Women in science

On 08 March 2008, women and girls in many countries celebrated International Women’s Day—an “occasion to recognize women for their achievements and past struggles, and to look forward to the opportunities that await future generations of women.” This month, we profile several women working at CGIAR centers to give an idea of the contribution of female scientists in international agriculture, and the challenges they face.

Women have always played a significant role in agriculture, but female scientists are still underepresented in international agricultural research. Although men outnumber women at international centers like CIMMYT, the following profiles show how female researchers are making important contributions and paving the way for other women to follow.

The 2000 World Food Prize
“I wanted to study medicine,” says Evangelina Villegas, a Mexican native and a retired CIMMYT cereal chemist. “My mother loved to read about medicine and inspired me. But it was around 1943 and my father was against it—he heard that both the professors and the students would give me a hard time.”

Villegas instead studied chemical biology at the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico. About 40% of her classmates were women, she says. She went on to work at Mexico’s National Institute of Nutrition and the Special Studies Office, which was sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Mexican Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock—and which would later become CIMMYT. During this time, Villegas established Mexico’s first wheat industrial quality chemical laboratory. Supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, she received a PhD in cereal chemistry and breeding from North Dakota State University in 1967.

In 2000, Villegas shared the World Food Prize with CIMMYT maize breeder Surinder K. Vasal. It was awarded for their work to develop quality protein maize, which has the potential to improve the nutrition of millions of people worldwide. She was the first woman ever to win the World Food Prize, which recognizes people who have improved the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world.

“I wanted to improve the quality of food that Mexicans eat, especially for the resource-poor in both cities and rural areas. Also, cereals and grains represent the base of people’s nutrition in developing countries,” says Villegas. “My work at the National Institute of Nutrition led me to decide to continue in this initiative. I was very happy to work in this area and I believe we achieved something.”

After working at CIMMYT for 22 years, Villegas retired and began work as a consultant in maize protein evaluation for Sasakawa Global 2000, an international organization that aims to improve farm technology in Africa. In 2001, she joined the prestigious Mexican Polytechnic Group, a civil association that supports and promotes science and technology in Mexico. Villegas has found her professional life completely fulfilling. “I was satisfied with my work, my friends, and my boyfriends, and the idea of dropping everything to devote myself to a marriage never convinced me,” she says. “If you had a child in my time, you were expected to leave your job and raise your children. Many of my female peers of that time never got married, but instead devoted themselves to their work.”

Motherhood and molecular genetics
“The women in the generation just before me, very few of them got very far if they had families. Women with big names in science 20 or 30 years ago generally didn’t have children and I think that’s terribly unfair,” says Marilyn Warburton, CIMMYT molecular geneticist from the USA. “I’ve never felt like I had to sacrifice or decide not to have a family. Mine was the generation that first found fewer barriers. Having a very demanding job is difficult to combine with motherhood but if we want to get married and have kids and work we can. Whether all women in all countries can have both, I don’t think so.”

Warburton is head of CIMMYT’s Applied Biotechnology Center and has been an extremely valued member of CIMMYT’s team for a decade. Her contributions include important and recognized studies applying DNA markers to analyze tropical maize diversity, acting as spokesperson for CIMMYT on the use of biotechnology and related issues, and mentoring and training scores of researchers and students from developing countries.

One concern for women lab scientists is the lack of a fixed schedule or the need to work extended hours. A mother of two young children, Warburton will leave CIMMYT in June 2008 for a job where she believes she will have more time for her children. “I’d like to come back to international agriculture when my kids are grown and work the hours required, because I believe in the mission and I believe in science—and a lot of people do,” she says. “At the end of the day you think, ‘this is important, I want to finish it.’”

The life-blood of the Center in her hands
Mexican national Bibiana Espinosa, principal research assistant for CIMMYT’s wheat germplasm collection, studied agro-industrial engineering at the Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo and did an MSc at the Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y Desarollo, focusing on natural polymers. At CIMMYT, Espinosa oversees the conservation, seed increase, and distribution of seeds that are sent to CIMMYT partners and to farmers. Arguably, the life-blood of the Center is in her hands.

“In Mexico 30 or 40 years ago, when women turned 16 or 18 their only thought was of getting married and having children—that was it,” she says. Espinosa says her parents supported her decision to pursue a career in science and she and her three sisters have master degrees. Nonetheless, Espinosa is in the minority—twice the number of men study agricultural science at the postgraduate level than women (Source: National Women’s Institute of Mexico – 2004).

“I like working at CIMMYT because I identify with the mission and the vision of the Center,” says Espinosa. “I think women excel in science because they become impassioned and keep studying and researching until they suddenly find new ways of looking at things. Women are multilateral thinkers, which can help them to go beyond the clasical vision that men have in science.” “When Bibiana arrived she had a fresh assessment of the status quo, and made positive changes that have allowed us to work better, with fewer resources,” says Tom Payne, Head of CIMMYT’s wheat collection and pre-breeding. “She has reorganized the management of the work teams within the genebank, fostering work across activities by the same, more flexible team of staff which has led to a greater sustainability of staff competencies.”

In Mexico, says Espinosa, women can be excluded from some jobs or paid less than men. She reflects on succesful female scientists who have gone against the grain by having full-time jobs, being single mothers, getting divorced or married after 30, or deciding not to have children. “Mexico is a country of apparent freedom, but still, people’s decisions are questioned and judged all the time. It’s something I would like to see changed,” she asserts.

Espinosa plans to focus on her career and have children later. Scientists who are also mothers must be well-organized with their time, and those who are married must have their partner’s support so they can keep studying and developing as people, she says. “I definitely think women are making important contributions to science and that the success of a person in science does not depend on gender, but on the effort and enthusiasm that they put in to their work.”

Women play many roles in society
“You educate one girl and you have educated the whole community,” said Zubeda Mduruma, a Tanzanian national who is Coordinator of the Eastern and Central Africa Maize and Wheat Research Network (ECAMAW). “That’s because a woman plays a lot of roles in her extended family, her village, her mosque’s congregation, and the world beyond.”

Mduruma spoke about the status of women in agricultural science in CIMMYT’s 2003-04 annual report when she was coordinating ECAMAW, doing plant breeding, running her 100-hectare farm, and being a wife and a mother. Her words echoed Epinosa’s assertion that women are multilateral thinkers: “For a woman, it’s not unusual to handle three or four things at a time and do them well.” It takes hard work, persistence, and a willingness to venture into the unknown to make it in the male dominated world of agricultural research, Mduruma said. With the support of her mother, who stopped studying in primary school, she completed an MSc in Plant Breeding and Genetics from Cornell University, and a PhD from Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania.

The international exposure paid off. “Women scientists in Tanzania are more highly regarded in the outside world than inside the country. Partners would recognize that we got the job done well and then people within the country would take notice,” said Mduruma. Many in the research and governmental hierarchy think a woman can’t do the job, she said. “These people represent obstacles, but you need to assert yourself and prove through your work that you should be taken seriously.”