Teresa Woodruff, MSU president emerita and Research Foundation Professor addressed delegates at the recent Science Summit of the 79th United Nations General Assembly titled, ‘Advancing the role of Women in Science for "Sustainable Development in Africa: Lessons for Leadership of Higher Education Institutions." The following is an excerpt of her speech, which is posted in full on University World News Africa Edition.
As president emerita of Michigan State University (MSU) in the United States, a research scientist, a globalist and a woman, I remember that, when I began speaking abroad in the early 1990s, I was often the sole female scientist on the dais.
When I went to China just after the events at Tiananmen Square, women were mostly working under the tissue culture hood, not at the professor’s desk.
When I received what was known as the ‘nobel prize for women in science’ in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and shook hands with the third in line for the crown, there was a gasp from the women cordoned off from the male audience by dress and by a physical partition.
When I travelled to Africa to talk about oncofertility, fertility management in the cancer setting, the script was flipped, from the standard discussion on contraception to a more holistic kind of family planning.
As provost, then president, at MSU, working with extraordinary colleagues in both offices, I worked to understand the circumstances of career advancement for those in all academic ranks and to create organisational strategies for more equitable processes and to provide support for individual scholars, meeting their needs where they were.
My research and leadership career, and that of my female colleagues from across the globe, demonstrates the importance of women scientists in broadening the questions asked and the perspectives taken to make creative leaps forward for all of humanity and the critical role those experiences play if and when we become leaders.