How eight initiatives are tackling neuroscience’s gender gap

The Transmitter: Can you tell us how the “Stories of Women in Neuroscience” podcast started?

Nancy Padilla-Coreano: When I was doing my postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I was one of the postdoc representatives for the seminar committee. It was really cool because I felt like I had a seat at the table. A friend and I were tasked with collecting name suggestions from the community. We created this form, collected names for a month and then sat down to narrow the names down to a few. My friend and I are into this conversation, discussing names, when my friend says, “Nancy, we cannot use this list.”

And I said, “What are you talking about? These are awesome scientists.”

And he replied, “There’s not a single woman on this list.” There were more than 50 names and not a single woman. And an hour into it, I had not even realized. I left that day thinking, “What can I do to educate myself?” It was like a project of redemption.

At the time, I was listening to a bunch of podcasts, so that was my idea: I’m going to interview women; I’m going to learn; and I’m going to educate myself. I have a friend, Catie Profaci, who did a lot of science communications, and I emailed her with the idea. She was super excited about it and agreed that this was needed. She helped recruit more co-founders, and we became a team of people. Together we came up with the concept for “Stories of Women in Neuroscience” (“Stories of WiN”). I really wanted interview-based episodes for connection and storytelling. And we also wanted to open the conversation up in multiple ways, so we came up with the polished profile component. It has been five years and 140 episodes and profiles so far.

TT: You and the “Stories of WiN” team published a paper in 2022 highlighting some of the lessons you learned from recording the lives of women neuroscientists. Can you share what those takeaways were? 

NP-C: After the first 50 stories, we thought it would be nice to try to take away some observations and lessons from this project. There are certain patterns here that help people, and women specifically, succeed in their careers.

One of the observations is the importance of early research opportunities, especially paid research opportunities. Paid research opportunities can be life-changing for those who are underrepresented in science. The second observation is how to manage self-doubt. We describe it as imposter syndrome in academia. Another observationis that it’s hard to blend life and research. How do you find that balance? How do you sustain that long term? Another observation was the struggle with breaking the mold of what a scientist should be like or look like.

So we, the members of “Stories of WiN,” recommend several action items based upon these observations. For example, increasing research accessibility, providing paid opportunities and incentivizing good mentoring. Mentoring is particularly important. Because of the gender biases in our society, mentorship seems to be a women’s problem, but it shouldn’t be. It’s similar to the idea of making academia more family-friendly. It seems pretty obvious that there should be institutional policies that are family-friendly for trainees and for faculty. And some universities have started doing that. But ideally, this would be something that the National Institutes of Health recognizes as a universal problem, and then there could be policies that go beyond actions that only really well-endowed schools can afford.

The last action item is recognition. Because of our gender biases, it’s harder for women to recognize themselves. It’s so important to be nominated for awards. There is a point in your career when everything is nomination based, and only people who have received that award before are able to nominate the next winner. Whatever biases are existing in the pool then get passed on generationally. So recognizing the work of women is super important.

The Transmitter: Tell me how the community began.

Sharna Jamadar: I co-founded the Australasian Women in Neuroscience Facebook community with a female neuroscientist from Western Australia, Lindy Fitzgerald. We met each other in 2016 when we were attending a retreat for female STEM leaders. It was a mixed-discipline leadership training retreat. We just happened to be the two neuroscientists there, and we connected over often being the only women in our local areas. During the retreat, we discussed creating an informal group or network where we could ask questions and make connections.

At the time, in 2016, Facebook really seemed to be the best fit for that network, particularly because we wanted something that was a little bit relaxed and open to anybody who identified as a woman. We ran a couple of information sessions about topics that women identified as being important to them. For example, when and how to apply for a promotion, and a few grant-writing topics in terms of how do you talk about career disruptions. We also sent a couple of submissions to some of the women in STEM initiatives that the Australian federal government was running at the time.

TT: Tell me more about the government initiatives the Australasian Women in Neuroscience community contributed to? 

SJ: The primary submission we contributed to was the Women in STEM Decadal Plan. In the submission, the community argued that to create lasting change for diversity in STEM, we must initiate broad societal shifts in the traditional roles adopted by men and women, as well in the way STEM workers are understood by society.

Specifically, we discussed that to stop the attrition of women at mid-career stages, we must initiate broad societal shifts in the role that women and men take at home and in the workplace. This includes shifting the norm that women are the primary caregivers for children and increasing access to parental leave for fathers and non-birth-giving parents. Furthermore, acknowledging the additional demands placed on minorities or underrepresented groups in the workplace, whether they are a minority by gender, race, sexuality, etc.

