The NIH Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers: Helping to Reduce Bias and Barriers for Women in Science

Authors

• WL Barfield
• JL Plank-Bazinet
• RO Bray
• MA Bernard
• JA Clayton

Abstract

While women currently account for nearly half of the trainees in the biomedical workforce, they are still significantly underrepresented in mid-career and senior level academic positions and are not equally recognized for their scientific achievements. In 2007 The National Academy of Sciences released a report “Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering” that brought national attention to these issues. Shortly after this report was released, the NIH established the “Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers”, a trans-NIH initiative with representation from chief leaders in the NIH Office of the Director, Office of Extramural and Intramural Research and NIH Institutes and Centers. The goal of the Working Group is to encourage recruitment, retention, and sustained advancement of women in science by examining intramural and extramural policies and developing thoughtful strategies to help women best navigate their professional journey. Since its inception, the Working Group and its subcommittees have created several programs and tools to support women scientists including: 1) “Advances and Insights: The Women in Science Newsletter” that showcases abstracts of scholarly peer-reviewed articles, features women researchers, and spotlights institutions with innovative programs supporting women 2) “The Women of Color Research Network” that promotes collaborations and sharing of resources among diverse groups of women 3) family-friendly policies that help employees manage work-life integration 4) educational conferences to help women establish rewarding independent research careers and 5) systematic efforts to increase the visibility of women scientists by nominating exceptional candidates for lectureships and awards.

Scientific Focus Area: Research Support Services

This page was last updated on Friday, March 26, 2021