We're on a roll this week. Today's New York Times' article reports a study by the Association of Art Museum Directors, prompted by one of its members, Lisa Phillips, director of the New Museum in New York that found . . . a gender gap (!) at the top of the museum world.  It turns out that woman hold almost half of the directorships at small and medium sized museums, but only  24% of the top jobs at major museums are held by women, and their compensation is 29% lower than their male counterparts.

"There is a difference if a woman is running one of these big museums,” said Elizabeth Easton, director of the Center for Curatorial Leadership, a training program in New York that has helped place nine women in directorships, but none at the country’s most influential museums. “Those directors are the most loud and authoritative voices. It sets the tone."

"Scientists continue to neglect gender in medical research, endangering women’s health by focusing on males in studies that shape the treatment of disease, a report found." (Bloomberg.com)

A series of small choices and some luck led me into a lecture by Carolyn Mazure, PhD at an AYA Assembly years ago. I have to admit that sessions on women’s health were pretty low on my interest scale, but I had bumped into a good friend who knew Carolyn and so we went in together. I was stunned by the information Carolyn imparted, entertained by her style and passion, and embarrassed by my previous lack of interest.  Carolyn is the director of Women’s Health Research at Yale, and I am now on the WHRY Advisory Council.  WHRY has been a significant force in research on issues affecting women’s health, providing seed funding, collaborating with key scientists, and communicating results to health care professionals and the public.  It’s hard to overstate the importance of their work, and the other day we got more evidence that it is still needed.

Even Geena Davis, who has worked hard to identify the gender gap in films and address it through her Institute on Gender in Media, was shocked to learn about the gap in screen time between men and women actors in Oscar-nominated films, revealed in a New York Times article this past weekend.  I'm not sure I was shocked, but for YaleWomen, the statistics reinforce our passion for our 50/50 project, the goal of which is to achieve gender parity at all levels of government, media, academia and the business world.

http://nyti.ms/1fL3JKf

We invite our members to get involved - join on our website and indicate an interest in 50/50, or email us at [email protected].

The Yale AIDS Memorial Project (YAMP) is an alumni-led initiative to honor and document the lives of hundreds of men and women from the University who perished during the AIDS epidemic. YAMP will pay homage to the deceased—students, faculty, and staff—by building a memorial website with their biographies, photos, and reminiscences from friends and family. By telling the story of AIDS through the lens of a single institution, YAMP will make the epidemic palpable for a younger generation and help stimulate an AIDS memory boom.

Since publishing its first Journal of 8 profiles (click here for excerpts), YAMP has engaged the support of the Michael Palm Foundation and recruited design studio Linked By Air to develop and design the memorial website as an interactive platform.

YaleWomen is co-sponsoring the Website Launch and Fundraiser for YAMP on Wednesday, November 20th, 6:30pm at Christie's (20 Rockefeller Plaza, NY). Get your tickets at https://yamplaunchnyc.eventbrite.com/

Neela Banerjee shares impressions from YaleWomen's inaugural global event in the latest issue of the Yale Alumni Magazine:

Whether Sotomayor’s talk set the tone or reflected the mood of the participants, the inaugural get-together of YaleWomen was marked by a disarming frankness. From freshly minted graduates to those who attended Yale’s professional schools in the 1950s, alumnae seemed happy to connect with generations of women like them. They celebrated the achievements of speakers and listened rapt to their advice.

At the same time, speakers and participants voiced frustration with longstanding policies that fail to take account of differences in the health needs of men and women; with the paucity of women in tech and politics; and with the enduring difficulty of balancing work and family. Most startling, and perhaps something that would not have surfaced if men were present, speakers and guests openly discussed their struggles and fears, which, rather than dampening spirits, seemed to heighten the intimacy being built that day among Yale women.

Read the rest of the article here and let us know what you thought!

Missed the YaleWomen Conference in April? Check out our playlist on YouTube to watch highlights and reflections from our inaugural global event hosted in Washington, D.C.