AAP Voices Blog

Women in Medicine and the Impact of Barbara McClintock

Imagine it’s a fall day at your local pumpkin patch or corn maze. Have you ever thought about the tapestry of beautiful and varied colors of kernels on a cob of corn and how those colors come to be? 

Much of the science behind the genetic variation in pigment on corn kernels comes from work by Dr. Barbara McClintock, the first American woman to win a Nobel Prize in the sciences in 1983. Her discoveries in the maize model system - including transposable elements that are often referred to as “jumping genes” - transformed our understanding of genetics and enabled innovations in the field that revolutionized everything from plant breeding to life-changing gene therapies that have the potential to eliminate deadly heritable conditions.

Her work exemplifies what women can do when given the opportunity to engage in scientific pursuits. As a woman in medicine and a practicing clinical geneticist with board-certifications in pediatrics and genetics, I have been fortunate to matriculate through college, medical school, and residency at a different time than Dr. McClintock. However, gender inequality still exists in medicine. I recall an ill-advised classmate commenting to our class that women should not be given seats in medical school as they would be less productive in their careers due to balancing childcare needs and maternity leave. While these challenges are very real – having experienced many myself- they don’t mean that women suffer from a lack of productivity. I am grateful for the support I was given during these moments in my career and strive to provide the same to new physicians.  

Dr. McClintock was outspoken about how being a woman, and thus an outsider, allowed her to view her work with a different perspective than the men around her and make observations that they couldn’t. Likewise, I feel that my roles as a mother and wife have made me a better physician and help me bring a unique perspective to the role of physician-scientist and leader of a research team.

Unfortunately, studies have continued to identify and track gender differences in promotions in the medical field. Women physicians face slower promotional timelines, are less likely to reach associate or full professorship compared to males due to outdated promotion processes, and women are less likely to be endowed chairs even in Pediatrics where women are the majority.

One study stated that “too often we put the onus on women to change their behavior, but closing this gap will require institutions to make promotion systems and policies more equitable”

A quick search in PubMED, a database of published peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, demonstrates the impact of her work with over 32,000 publications on “transposable elements” of which nearly 1,000 were published in the last year alone. Transposable elements constitute over half of the human genome and have played a profound role in genome evolution, including blood cell production.

As an avid but mildly successful gardener, I can appreciate the beautiful, rich variation in nature that is all around us and revel at Dr. McClintock’s accomplished research. I also appreciate the inherent difficulty of her career path and the obstacles she described that she faced as a woman.

After dozens of peer-reviewed publications and years of grant writing, I was honored to receive research funding from the National Institute of Health. To pay this forward, I have shared my experience with colleagues, mentored numerous students at various career stages, and described my journey to receive research funding with a colleague in hopes that the next generation of female physician-scientists reach gender equity.

I am hopeful that Dr. McClintock would have been proud to see the progress of women, as studies in recent years have shown that 45% of grant applicants and 38 to 46% of grant reviewers were women. However, that hope has been called into question as communication pauses and funding cuts have left patients, medical workers, researchers, and residents scared and confused about the future of health care. My state, Massachusetts, received approximately $4 billion in National Institute of Health and National Science Foundation funding last year with National Institute of Health funding supporting more than 28,000 jobs.

Dr. McClintock’s story shows why diversity in STEM research is critical and her work exemplifies the value of basic science. Both of these concepts are very much under attack and she is the perfect figurehead to represent this struggle. Think back to the mesmerizing beauty of nature in the rainbow of kernels on a colorful ear of corn. Limiting the full potential of female faculty and not seeing the value of diversity women physician-scientists bring to the table, would be like erasing those colors and making all corn a bland, homogenous yellow, with detriments to science, research, and medicine as a whole.

Women physicians face slower promotional timelines, are less likely to reach associate or full professorship compared to males due to outdated promotion processes, and women are less likely to be endowed chairs even in Pediatrics where women are the majority.

To celebrate Dr. McClintock please pledge to support research and all researchers. Clinical geneticists, genetic counselors, physicians, researchers, physician-scientists, patients, and the community alike must all support one another – let’s make a pledge to support science in honor of Dr. McClintock.

Check out “tiny.cc/sciencepledge” to learn about this initiative. 

*The views expressed in this article are those of the author, and not necessarily those of the American Academy of Pediatrics.