To use a personal example, I am often asked to be involved in certain activities because I am from some underrepresented groups. I am a woman and a brown person. I gladly accept these invitations, as I recognize the importance of role models in STEM, but it does take me away from my research, which is what I am assessed on when it comes to grants, fellowships and promotions. Meanwhile, my colleagues from better-represented groups are focusing primarily on their research. I don’t think there is a good solution here, other than to start recognizing the additional, often unseen, work that certain sectors of our community are performing.

Looking back on the decadal plan, which is now approximately halfway through the projected plan, I can see how much it was really shaped by women’s experiences across disciplines and how much it seems to have guided activities of leading STEM groups in Australia. It is gratifying that we had an opportunity to include women neuroscientists’ views during the consultation period.

The Transmitter: What does the Diversity Promotion Committee do?

Fumo Kubo: The main job is to hold a session at the annual meeting of the Japan Neuroscience Society. This is about a one-hour lunchtime session. We invite speakers, and the theme can differ from year to year. Last year, I co-organized a panel with Kei Igarashi. We invited established female professors Akiko Iwasaki and Yukiko Gotoh, and they talked about their science and their careers.

TT: You also moderated that session at last year’s meeting. What were some of the topics discussed? 

FK: I think people were especially curious to learn more about the speakers’ career paths. How they secured grants as women, how to ask for recommendation letters for jobs, how to find mentors, and so on. These were some of the questions from the audience. The speakers encouraged the audience to receive mentorship, not only from their immediate supervisor, but also from people outside of their lab.

TT: What drew you to join this committee? 

FK: The number of female scientists, especially principal investigators (PIs), is very low, and I realized that I somehow ended up being one of them. I wanted to do something for the community. I was lucky to be in good labs and to have worked with very good people. And I am grateful for my mentorship and supervisors. But becoming a PI, it’s very doable. I’m not a superwoman; people can do it. So my job is to be there, and to exist as a real person. And when someone sees me, they may think if she can do it, I can do it. I wanted to contribute to this committee by representing a female scientist, and this could be good for young female students who may want to pursue a science career.

TT: Neuroscience is often said to have a leaky pipeline for women. How can organizations and institutions better address this? 

FK: I think we need to reach a critical mass of women faculty to really change things and get our voices heard. Many institutions in Japan are starting to hire female-only positions, and this is a start. It’s also not just in neuroscience but in many fields of academia. Institutions are taking this as a very serious issue, and they are trying to increase the number of female faculty members. Now many job faculty searches are targeted to women. I think it’s the right move. Maybe women tend to think they are not good enough, and if the job calls were for both women and men, maybe women think, “I’m not good enough, and I should not apply.” But when the calls are just for women, then they think, “Maybe I can do it.” So this also changes the psychology of applicants. I think it’s a really nice way for more talented women to actually apply for these jobs. It’s working nicely.

The Transmitter: What inspired you to create the South Asian Women in Neuroscience (SAWiN) community? 

Sandra Sasikumar: I was doing a cognitive neuroscience summer school at the University of Cambridge, COGNESTIC, and it was an amazing opportunity. I learned so much. But I also realized how so many people do not know that these summer schools exist. People think that the only way to learn is to just do a bachelor’s, just do a masters. When I was sitting in that classroom, I thought maybe I should do something to inform people about all these amazing opportunities that exist. It was out of pure luck that I reached Cambridge’s program. And I wanted to make sure that other people do not need that same kind of luck in order to reach these opportunities.

When I looked at all the women in neuroscience programs, there were so many—which I was very glad to see. They are absolutely necessary. But I also realized how sometimes, even in those spaces, I felt a bit like an outcast. When you are in a room full of people who do not look like you, you might feel a bit overwhelmed and intimidated by those spaces. I know how important it is for women to see role models who look just like them. So I wanted to make sure that in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, all these women have access to these opportunities and can be in a space where other women look like them. I didn’t see any organization that was framed around neuroscience for South Asian women, so I thought, “OK, this, this is something I can do.”

I hope that this organization can be a starting point for many South Asian women to know that their voices matter. Their voices are celebrated, amplified and always welcome in our community.

TT: How have you been able to grow the South Asian Women in Neuroscience network? 

