Increase exposure and visibility of women in neuroscience
Provide role models for young women who aspire to careers in science
Increase transparency of success (and failure) in academia
Help identify external factors that allow women to succeed
Advocate for women in neuroscience and encourage others to do the same
Mission Statement
Our mission is to highlight the voices and stories of all Women* in Neuroscience, including those who have been historically marginalized in academic spaces.
There are many viable paths to and through a neuroscience research career. However, academic culture often pressures scientists into hiding their uncertainties, setbacks, and the quirks of their career journeys in order to preserve a certain status in the scientific community. Newer generations of scientists are pushing back against this dominant culture by cultivating a more modern one—one that encourages its members to share their unique stories and perspectives. Importantly, this new atmosphere also places value on all voices, not just the voices and ideologies of those who traditionally hold the most power in academia. In providing a platform for amplifying these voices, we at Stories of WiN hope to demonstrate that power and strength come from the bottom up. We hope to show that academia, at its roots, is a group of individuals, each of whom brings something different to the table. By highlighting the voices of all women, especially those whose voices have been historically silenced, we acknowledge their individual value and contributions to neuroscience. We hope their stories may in turn broaden our listeners' conceptual framework of what it means to be an academic scientist. We hope that Stories of WiN becomes more than the sum of its parts.
Through our mission, we strive to practice feminism that uplifts all women, including trans and non-binary women. In practice, this means discussing the challenges facing all women in academia while also acknowledging that some women face greater challenges at the intersection of womanhood and other facets of their identity—race, gender expression, sexual expression, class, religion, and disability, to name a few. When these intersections are ignored, feminism helps only cis white women at the expense of others. In this way, mainstream feminism can directly contribute to racism, transphobia, and ableism and can further silence the voices of women who face different struggles unique to their lived experiences.
Although the number of women with neuroscience PhD increases each year, the percentage of those women from underrepresented backgrounds remains low—about 4% and 3% for Latinx and Black women, respectively (Ramos et al., 2017). While these numbers are sobering, studies show that having role models of shared identities can increase one’s perceived chances of success and sense of belonging in STEM fields (Johnson et al., 2019). By increasing the visibility of women from minoritized groups, we hope to help connect aspiring young neuroscientists with the voices of important role models, so that every self-identified woman can envision themselves in the field of neuroscience.
*For the purposes of this project, we take Women to include anyone who identifies as a woman, as well any non-binary or gender non-conforming individual who has identified as a woman at any point.
References
Johnson, I. R., Pietri, E. S., Fullilove, F., & Mowrer, S. (2019). Exploring Identity-Safety Cues and Allyship Among Black Women Students in STEM Environments. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 43(2), 131–150. [link]
Ramos, R. L., Alviña, K., & Martinez, L. R. (2017). Diversity of Graduates from Bachelor’s, Master's and Doctoral Degree Neuroscience Programs in the United States. Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education: JUNE: A Publication of FUN, Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience, 16(1), A6–A13. [pdf]