Biophysical Society Bulletin | February 2019

Career Development

Surviving and SucceedingWhen Under-Represented in Academic Science Dear Molly Cule,

How do you make friends? Ask people to go to lunch. Invite them to your house for dinner. Invite them out for drinks or dessert after work. Go to the gym with them. Assemble a group to see a movie. I know it feels weird to make friends as an adult, but you need to do it. Also, remember that people are busy, just as you are busy. If you don’t get a response or get a no, you have to try again. Spending time with friends outside of work helps you identify your shared values as scientists, researchers, teachers, and even parents or mem- bers of the community or town. Having shared values builds trust, which is essential for sharing difficult or embarrassing situations where you might need help. Have mentors. Some departments have assigned mentors and you might hit it off – that is great. Much like you should not have only one set of friends, you should also not have only one set of mentors. You also need to make sure your mentors are many different types of people (diversity!). They can be peer mentors at or away from your institution, senior faculty in or out of your department, and even deans and provosts. You need to be able to trust them, and that might mean being friends with them (see above). The principles of cultivating mentors are similar to those for friendships. The main difference is that you should come with questions and be comfortable asking for help. Ask for help. You will have to swallow your pride and ask for help about embarrassing situations. Asking for help may feel like a risk, but if someone is truly a mentor or friend, they will want to help you. Another amazing side-effect of asking for help is that when people help you, they have a vested interest in your success. It’s true! When a mentor spends time and effort on helping you, they will want you to succeed even more because they already have invested themselves in your success. Further, when you ask someone for help, it shows you trust them, and they feel obliged to retain that trust. Asking for help may feel risky, but it is actually the best way to build and maintain relationships. Identify when you are being marginalized because of your identity. When you are a woman and/or a minority in a majority white-male world, you will be treated differently because of your status sometimes. We all want the world to be fair, but honestly, it just isn’t always unbiased. Some peo- ple are mean. Many people are unconsciously biased. It will happen, so how do you identify it, so that you know what is “normal” for all scientists and what is related to your identity?

I am a minority, woman junior faculty member. I often receive vibes that I do not belong, and I can’t find many role models. Most of these issues are not

apparent and outright racism or sexism, but I can’t always tell why things seem so hard for me. What can I do to navigate my way to be successful in science as a member of an under- represented minority group? First, let me start off by saying that the Biophysical Society truly welcomes you and would like you to feel supported here. If there are things we can be doing to help you feel more com- fortable in the Society, please let anyone at the Society know! That being said, it is a fact that we all must face: when you are a minority in a field, it is hard to tell if the problems you face are “normal” for the career path or due to your minority status. By making an effort to see if the issues you face are widespread in the field, or related specifically to your minority status, you can avoid being labeled as a whiney minority who wants special treatment. While not a solution to the larger societal problems your questions lay bare, here are some strategies to help you to survive, cope, and succeed in science. Make friends. Many minority scientists feel isolated be- cause they don’t make friends at work. Even if you are a total introvert and are rejuvenated by being alone, I still advocate making friends. If you are a minority-status person and there are other mi- nority-status people around, creating a community with them may be helpful. There might be issues or events that you can’t talk about with majority-status people. We all need to have people we can relate to who can help us work through how to fix issues we notice. People with a similar background may have faced similar problems and may be able to help you or just listen. You also need friends who are majority-status people. Why? Because these people may be able to help you elucidate if what you are seeing and feeling is racism, sexism, or strug- gles of any career in science more generally. It may be helpful for you to know how a white male would deal with the same situations you are dealing with, and if they say, “I’ve honestly never had that happen,” then you know that what you are dealing with might really be specific to your minority status. Talking to them about it may help you to come up with new solutions to these problems, as well as making them aware of the issues faced by scientists who do not look like them.

February 2019

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