stories of WiN shares the scientific and personal stories of women neuroscientists with diverse backgrounds, identities, research interests, and at various career stages. From .70 women highlighted thus far, a major theme has emerged: there is not a single archetype of a woman neuroscientist, nor a single path to "success." Yet, through these diverse experiences run common threads, such as the importance of positive early research experiences, managing imposter syndrome, the necessity of work-life balance, and the challenges of fitting into-or resisting-the "scientist mold" within a patriarchal, racialized academic system. These commonalities reveal important considerations for supporting women neuroscientists. Through the lens of women highlighted by Stories of WiN, we explore the similarities among their journeys and detail specific actionable items to help encourage, support, and sustain women in neuroscience.

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“…Regardless of the discipline, promoting the engagement and retention of women in science requires systemic changes at different levels, including individual (e.g., education, bias awareness), institutional (e.g., fair promotion and family leave policies), and cultural/societal (e.g., reduction of explicit and implicit prejudice, legislations) dimensions. While a comprehensive proposal of solutions is beyond the scope of this work and can be found elsewhere ( Schrouff et al, 2019 ; Llorens et al, 2021 ; Sibener et al, 2022 ; Silva et al, 2022 ). Table 1 summarizes some potential solutions and resources to address the main barriers and opportunities that were identified by women surveyed here.…”