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From Science to Business Preparing Female Scientists and Engineers for Successful Transitions into Entrepreneurship: Summary of a Workshop (2012) / Chapter Skim
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2 Panel I: From Bench to Business: Career Paths for Ph.D.s
Pages 5-12

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From page 5...
... She focused on how to prepare entrepreneurship contexts in science and engineering for gender equity in entrepreneurship and innovation. Her sociological analysis of the transition from academic institutions to start-up firms has focused primarily on the life sciences, although over the past few decades there has been significant blurring of the boundaries between academic biology and bio-tech entrepreneurship.
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From page 6...
... In discussing women's entrepreneurship in the academic life sciences, Smith-Doerr cited Fiona Murray's findings on this topic: "within academic life sciences, women's entrepreneurship is evident in the form of faculty founding companies, patenting, inclusion on scientific advisory boards, and industry co-authorship."2 She emphasized that these entrepreneurship-driven faculty members tend to be full professors. Therefore, in light of the tenure gap exhibited in Figure 2.1, Smith-Doerr suggested that biotechnology entrepreneurship tends to be male-dominated, so that of those academics who become entrepreneurs, only 4.7 percent of company founders and 5.6 percent of scientific advisory board members are women.
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From page 7...
... She emphasized three recurrent themes from these interviews that help to explain the greater gender equity at biotechnology firms: flexibility in collaboration, increased organizational transparency, and emphasis on collective rewards. Smith-Doerr further explained that these characteristics are examples of network organizations in which there is indefinite and sequential interaction structure, norms govern relations, partners pool resources, expectations foster collaboration but 3 Smith-Doerr, L
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From page 8...
... She suggested that as more women become attracted to the entrepreneurial pipeline, other sectors may begin to follow the trending observed for biotechnology networking organizations. Lydia Villa-Komaroff, Chief Scientific Officer, Cytonome/ST, LLC To follow up with Smith-Doerr's discussion of gender equity in biotechnology entrepreneurship, Lydia Villa-Komaroff gave a summary of the European Commission – United States Task Force on Biotechnology Research Workshop "A Global Look at Women's Leadership in Biotechnology Research." This workshop brought together representatives from United States and the European Union funding agencies to develop a mutual understanding of gender diversity in both areas and to develop a series of recommendations and action items that could lead to change.
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From page 9...
... Presented by Andrew Collins, University of Olson, Norway at the workshop A Global Look at Women's Leadership in Biotechnology Research in June 2009. Adapted from European Commission report Mapping the Maze: Getting More Women to the Top in Research.
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From page 10...
... She suggested that discriminatory employee practices are visible from the very start of a career in sciences: women earn 24 percent less than their male counterparts.5 "When you look at women entrepreneurs, it is a somewhat better story but it's not a great story," she said. Windham-Bannister noted that 28-30 percent of primary owners of privately-held businesses are women, but the percentage of women owners increases to 40 percent when also considering women who are part-owners of privately-held businesses.
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From page 11...
... Similarly, she discussed a study of institutions affiliated with the Harvard Medical School that found that their female and male investigators had equal success at winning grants from NIH. However, women requested fewer dollars for their grants ($115,000 on average versus $150,000)
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From page 12...
... Finally, Windham-Bannister addressed the problem that many women entrepreneurs face of having limited networks. She suggested that they utilize available male mentors and their networks, as well as those associated with women.
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Key Terms

  • gender equity
  • venture capital
  • academic life
  • gender gaps
  • biotechnology research

  • networking organizations
  • hierarchical organizations
  • capital funding
  • fewer dollars
  • massachusetts life

  • science center
  • biotechnology firms
  • academic careers
  • science fields
  • chief scientific

  • european union
  • european commission
  • scientific officer
  • doctoral students
  • senior faculty

  • global look
  • start businesses
  • organizational structures
  • appendix table
  • scientists employed

  • supervisory roles
  • gender bias
  • significant gender
  • gender diversity
  • discuss gender


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