Advancing Women: Fighting gender discrimination in medicine and science
Elizabeth Hay and Lynne Reid were both passionate advocates for the advancement of women in medicine and science.
Reid worked diligently with groups like the Women in Academic Medicine Network and the Joint Committee on the Status of Women, which she chaired from 1989-1990, focusing on issues such as career advancement and promotion, mentoring and networking, managing maternity leave, and sexual harassment.
Hay felt that “committees spend too much time talking,” according to Anne-Marie Scholar, who conducted the interview with Hay displayed to the right. Hay focused her energy on helping women through her position as an administrator, recruiting the top female candidates for open positions within her department. Reid, too, believed strongly in creating a level playing field for women within her department and beyond, and appointed more women as research scientists in her lab from 1960-1980 than was typical at the time, according to her mentee Dr. Rosemary Jones.