Taubman Institute Symposium to address academia gender gap

Accelerating the careers of women in academia will be the focus of a free public symposium hosted by the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute on Wednesday, June 7.

The symposium — entitled “Strategies to Empower Women to Achieve Academic Success” — aims to close the historic gap that leaves females consistently behind their male counterparts in salaries, grant awards and opportunities for advancement.

It runs from 8:30 a.m. – 11 a.m. in the Kahn Auditorium in the A. Alfred Taubman Biomedical Science Research Building.

Attendees will confront the reality of today’s status quo: Despite comparable numbers of women and men that train in medical fields, women comprise only 21 percent of full professors and 15 percent of department chairs. Men also receive more independently funded five-year grants to complete research projects.

“Our main goals for the symposium are to bring together women and leaders at U-M to both enlighten the community about the issues, and also determine how to best overcome these common hurdles that hold back women as they strive to advance their careers as faculty and leaders,” said Eva L. Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., U-M’s Russell N. DeJong Professor of Neurology and director of the Taubman Institute.

The symposium will begin with a pair of keynote addresses by leading experts — Reshma Jagsi, M.D., D.Phil., director of the Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine, and Janet Bickel, a nationally-recognized expert in organizational and leadership development. The keynotes will be followed by a panel of distinguished senior faculty who will discuss related issues such as negotiation and promotion strategies, work/life balance, networking and tips for success.

“We expect women will walk out of this symposium empowered and excited about advancing their potential to become successful academic faculty and leaders,” Feldman said.

The symposium is free of charge and no advance registration is required.

For more information, contact Melissa Preddy, communications director of the Taubman Institute at mpreddy@med.umich.edu.