For International Day of Women and Girls in Science, QBI is drawing attention to the the important roles women play in science, and the continuous need for more diversity in STEM. We asked four QBI women who have recently started their own labs, including Faranak Fattahi, to share the challenging as well as encouraging experiences they face in their careers. 

What research area you focus on?

My research background is in stem cell biology and developmental biology. My lab basically uses stem cells to understand how different cell types are made during normal embryonic development. And once we have a way to recreate that process in a dish, we can generate the cell types on demand. So you can make your cardiac cells you can make your liver cells, or nerve cells. Once you have that, then you can study how it works, look at how it's affected in a disease or how it performs its normal physiological function. Our primary focus is on the nerve cells of the peripheral nervous system – meaning the nerves that are outside of your brain and spinal cord – and how they regulate different organs and different critical processes in different organ systems and parts of the body. 

What got you passionate about science in the first place and how did you start getting involved in the field?

Well, that goes way back. Science in general, I was excited about ever since high school. I really wanted to study biology, because at the time I was fascinated by macro biology, animals and plants, how they work and these types of things. Then I got into molecular biology in high school, then later started my bachelor's degree in medical biotechnology. So that's where I started to get excited about applied biological sciences and using basic science to really think about diseases, how to cure them, and how to translate those findings into therapies. Growing up in Iran, it's harder to do science. The conventional path when people are excited about life sciences or biology is to pursue medical school, which, I think, to some extent is also the case here. But, because basic science is not as easy to do and there aren't as many opportunities there, it's more common for people to pursue medicine, even those who aren't passionate about research. But I knew that I didn't really enjoy the medical practices as much as I enjoyed really dealing with science and scientific questions. So I went down that route. That exposed me to stem cell research and I decided I wanted to purse that. But again, for the same reasons, it's really not easy to access reagents and research resources or collaborations in Iran. So then I decided to move here to do my PhD back in 2011.

Did you have a mentor who played an important role in supporting you during your career?

Absolutely. Mentors can play a huge role in empowering their female trainees. I mean, you have to empower all your trainees, but sometimes, female trainees need a little bit more encouragement because they don't see as many role models or people that follow the same path. So I definitely had a lot of encouraging mentors at all stages, from an all the way back in high school, through my bachelor's and master's training, and then in graduate school. In graduate school I had a mentor who always empowered women and was supportive in every possible way. He would encourage people to speak up at meetings or go present research at conferences, talk about their science in department meetings, reach out to set up collaborations and take leadership of their projects. The position that I applied for in the Sandler program is not something that everybody is aware of when they're doing their PhD, and he introduced the whole program to me and told me I should go for it and said, "You're ready for this."

All of that is  really important coming from senior scientists, especially your own mentor, because you really look up to them. And you really need that extra encouragement and empowering attitude to really reach for these types of things, especially because at the time when I was applying for the Sandler fellowship, I think there were nine fellows and only one out of nine was a woman. I looked up some NIH funding mechanisms that support similar positions. One was called the Early Independence Award for individuals who want to start their own lab after their PhD. When I looked at past awardees, it was the same thing ... nine out of 10, or eight out of 10 would be men. And I was like "Well why is that the case? Is it that women don't want to do this? Is it too difficult to take on? Is the system somehow biased against them?" So my mentor's encouragement to apply was really a huge deal for me.

What you think can be done to help to encourage more diversity in STEM fields?

There are women in STEM, and then there are all sorts of underrepresented minorities that need to be represented in an equitable way. For me, my other female colleagues and male colleagues were instrumental in helping me, from sharing words of encouragement, helping me brainstorm science projects, collaborating with me and really taking a chance on me when I was just starting out. Your mentor plays a huge role, obviously, but then so does everybody else around you. And I find that my female colleagues that were around the same age or stage of their career have been really helpful in describing the barriers, talking about their experiences and giving me tips about how to navigate certain processes. I think peers are really important in helping women in science.

Have you seen or encountered gender discrimination in your field? 

I don't have any specific encounters that I can refer to; I think it's more subtle than that. I've experienced different challenges over the years with the process of succeeding in academia. Similarly to other places, it involves continuous negotiation due to limited resources, such as funding, lab space, or recruiting new talent that's coming in. So there is a lot of back and forth to try and figure out where your spot is, what you can take, and when. A lot of times younger, junior women, in particular have open attitudes and they want to share, be fair, and not be territorial or demand too much, which becomes an issue because they're willing to let go of limited resources that many others are eager to hold on to. Men tend to be given more resources off the bat. Those subtle behavioral differences between men and women sometimes translate into men taking a bigger portion of the pie in a consistent way. I've seen this happen a lot. But thankfully, I've been really lucky in having very supportive mentors and peers, and that's why I got this far. A lot of people are not quite as lucky andI'm sure they would have gotten a lot further if they didn't have to deal with those types of problems.

On the other side of things, when I think about running my own lab, there has to be someone who protects the rights of the minorities or even the youth  If they are new they might not know their way around, or what they're entitled to in terms of limited resources. It's the job of a mentor to then look out for those who are just starting out to make sure they get what they need to succeed. So same thing goes for minority rights. The institution has to look out for them beyond the simple policies. It's more subtle than that. It's also about the things that happen that are not so obvious, unless you're paying very close attention to what's going on and how things are unfolding around you. So you really need good allies and good mentors and good leadership to make sure things work out the way they should.

A big aspect of women in science is balancing a career with motherhood. Do you have a family of your own?

I don't have kids. But it's a really important point and I am glad you brought that up. I was speaking to one of my friends recently, who is going to have her second child very soon. She told me that is been really problematic in terms of navigating the next career move, because her kids are coming at a time where her career really needs a lot of attention, which many women experience. They need to be out networking, they need to be writing grants, they need to be out recruiting, and like all sudden, they have to be taken away from all that to be at home and take care of a young infant for a few months. So that is challenging.

I asked her what she would do if she had a postdoc who was going through something like this. What she said was very interesting. She said she would give them extra resources and hope, like a technician to help them out with experiments when they're gone. Careers don't have to stop for women just because they have a kid. It's a very critical window in their lives when they have to be making a lot of progress on the career front. Imagine this ... the pandemic, for example, was awful, but at least everybody was in the same boat. But when something like maternity leave happens, a women feels like everybody else is moving, and she is the one who has paused and is not making progress. So psychologically, it's challenging too. My friend also told me she feels like many of her friends who have several children give up when they are ready to apply for a faculty position because it's just too much and they feel like they have to choose. So it is a big problem and there are no easy solutions.

I think all of us as mentors can start to think about supporting our own trainees. And there are ways to provide extra help. If all mentors do their part, it will normalize it until it becomes the culture. Then things will start to get easier.