On April 5, 2023, 50 Yale Child Study Center (YCSC) community members came together by Zoom to extend and honor Women’s History Month with a special community meeting to lift the voices of five faculty members who volunteered to share their experiences as women in academia.
The session was opened and moderated by Tara Davila, who serves as an assistant clinical professor as well as vice chair for diversity, equity, and inclusion for the department. In her introduction, she referenced an article titled “The Glass Ceiling is Made of Concrete: The Barriers to Promotion and Tenure of Women in American Academia” which talks about the barriers to promotion of women in academia.
Davila explained that “women are up against the status quo. Men have been in the academy longer, more men have been promoted into positions of power, and there is a tendency to operate with affinity bias. This means that the people promoting tend to prefer people who are like them. We know the importance and influence of diversity on productivity and design. And without diverse voices in the spaces where decisions are made, decisions are often biased. We see many examples of this in the world – shall I remind us all about the laws regarding reproductive rights? – and certainly academia is no exception.”
Davila then provided some statistics from the Association of Academic Medical Colleges on The State of Women in Academic Medicine that suggest that male faculty are likely to be promoted sooner in academic medicine. “These trends and obstacles are compounded when intersectionality is considered, making these statistics for women who hold other historically marginalized identities even more sobering,” Davila said, adding, “but despite these challenges, there are women doing amazing things at our center, and today you'll hear from four volunteers from our faculty in different stages of their career who have overcome many obstacles and done some really great things.”
Associate Research Scientist Daryn David then introduced herself, noting that she felt protected by women mentors early in her career but then found it challenging to navigate aspects of new motherhood (like pumping) when she returned to the academy after several years working in other industries. She was followed by Associate Research Scientist ZJ Ng, who emphasized her perspective of being an immigrant woman at Yale.
Assistant Professor Chris Cipriano then introduced herself as a first-generation high school graduate working to support her female colleagues in balancing motherhood and career, as “mom-ademics.” Cipriano was followed by Associate Professor Laurie Cardona, who shared that she has been at the YCSC for over 30 years, during which time she had many growth-promoting experiences through some amazing female mentors, including Sara Sparrow and Laura Ment.
Davila then led the panelists to elevate challenges not just about being a mother but also in being a woman who does not have children for varying reasons and/or perhaps is past child-bearing years and experiencing hormonal changes; and the very personal questions that are sometimes asked – and assumptions made – of women in academia that men do not face. As the panelists addressed these topics and more, there was an active discussion in the chat with many other community members adding to the narrative Associate Professor Megan Goslin shared that she recently came across a related article, “Women leaders make work better. Here’s the science behind how to promote them.”
From there, the panelists and some participants shared a multitude of powerful experiences in the workplace, including some mentors and champions who impacted them in their careers and more broadly as colleagues – as well as the importance of representation.
Davila closed the session by saying that “this is like the tip of the iceberg here. There are so many things both positive and challenging that women face,” and inviting participants to “think about how you can elevate and make space for your colleagues and the unique circumstances each of them are going through. Have one hand on the wring above you and one hand on the wrung beneath you and just help them climb up with you.”