Discussion at Canadian Pain Society - Women in Learning and Leadership

1. Women in Learning and Leadership
Role of Men in Promoting Equity
Jim Woodgett Disclosure
@jwoodgett
Presentation at WILL discussion session at the annual meeting of the Canadian Pain Society
April 4th, 2019
#CPSWILL

2. @kimgoodwin

3. Men (who needs us?)
• Unfair, unreasonable and likely impossible to expect women
to drive quest to full equity
• Men still dominate decision-making committees
• Men are sometimes uncomfortable in or don’t understand their role
(deference, indifference, appropriateness)
Given this, if men do not engage and ally with women,
progress will be stagnant (or worse)
• Many men passively prefer status quo in which they’re advantaged
• Some men actively work against equity

4. What can/should men do?
• Listen, learn and be aware
• Be supportive - if asked for help, say yes
• Be pro-active but not dominant (all too often)
• Be cognizant of your role and advantages (self check constantly)
• Be constructive with criticism
• Be an advocate
• Call out bad behaviours of colleagues (with effect)
• Suggest, promote, celebrate women colleagues at every opportunity
(not this)

5. Leadership
• Can be daunting, thankless and lonely...
• Leaders have self-doubts, question their abilities, are imperfect
• But men cover this up with *confidence* and *assertiveness*
• Attributes that are seen a positive in men and a negative in women
• Among the many societal barriers to women (thousands)
• How to neutralize?
• Everyone likes to be lauded, confirmed, supported
• Men leaders need to encourage and open up opportunities
• Question assumptions (on search committees, promotion committees, grant
panels, any circumstance where people are being judged in some way)
Actual book!

6. • Embrace and advocate for EDI initiatives (e.g. Athena SWAN)
• Realise there is and will be resistance (challenges)
• Understand that these are not enough – they are nudges towards equity
• Don’t be silent – that’s a choice against equity
• Be prepared to step back – it’s not about you!
• And constantly check your privilege (we’re really bad at this)
Ways Forward for Men to Help

7. Don’t be Bob (National Acad. Sciences code of conduct debate)
“But Robert Weinberg, a cancer scientist at MIT, characterized
McNutt’s effort as a “crusade.” He adds: “Before there is a
mad rush to approve such an ejection procedure, it might be
useful to ask whether sexual harassment by a member has
anything whatsoever to do with their credibility as a scientist
and the soundness of their research accomplishments—the
criteria that were used to elect them in the first place.” He
argues further that criteria of guilt in sexual harassment
investigations will vary “vastly” from one institution to
another.”
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/04/national-academy-sciences-will-vote-ejecting-sexual-harassers

8. Do be Ron (Vale)
Cell, April 18, 2019

9. How the entire scientific community can confront gender
bias in the workplace. Kathleen E. Grogan. Nature
Ecology & Evolution vol 3, 3–6 (2019)
(lots of references to studies about barriers to women)
Resource with data on barriers to women in STEM