SS: I think a lot of it is word of mouth. We have hosted about five webinars and workshops now. And with each of these webinars, the attendance has been increasing, which is a good sign. I also think attendance is increasing because when I post about a development in SAWiN, all the other volunteers will also post the same thing. So there is that sense of connection that this is something we are doing together. Social media also plays a major role, and I have been very active on LinkedIn and sharing resources on SAWiN’s page. I’m hoping that eventually it leads to a point where people recognize SAWiN without much word of mouth. Eventually, people will say “Oh, we know that organization.” I hope we reach that point.

The Transmitter: How did this repository begin?

Ana Luísa Pinho: The Women in Neuroscience Repository (WiN Repo) was founded by Jessica Schrouff in 2018. She was already working on the database behind the repository at the time, but then she gathered a group of people at the Organization for Human Brain Mapping conference in Singapore to discuss it further. The idea was to have a database of profiles of women who are active in the field of neuroscience. This database could increase visibility of women in neuroscience to conference organizers who are seeking to create more diversified public events, like panels. They can use our database for their search. Our main idea is to increase visibility. Because by increasing visibility, and by increasing the chances of people talking about their work, then it becomes a platform that allows women to play a more interventive role in academia.

Joining WiN Repo was a decision to work on the axis of diversity that I know the most about. It’s not that I’m less aware about other axes of diversity or the challenges that others face. It’s more that this is the problem that I know best: the gender barrier problem. Also, I am very interested and have worked on neuroscience at the intersection of data science and big data. I found the idea of having a repository and gathering data about different profiles in neuroscience to be a very straightforward, elegant way to try to solve this problem.

TT: What are some future plans for WiN Repo? 

ALP: There are several things. We have different tenets we work on at WiN Repo. First is website development. We have the ability to create an account for the users of the repository, which now only creates a profile in the repository. You create a profile if you self-identify as a woman who is active in the field of neuroscience. But we want to extend this usability to everybody and allow people to become users of the site but not necessarily create a profile on the repository. If you don’t self-identify as a woman in neuroscience, you can still create an account to do other things. For instance, you can post on our forums of discussions or participate in activities that are related to raising awareness of gender bias. We are also trying to create a platform where people can sign in and advertise any type of institutional activities and events.

Most importantly, we also do active research. At the moment, we are trying to publish a new paper. We want to have data that demonstrate statistically that there is an enormous gap in academia and in neuroscience regarding levels of seniority. This is striking, even in fields where at the undergraduate level you see a predominance of women enrolling in masters programs and Ph.D. programs, like in biological sciences, for instance. But when you go up in hierarchical level, like the departments of universities, you still see a lot of the PIs are male. We have been working on a systematic analysis of funding allocations and the disparities between male and female researchers in securing funding. Our goal is to gain deeper insights into these disparities, their underlying causes and potential solutions. We have been researching this for quite a while, because we had to gather a lot of data from different resources all around the world. We are now summarizing these findings, and soon we will hopefully have a paper out.

The Transmitter: How did your WiN group begin?

Chinna Orish: I went to an American Society of Neurochemistry meeting in Arkansas in 2017, which they sponsored me to attend. During the course of that meeting, there was a mentorship lecture given by Dana McTigue where she discussed the challenges women in science faced and how to overcome them.When she finished, I was like, “Wow, this is very interesting.” So I went back and met Dana and said, “I’m quite interested in your talk. I’m from Nigeria, Africa.” So I asked her, “Can you send me your PowerPoint presentation?” and she did. I came back to Nigeria on 2 March 2018. I used my money, bought a roller stand, got some drinks and gathered my friends. With this meeting I inaugurated the Women in Neuroscience, Nigeria group at the University of Port Harcourt.

TT: What has your experience been like leading Women in Neuroscience, Nigeria? 

I’m very, very proud of Women in Neuroscience, Nigeria. We are being recognized internationally because I’ve interacted with lots of international folks, such as the Women in Neuroscience Repository. Our organizations are collaborating to organize some programs together. Also, lots of women, especially young women, have joined the field of neuroscience. These women testify that based on our initiatives a lot of them are being empowered, and many now have a peaked interest in pursuing a career in neuroscience. Some of the initiatives from Women in Neuroscience, Nigeria include women’s health initiatives where we discuss health issues and challenges and work-life balance.

The Transmitter: Can you tell me how the Organization for Human Brian Mapping’s Women Faculty Special Interest Group got started? 

