On what is Important
Nancy Genieser
“Your family is most important, but a strong family is always supportive of your efforts. If you are proud and pleased with what you are doing this is reflected in your demeanor and your family will feel your pride and therefore they too will be proud. You must set aside time to show them how proud you are of their accomplishments. It doesn’t matter if it is a soccer match where they are a substitute player or the captain of the team, just that you took time to show how much you care about their accomplishment and how excited you are to observe them play.”
Elissa Kramer
“Having the opportunity to extend a supporting hand to young women: students, housestaff, and occasionally junior colleagues. I also have appreciated having an interesting and challenging job that keeps me more than busy and that keeps the creative juices flowing.”
Final Observations
Whether Dr. Summers’ remarks are viewed as offensive or not (he was asked a priori to be provocative and was successful) he did stimulate discussion of this contentious but imperative topic. Summers will be remembered for catalyzing, in the winter of 2005, discussion and critical self-examination of university faculty gender composition in academic institutions across the country. The lasting effects of his comments will be borne out in the future. In the context of the disappointing subtext of President Summers’ comments, the situation in the NYU Department of Radiology provides a more encouraging scenario. In a responsive and correctly supportive environment women flourish in radiology. As women radiologists achieve success and continue to assume leadership positions this state of affairs will be reinforced and perpetuated—women are naturally role models and mentors for other women. Sustaining the notion that women inspire and support other women, it is interesting to observe that a number of our female leaders spent a portion of their education at single sex schools; leadership being a natural consequence of such an education, proponents would argue. Indeed, all three of the female Vice Chairs are products of the Seven Sisters. Regardless of the various reasons for their success, their achievements are remarkable. One of our women leaders commented that she never perceived any gender barriers hindering fulfillment of her aspirations. The challenge for all radiology departments, indeed for all of medicine and science, is to make this sentiment universal.
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