EJN: What has your experience been as a woman in science and academia? Do you have any memorable moments surrounding that piece of your scientific identity?
TRAINOR: Oh, that’s a complex question. I would say that in general, I have been lucky. I have not experienced some of the really terrible things that I know some of my colleagues have experienced. At the same time, my department is less than a third women, and that’s not a good thing. There are definitely barriers for women. When I first took my job at McMaster University, it was 1992. At the time, I had just finished my PhD and I was in my mid-30s, because I had taken a circuitous route to becoming a neuroscientist, and I was pregnant. When I was offered the position, I did not tell them that I was pregnant until everything was signed; I was afraid that they wouldn’t hire me if they knew that. It turned out the policy was that you had to have been working at McMaster for a year before you were entitled to maternity leave. So I ended up going into work with my infant so I could breast feed, and hiring a baby sitter so they could play in my lab as I was setting it up. The good side of it was that my department was wonderful. They made accommodations like putting my teaching into the second term, rather than the first one when the baby was younger. They helped me through that period, so I’m very grateful for that. But, at the same time, it was hard not to have a maternity leave. Things have improved since then, but women still face barriers and are more likely to have to make decisions that sacrifice their careers.
Canada has experienced large immigration over the last while, and we have a very multicultural society. Our students reflect this and are increasingly diverse. This is a good thing, but women who are from an equity-seeking group may have a particularly difficult time. I try to look for those students in the classes I teach, who might not feel like they belong, and encourage them to engage in research courses. I think we can all contribute at the individual level to making academia more inclusive.