Hyang Woon Lee: The Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) has professionals with diverse backgrounds—not only doctors, but also researchers in various fields, such as clinical psychology, psychiatry and brain imaging. The diverse environment was very attractive to me. I met several women professionals at the OHBM, and we shared common interests. As women, we were facing similar and very challenging situations at different stages of our lives and in our academic career paths. Together we shared our experiences and got some advice from each other. So we decided, why don’t we just make a special interest group? We founded the Women Faculty Special Interest Group two years ago. It was 2023, in Canada, when we first gathered officially at an OHBM meeting.

TT: How is the OHBM Women Faculty Special Interest Group trying to address the challenges women are facing? 

HWL: One way we try to help our members is to have open forums of discussion. Last year at the OHBM’s meeting in Seoul, we hosted a roundtable meeting. We had panelists on the stage and gathered questions from the audience and also from our members. They asked some very vivid questions, including, “How can we survive in this situation, especially in male-dominated academic societies?” There were so many questions, and they were discussed very intensively. I didn’t actually expect that. But there were men who also attended this roundtable. So it attracts everyone’s interest, because we commonly experience these kinds of challenges everywhere in the world.

Additionally, we want to increase awareness of our challenges, so we try to make some online forums and blog posts by community members at the OHBM Women Faculty Special Interest Group. For example, we wrote several articles last year in our community blog. One post went out on International Women’s Day in March. One of our members interviewed several successful women researchers at the OHBM who are role models in the community.

TT: What have you learned from leading this special interest group?

HWL: When I was a young researcher, if I had difficulties in my working environment, I would just have to bear it. Don’t talk about it; just bear it. That was my survival strategy. But these days, if we just speak up and open up the problem officially, sometimes we can have solutions or receive good advice from others. Sharing whatever challenges we have is very important, and it’s very good to solve that problem realistically. Many people have similar experiences, and some of them very wisely get through and overcome these experiences. Speaking up about my problems has relieved my stress a lot. It’s comforting to know that it is not only me who experiences this kind of difficulty.

The Transmitter: Tell me about World Women in Neuroscience. 

Emmeline Edwards: World Women in Neuroscience (WWN) is a nonprofit organization that’s purely voluntary. Our primary mission is to promote career development for women neuroscientists across the globe, with an emphasis for women in under-resourced countries. We promote mentoring, networking and developing communities.

In 2024, we had a number of both scientific and professional development sessions in Japan, in the Netherlands, in Pakistan, in India, in Brazil. We actually engage with professional societies in those countries to get an assessment of the needs of their women neuroscientists. Then we develop a program to address those issues. For example, in Africa, we realized that a lot of the mid-career women actually had some very specific needs because they were no longer eligible for certain fellowships and opportunities in their current institutions. This idea of really assessing where people are and what they need is the way that we actually develop our programs.

TT: What programming do you think has had the most impact for WWN members? 

I think one of the most impactful WWN programs has been our mentoring platform. We worked with an organization called MentorEase to develop a platform that uses an algorithm for matching mentors and mentees. We offer, free of charge, a year-long program for mentors and mentees to actually work together—not only to discuss career plans and discuss their science, but also to give them the opportunity to overcome any barriers that they are facing.

In addition to the mentoring platform, we have what we’re calling a speaker’s bureau, where researchers are encouraged to put their information out there and express their willingness to give presentations at local, national or international meetings. Invariably, we encounter organizations that say, “Well, we’re looking for an underrepresented person to give a talk, but we can’t find them.” We thought that having the speaker’s bureau would help meeting organizers identify researchers from underrepresented groups or researchers from different countries to give a talk. Those two major efforts are really what members would get the most benefit from in their career advancement journey.

In addition to those two offerings, we also do monthly webinars where we feature the work of WWN members. In 2024, for example, we had both scientific and career-development webinars on a number of topics. And each of those talks was given by WWN members from all over the world, which was amazing. Whenever we have those webinars, it’s always so rewarding to see on Zoom the beautiful faces of our members from all over the world.

WWN also offers this idea of being in a community. We have had multiple meet and greets over the years, and it’s an opportunity for people who have heard about WWN to come in and tell us about their interests. Whenever we have those meet and greets, we follow that up with a formal networking event so that people who actually have common research interests can initiate collaborations. WWN not only provides opportunities for members to expand their careers but also to become part of a community. That is really an important contribution that we’re making to the field of neuroscience in general.