Today, women scientists have as many, if not more advantages than their male counterparts. Women are highly sought after by leading universities and journals, who are struggling to balance gender gaps. However, true equality remains elusive. One success story is the International Journal of Thermal Sciences, where Editor-in-Chief Yildiz Bayazitoglu, HS Cameron Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rice University, USA, recently appointed four women to the board.

These are far from token appointments: all four are highly respected engineers and, as Bayazitoglu says, “these are people we want on our board. Regardless of gender, they are leading scientists”.

Her female appointees are Professor Cristina Amon, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto, Canada; Professor Adrienne Lavine, Chair of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of California, USA; Nesreene Ghaddar, Professor and Endowed Qatar Chair in Energy Studies in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon; and Professor Pamela Norris from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia, USA.

Bayazitoglu firmly believes that, “it is a mistake to give misplaced credit to women and wrong to have less qualified women just to boost numbers.” She wants the very best people on her editorial board and that four of them are women is incidental.

The glass ceiling
Despite efforts to encourage women in science, some of the most prestigious jobs still seem to be a male preserve, which could be attributed to lingering sexism. Bayazitoglu, however, has her own theories.

For a start, education policies directed at attracting girls to science are relatively recent, and the first recipients of such encouragement are only now coming of age. Bayazitoglu believes that as time passes, this imbalance will diminish.

However, she explains that the biggest barrier is simply that at some point in their lives, most women are going to have children, and this is likely to occur at a key stage in their career. She makes it clear that this is also true for men to a certain extent.

Bayazitoglu’s own career and life is an excellent example of what women can achieve if they can balance the demands of work and home. Today, at 62, she can look back on a shining career. She holds several patents, has more than 150 publications in technical journals, has refereed conference proceedings, has been asked to chair the ASME Heat Transfer division and her undergraduate textbook, Elements of Heat Transfer, was translated into Korean. Her work as an academic and educator has been recognized throughout her career, resulting in an impressive list of awards.

She is also the mother of three, now grown-up, boys, all of whom are successful in their own right and bear testimony to a remarkable woman. But Bayazitoglu is modest, turning the conversation back to her husband, whom she credits with bringing joy to her life and making her career possible.

As she explains, she comes from an era when it was perfectly acceptable for women to stay at home. And if it were not for her love of research and teaching and the support of her husband at home, she might have done just that.

A woman’s work is never done
This, for her, is a key consideration: once women have children, their priorities change and without support, their work will suffer. But if this means women have to abandon their careers, science also loses their unique perspective.

According to Bayazitoglu, both mothers and fathers would benefit from some sort of assistance, through crèche facilities and more flexibility to structure one’s own career. “A cyclic work life whereby women reduce their work loads while their children are young, only to return later when they have the time and energy would be of great benefit to science in general.”

As she explains from her own experience, she now has the time to dedicate to her work and enough energy to keep on contributing for many years to come. “If they want to return later, it should be possible. I’m 62 and I can’t even imagine retiring. I’ve got enough energy to carry on for a long time.”

In her view, men and women are equally capable of success, but only when the parameters are the same. She firmly believes that to manage any high-level career, both men and women need help at home. The encouragement she received from her husband gave her the freedom to push her career forwards.

As things stand now, it is very hard for women keep their careers moving forward at the pace required to win top positions later in life. Bayazitoglu explains: “At every stage, after your immediate family, your career has to be your next priority. You need to make sure you can keep up with your research, papers, teaching duties and administration. Enough women are choosing careers in science, but they will inevitably find it hard to balance their responsibilities. Then, when they return with full energy, they see all their male colleagues have been concentrating on their careers and are now far ahead.”

Room at the top
This goes a long way to explaining the absence of women on editorial boards: first, the pool of suitable candidates contains few women; and, second, they have other priorities.

As Bayazitoglu explains, the role of editor-in-chief cannot be taken lightly. “It is a time-consuming job and the return in terms of career progression is minimal. For women with other responsibilities, I would recommend associate editor or editorial board positions. For me, I now have the time, and I have the support of my co-editors-in-chief and our publishing editor, who incidentally is also a woman. It is one of the few things in my career that I still had left to do, and I love it. But it is important to see it as a hobby. I have got so much out of science that I felt it was time to give something back.”

However, she is still keen to get women into visible positions. “I think it’s very important to give such opportunities to women. First of all, their input is valued, and, secondly, they will act as role models for younger women coming up.

“I personally wasn’t aware that journals were finding it difficult to recruit women to their boards. I respect and personally like the women I appointed and simply wanted to work with them. But it’s not like I forced them on; everyone agreed they were the right candidates. There was certainly no conscious effort to increase our female members.”

Although she won’t admit it, Bayazitoglu is a role model for women in science herself. She was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan, and the first woman to win the Heat Transfer Memorial Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Without any fuss, Bayazitoglu is steadily achieving for women scientists exactly what they deserve: respect.

To cite this article, please use: Michelle Pirotta, "Behind the scenes… Women on the board", Elsevier Editors' Update, Issue 23, August 2008