“Despite visible and invisible social and cultural barriers, women have reached pioneering milestones in neuroscience since the dawn of this modern discipline”
“A cultural change, institutional actions, and the promotion of historical projects are among the needed solutions to increase awareness of bias and barriers, and to continue building a safer, diverse, collaborative, and innovative environment for the whole neuroscientific community.”
A reminder that you don’t need to be a woman to support women, and we advance our field with the contributions of everyone.
Hi, Ece! Are there any actions or programs at your university related to this day that you enjoy? I feel like here we’ve been stuck in a loop of established female scientists sharing their journeys in talks. While I still find that valuable, I can’t help but feel we’re neglecting our responsibility to younger generations and that there is more we could do.
i’m not aware of any specific activities that happened at my uni for this day particularly, i found out about the day through twitter just talking about my own department at uni of colorado, we do have support in general, in terms of professional development, career advice, negotiations, addressing sexism and other types of discrimination but you do need to seek them and they may not be as openly available in every department. for starters, when i first started the faculty job here, they assigned us coaching sessions where the coach discussed any topic i may need support on, and we also get assigned formal faculty mentors. the first thing i got during my first mentoring meeting was a “smash the patriarchy” pin from one of my mentors and there’s a women in neurology gathering we do every quarter. it’s a bit open to how you want to roam, but at least there is the support.
Well, we missed that here but it’s such an important day. I remember when I became the first female neurologist for my hospital Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, in its 70 years since establishment, everyone made such a big deal out of it.
I was just tired of studying and just wanted to clear that fellowship considering the long route to subspecialization in our part of the world.
It is when female residents and medical students sent me WhatsApp messages and emails that I realized what it really meant to everyone. They told because I have they now believe they can. They see Neurology and brain health as so difficult and frustrating but when I teach, they give me the feedback that it’s so simplified, they want to know more.
I have come to believe that though specific programs are great to be part of, the experience we give to our younger generation or colleagues or researchers through opportunities we give them, how we make them feel and how we make systems around our work easier so they feel comfortable to lead in this path that we have chosen.
I am encouraged everyday to do better because they are watching and would thrive when we give them the opportunity.
just talking about my own department at uni of colorado, we do have support in general, in terms of professional development, career advice, negotiations, addressing sexism and other types of discrimination but you do need to seek them and they may not be as openly available in every department. for starters, when i first started the faculty job here, they assigned us coaching sessions where the coach discussed any topic i may need support on, and we also get assigned formal faculty mentors. the first thing i got during my first mentoring meeting was a “smash the patriarchy” pin from one of my mentors and there’s a women in neurology gathering we do every quarter. it’s a bit open to how you want to roam, but at least there is the support.