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Preface When I speak to young women about how to be successful, I give them several pieces of advice: Believe in yourself, find a mentor, talk to women who are successful and find out how they did it, and, above all, find out what your passion is and follow it. With the publication of this book, I will have to add another tip: Read this book! Inside these pages, you will find the rewarding stories of women chemists who have made it to the top in corporate America and in government laboratories. Their success stories resonate with inspiration, wise advice, and humor. I knew many of these women before reading the book, but I learned something new even about those women from reading their stories. I hope readers of this book will as well. More importantly, I hope readers will give this book to girls who they might want to inspire to become chemists. The stories of these women should indeed inspire our next generation. Above all, I hope that this book will convince all young women who aspire to be at the top of their profession that, as the famous lyricist and songwriter Cole Porter once wrote, "The apple on the top of the tree is never too high to achieve." But to get that apple, women must possess self-confidence. A lack of self-confidence and a lack of self-esteem are nearly universal problems that haunt women at some stage in their development. Girls and young women in particular suffer from a lack of selfconfidence that holds them back. Still, this is not limited to youth. All of us know women well into their 40s who are very successful at what they do who still think they aren't good enough, smart enough, thin enough, or pretty enough to succeed. It's possible that men have a gene for self-confidence on their Y chromosome, because research has shown that the Y chromosome has been shedding genetic material for years and there is not a lot left. I don't really believe this is true, but sometimes women do act as though they
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are missing that gene for self-confidence. I don't think we can wait for cloning to solve this problem. We must help each other to succeed by reinforcing how very good we are! All of the women profiled in this book not only have selfconfidence (or learned to gain it), but they also have a passion for what they do. And this is my last bit of advice for all who aspire to be successful, and the women in this book exemplify this advice: No matter what career pathway you choose, you should do it for something other than money. You should do it because you love it with a passion, and because you believe in it. A career is like a love affair. It has its ups and downs--but overall, it must be rich and rewarding. It must be bursting daily with possibilities and promise, or why bother? It must provide an environment in which you can constantly grow and learn. It must make you want to get up every day and go to work. It must be fun. I can't imagine staying in a relationship that didn't have these qualities, and what else is a job except a relationship where you spend anywhere from eight to 16 hours a day? I can't imagine spending even a minute at work without feeling passionate about it. It's not always easy to find therightperson—or therightcareer. Sometimes we simply don't choose wisely thefirsttime; presumably, we learn from that experience and move on. Making that transition can be painful, but it can also open up exciting possibilities. So it is with a career. The important thing to understand is that there are alternatives— that there might not be a single right choice that will give a lifetime of satisfaction. Fortunately, there's a veritable cornucopia of career possibilities for people trained in chemistry at all degree levels. I am a firm believer in seizing the day. That is what the role models in this book did, and I urge the readers of this book to use every day to advance your careers. As the famous public speaker Dale Carnegie advised: "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." Make the most of it.
Madeleine Jacobs Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer American Chemical Society 1155 16 Street N W Washington, D C 20036 th
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Editors' Comments On a roller-coaster ride, one may experience ups, downs, thrills, excitement, and—in some cases—fright; the same can be said for both personal and professional experiences. This book is intended to reach a variety of people, allowing them a glimpse of what others have done with their science backgrounds and to gain an understanding of the multitude of options available. Based on a series of interviews, the book showcases more than twenty women chemists and their compelling success stories. In highly readable and honest accounts, these women tell of the challenges, positive influences, and personal aspirations that have helped shape their individual careers. The diverse professional choices they have made and the range of innovative strategies they have employed guarantee their stories will provide inspirational reading for anyone interested in achieving success in chemistry—or any technical field. The first chapter includes information on the general status of women in the chemical industry, while Chapters 2 through 26 capture the women's success stories. At the end of this book, readers are given the perspective from corporate human resources, a summary of the pervasive messages found in interviewing these women, and the opportunity to read about the authors themselves. This book features several women from the American Chemical Society (ACS) Women Chemists Committee (WCC) newsletter series, Successful Women in Chemistry, as well as from the 2003 symposium Corporate America's Contribution to Science: Successful Women Chemists, held at the 225 National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. th
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We thank the authors, interviewees, symposium sponsors, and Cheryl Brown for administrative assistance. This has been a wonderful experience. We hope you enjoy and learnfromthis book as much as we have enjoyed interviewing these women who have made significant inroads into science.
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Amber S. Hinkle Bayer Materials Science 8500 West Bay Road Mail Stop 18 Baytown, T X 77520
Jody A. Kocsis Lubrizol Corporation 29400 Lakeland Boulevard Wickliffe, O H 44092
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