One female student in a class of 20 men is not an uncommon class configuration in upper-level science courses. The gender imbalance rarely gets better later in academic life: the classroom is usually just a prelude to what women encounter as they seek PhDs, jobs, grants, and other milestones as scientists and professors.

The student group Wesleyan Women in Science (WesWIS) strives to address these issues of gender inequality, to foster a community of students and faculty supporters, and to provide networking and workshop opportunities for people of all scientific interests and backgrounds.

“It’s an academic mission to get a good gender balance in the sciences,” said Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Manju Hingorani, the group’s faculty advisor.
According to President Michael Roth, Wesleyan does suffer an imbalance between the number of men and women participating in its sciences, but that imbalance has evened out somewha in the past few years.

“I think there was much more of an imbalance between men and women in the sciences probably a decade ago,” Roth said. “The provost at the time, Joe Bruno, who was a chemistry professor, actually worked very effectively with the science faculty to show the fact that at the time, there may be some implicit bias at work, there may be some other things they were doing, that filtered women out in ways they didn’t consciously intend but was happening.”

At Wesleyan, as well as nationally, the life sciences fare better than areas like physics or computer science in terms of gender distribution.

Wesleyan has made strides in improving its numbers.

“We have lots of strong women faculty as role models and women peers as role models,” Hingorani said.

Wesleyan boasts a female Dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics—Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Ishita Mukerji—as well as a female Provost, Ruth Striegel Weissman.

“I think that actually sends a good signal to the student population and to the faculty about the important contributions women can make to the sciences,” Roth said.

Hingorani remarked that hiring more female faculty in the sciences encourages the participation of more female students, which contributes overall to a progressive, collaborative atmosphere.

“Diversity is better for innovation, and science is all about innovation, so it’s part of the academic environment and mission to encourage more women to go into science,” she said.

Although it was established more than a decade ago, WesWIS has become even more active in recent years. Hingorani attributes this change to the enthusiasm of the Steering Committee.

The Steering Committee acts as WesWIS’s leaders, coordinators, advertisers, and innovators. Its current members include Sophie Breitbart ’16, Katherine Ly ’15, Alex Irace ’15, Shannon Liu (a PhD student in Biology), and Michelle Woodcock ’14. Although these members engage in varied scientific endeavors, they all share the desire to encourage their female peers to pursue their own scientific aspirations.

“We definitely work to empower women in the sciences,” Irace said. “We don’t do it very explicitly; we don’t do protests. We are providing the opportunities to succeed in the science fields, to become acclimated to this environment, and to get to know professors and other female students at Wesleyan who are interested in the same thing.”

Irace also emphasized the role of WesWIS in creating a supportive network of women who can act as role models and mentors to each other. She says that having a network like this helps decrease dependency on men, who greatly outnumber women in the sciences. In order to establish these connections, WesWIS organizes a variety of formal and informal events.

“It’s very democratic,” Hingorani said.

The Steering Committee works to plan events that cater to the diverse scientific interests of the group’s more than 50 members. These events, which are open to all genders and both WesWIS members and non-members, include lab tours led by Wesleyan professors, career workshops, study breaks during midterms and finals, and mixers.

Last semester, WesWIS members organized an event called “Starry Night: An Evening of Stargazing and Hot Chocolate with Astronomer Meredith Hughes,” where about 30 students and a few professors enjoyed hot chocolate under a star-filled sky. This spring, WesWIS is planning a variety of events, including a trip to the annual NEURON (Northeast Under/graduate Research Organization for Neuroscience) Conference at Quinnipiac University and an open forum with a panel of Wesleyan faculty.

A professor from Skidmore will also speak at the forum, focusing on her research about impostor syndrome, the belief that one’s achievements are not due to personal efforts but are rather credited to luck or external factors.

“[Imposter syndrome] is a huge problem right now, especially [for women] in executive positions,” Irace said.

Irace added that she hopes that this forum will make women more aware of the prevalence of imposter syndrome, especially in upper-level classes at Wesleyan where the gender imbalance is so visible.

Both members and interested students have several opportunities to meet the other members of WesWIS at events such as a tea party in the astronomy library for professors and students; WesCourses, a biannual peer-mentor lunch during which upperclassmen give advice about academic scheduling; and Froyo Fest. Such events help promote supportive and friendly relationships among peers.

Sarah Lazarus ’17 said she joined the group not only because of the opportunities it offers her but also because she hopes to give back to this community when she is older.
“[WesWIS] makes it not only easier but more fun to go through the sciences, which is going to encourage you to stick with it,” she said.

Upperclassmen WesWIS members provide guidance for those who are still solidifying their majors, and they recommend different programs of interest. According to Lazarus, many freshmen become overwhelmed by Wesleyan’s large variety of academic offerings, as well as by the science department’s large introductory courses.

“I don’t really know what’s out there,” Lazarus said.

Roth said that, in order to attract and retain not only more women but also more minority students, the school is in the process of changing how introductory classes are taught. Taking a note from fields like biology, other science departments are altering class structures to focus more on group work than on large lectures.

WesWIS members also hope the group can harness more men’s support.

“I’d love to see more males get involved,” Irace said. “Just because it’s called Women in Science does not mean that only women are involved or should be involved.”