I recently found on the web a copy of the NAS report on
The Funding of Young Investigators in the Biological and
Biomedical Sciences (a 1994 NAS report). You can see it at:
http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/ynginv/contents.html
There are a lot of useful comments in it, especially towards the
funding of R29 and related applications. It's been 3 years, and
clearly no one paid attention, becasue (with a few exceptions)
things are pretty much as they were, the R29 is still not
what it could be, and the situation is not much improved
for those starting out. A pity no one listened!
Anyway, from the conclusions, here are some depressingly familiar
statistics:
> The committee could identify no difference in the likelihood of
> funding between women and men in the life sciences, once they had
> assumed faculty positions. The disparity identified was the
> decreased likelihood that a woman would achieve a position in
> which
> she would be eligible to apply for a grant. Although almost 40%
> of
> all newly trained biologists are women, they made up just 19% of
> NIH grant applicants in 1990. In addition, only 31% of
> postdoctral
> fellowship dollars at NIH were directed to women scientists.
>> A detailed analysis of this issue is outside the purview of this
> report. However, the committee believes that the continued
> failure
> of women to gain access to positions of authority in the life
> sciences is a serious issue with direct implications for the long
> term vitality of the enterprise.
>> ...
>> Attention should be given to the promotion of women to department
> chairs, deanships, and other executive positions to achieve a sex
> balance and reflect the increase in the number of women entering
> the scientific workforce. The lack of senior role models, limited
> access for women to the research network, and excessive
> institutional committee assignments, teaching responsibilities,
> and
> mundane administrative duties are impediments to the advancement
> of
> women that require institutional attention.
Comments, anyone?
--
-susan
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S L Forsburg, PhD forsburg at salk.edu
Molecular Biology and Virology Lab
The Salk Institute, La Jolla CA
http://flosun.salk.edu/~forsburg/lab.html
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