Women in Biomedical Careers
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is committed to furthering the careers of both women and men in biomedical science and bioengineering research fields. A major part of the mandate of the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH), part of the NIH Office of the Director, is to develop opportunities and programs to support recruitment, retention, re-entry, and advancement of girls and women in biomedical careers (PL 103-43, Section 486e). To identify barriers to women’s professional advancement in the biomedical community, the ORWH sponsored public hearings and a workshop on women in biomedical careers that resulted in the report, Women in Biomedical Careers: Dynamics of Change, Strategies for the 21st Century, which inspired the development of a wide variety of programs and strategies at the NIH to support women’s careers.
In September 2006, the National Academies released a prepublication report, Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering, that called for an urgent, broad national effort to maximize the potential of women scientists and engineers in academia. The ORWH provided the initial funding for the National Academies workshop and report; later funding was provided by Eli Lilly and Co., the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the National Academies. The Committee on Women in Academic Science and Engineering that produced the report was chaired by Donna Shalala, Ph.D., President of the University of Miami and former Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and offered a broad range of recommendations for universities, government agencies, and Congress.
NIH Director Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni created the NIH Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers to examine the issues raised in the National Academies report and to respond to the challenges issued to government funding agencies to maximize the potential of women scientists and engineers. Dr. Zerhouni and Dr. Vivian W. Pinn, Associate Director for Research on Women’s Health and Director of the ORWH are co-chairing the Working Group, which will carefully consider the recommendations in the National Academies report and develop innovative strategies and tangible actions that can be implemented to promote the advancement of women in research careers both within the NIH intramural community and throughout the extramural research community.
The NIH Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers is an internal NIH committee. We welcome input from the extramural community and the public on this important issue and we will be providing opportunities for comments and feedback at public forums to be announced.
