The WCC's 75th anniversary started off with a bang. The "Diversity in the 21st Century - Advancing Women in Science" symposium began with remarks from Dr. Eli Pierce, ACS President, who articulated a theme that would resound for the remainder of the afternoon. "If we (the ACS) want this new century to be as successful as the last, we too must embrace diversity," he said. Dr. Helen Free was the moderator for the session, and introduced the symposium as a broad-based look at the factors needed to insure the continuing success of women in the sciences, directed at all meeting attendees with special emphasis on women, minorities, and younger chemists - all of whom represent the future of ACS and the chemical profession.
The first speaker was Ms. Kathleen Bader, Corporate Vice President, Quality & Business Excellent and Business Group President, Styrenics and Engineered Products, Dow Chemical Company. A few of the key issues she raised included the fact that today, retention & advancement are the critical measure of success in diversity. Industry has learned how to recruit. While overt discrimination is mostly a thing of the past, a key barrier holding back women and minorities is the subtle issue of inclusion. To be successful, diversity initiatives must be driven from the top. At Dow, mentoring and networking opportunities are key to their successes in retaining and advancing women and minority scientists. However, an opportunity for continued improvement is the need to better coordinate compensation & recognition packages between the technical and management ladders to attract more diversity in the technical fields.
Next, Dr. Marye Anne Fox, Chancellor, North Carolina State University, asked "who will do science in the 21st Century?" The critical question, she posed, was to continually challenge - why not is the most important inquiry. She reviewed Val Kuch's data on parity in education, and noted some of the more prevalent barriers still remaining in academe. She also pointed out a study undertaken by AWIS highlighting some of the key factors departments should consider when searching for new faculty. Retention, again, is a key measure. She closed by encouraging women to pursue management jobs in academia, as becoming the "person in power" enables you to be able to ask the questions, and get answers.
Dr. Steve DiBiase, Vice President, Emulsified Products, Lubrizol Corporation, spoke on people as key source of competitive advantage. He was adamant that capturing the value of diversity was not an option but a requirement for survival for companies today. Success, he reiterated, must be driven from the top, and requires multilevel support necessary to ultimately become part of the corporate culture. While numbers are the most prevalent methodology for measuring success, success in diversity and claiming the competitive advantage is ultimately not about the numbers but about driving increasing success in your business.
Dr. Shirley Jackson, 18th President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, focused on the "underrepresented and underserved majorities - women, minorities, and those with disabilities." She described the ongoing efforts of BEST (Building Engineering and Scientific Talent) to continue the work of several Congressional initiatives of the past several years. In order to succeed, Dr. Jackson passionately advocated the need to build the national will to change to accommodate the need for S&E trained people. One methodology is through intervention - at the junior and high school levels, using novel pedagogies like team based approaches for introductory courses, undergraduate research, and mentoring.
Ms. Fran Keeth, President and CEO, Shell Chemicals LP, wrapped up this session by pointing out that the chemical industry is no longer the most attractive workplace for the best & brightest science and engineering talent. Today, while industry has made strides, the corporate hierarchy is inhibiting and minorities often are still not heard. The need for creative & innovative problem solving and the growing globalization of the chemical industry makes diversity a true business imperative. Shell is measuring several different components in its diversity efforts, including moving to have "country chairs" of their international businesses the same as county -a major change from today. They also have set a goal of having 20% women in management by 2008.
She eloquently described the situations resulting from a lack of inclusion, the need for more progressive, gender neutral language, and most interestingly, redefined 'safe' as being more than the environmental, safety, and health factors that comprise the knee-jerk reaction of most industrialists to that term.
This symposium, organized by Mary Funke of Job Spectrum, brought together leaders in diversity practices as recognized by Forbes, Working Women, Working Mother Magazine, and others. The speakers represented BP, a world leader petroleum/petrochemicals firm, Abbott Laboratories, a pharmaceutical firm, Lucent Technologies, a telecommunications company and world-renowned research lab, and Proctor and Gamble, a consumer products company. The symposium offered a collection of best practices, including a number of family-oriented programs and benefits, like flextime, on-site day care, and concierge services (take out meals, dry cleaning, and car washing were most often mentioned). The effective use of networks for multiple groups, which were pointed out to be far more inclusive than divisive, and the need for mentoring were often mentioned as key factors for success. The "3 R's of diversity" - recruit, recognize, and retain - were all cornerstones of each company's success. Keeping flexibility as a mindset and providing training and education that is dynamic, changing with the changing needs of the employee and management groups, are also essential for success.
The need for public recognition for the accomplishments of women and minorities - getting the lights from under the baskets - and the need to provide a 'safe' environment where people feel comfortable expressing thoughts and opinions that are "different" are part of the structures needed to integrate diversity into the fabric of a company. Leadership from the top, combined with advocacy and insistence on the business imperative of diversity further drives the culture change in a company.
"To remember all that is in our past, and so in our present, is to achieve unity of self." H. Richard Niebuhr, twentieth-century American theologian, who understood that "to remember all" strengthens our awareness of life's meaning beyond the present. It enables us to comprehend the persons, events, and institutions that have contributed consequentially to our gains and losses, as individuals and as a species.
Such was the driver for the symposium, held at the Orlando ACS meeting, entitled "Women Scientists of the Manhattan Project Era", sponsored by the WCC, the Division of Nuclear Chemistry & Technology (NUCL) and the Division of the History of Chemistry (HIST).
The symposium's five speakers highlighted the complexity and magnitude of the scientific and engineering accomplishments of the Manhattan Project, and attempted to capture the significance of the project and the roles played by the breadth of the project's participants, especially those of women working on the project.
(Speakers, Left to Right) Steve Stow (Oak Ridge Site Historian); Michelle Gerber (Hanford Site Historian); Carol Herzenberg (Argonne National Lab); Darleane Hoffman (Priestley Medalist 2000, National Medal of Science 1997); Isabella Karle (Naval Research Laboratory)
Though it has been long believed that there were "few women of science" on the Manhattan Project, the speakers collectively provided much data to the contrary, especially noted authoress Caroline Herzenberg, whose book chronicles the contributions of over 300 scientific women on the Project. (See also http://www.geocities.com/cherzenberg/Manhattan_Project.html for additional reading). Isabella Karle, 1995 National Medal of Science recipient, regaled us with "her-story" as a "pig-tailed technician" on the Project in Chicago in 1945. She highlighted the accomplishments of her still-living colleagues from the team she was part of - which reads almost as a "who's-who" in science and engineering.
Enrico Fermi, Isabella and Jerome Karle, Chicago 1945
2000 ACS Priestley Medalist and 1997 National Medal of Science recipient, Darleane Hoffman, lovingly spoke of her career in nuclear chemistry, many of the changes she has seen over time, and her hopes for the future of nuclear chemistry and science.
The two Site Historians of the group, Steve Stow and Michele Gerber, reminded attendees to learn from the lessons of the era, but to be cautious about applying today's perspective to judge actions from that time. (A book on the Hanford Site and its place in this history (.pdf)).