Celebrating the IADR’s Women Pioneers: Pathways for a New Century of Success

Abstract

In this celebratory time for the Journal of Dental Research and the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), it is fitting to dedicate a special theme issue that honors the women of the IADR whose research and leadership efforts have blazed trails for others to follow. Timely and significant is the need to also assess the current status of women in the academic dental research workforce to provide the framework upon which the IADR and its stakeholder groups can build future programs and initiatives for the new century ahead. New analyses and commentaries on the gender gap, such as those reflected in The Lancet issue on advancing women in science, medicine, and global health, highlight the universal injustices faced by women in all biomedicine disciplines (Bachelet 2019). In the United States, recent positions taken by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2018), the National Science Foundation (2018), and the National Institutes of Health (Collins et al. 2019) have led to an overhauling of policies and procedures that have so far proven to be ineffective. Such changes are directed toward achieving safe environments for women professionals. Additional policies at research meetings will also ensure that the “manel” tradition is broken, thus creating level playing fields where scientists of all backgrounds are evaluated fairly for speaking opportunities (Collins 2019). The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, in marking its 2018 centennial celebration, committed to increasing the number of women in all its leadership forums by 2030 while striving to increase the percentage of women surgeons from 8% to 30% in the next century (Lee et al. 2019). The significant and pioneering contributions of women dental professionals in the United Kingdom over 100 years are highlighted by Janine Brooks (2019). While several of the issues identified are translatable to women in other specialized fields, reports on the status of women in academic dental research are limited in the literature. Such gaps in knowledge should be addressed, as the greater number of women entering the dental profession and the biomedical research workforce naturally creates more robust pipelines for dental, oral, and craniofacial research. The dental and craniofacial research workforce has to systematically examine not only demographics but also policies and practices to create an equitable, fair, and civil workplace. The lack of inclusive policies has significant effects on the way that science is conducted, with negative impacts on health care outcomes (Garrett 2018; Zarkowski 2018). In the opening article of this issue, Tiwari and colleagues (2019) assess growth trajectories in gender diversity and inclusion, as reported for several countries that are represented in the global membership of the IADR. As was best possible, data were sought about historic trends as related to the number of women entering dental schools, as this cohort signifies the largest pipeline for dental academic researchers. Those pursuing academic careers and those involved as leaders in decisionmaking forums were included, with the focus remaining on the professional cohort of women who function in the dental academic environment. The second article, by Ioannidou et al. (2019), discusses critical issues that affect gender equity in academic environments—namely, pipelines, economic equality, workplace harassment, gender bias in scholarly productivity, and work-life balance. Also discussed are IADR-led initiatives to advance the status and career advancement of women dental academic researchers. Li and colleagues (2019) analyze further the number of women in leadership roles within North American dental schools as well as in major professional organizations and prominent dental journals. They conclude that despite the steady increase in female enrollment in dental schools, women are underrepresented in leadership and administrative roles. Next, D’Silva et al. (2019) sought to analyze data on the IADR’s Distinguished Scientist Award winners who were recognized for distinctive contributions in 17 disciplines (established within a 60-year period), as this serves as a positive indicator of how women dental researchers are recognized by their peers. This study demonstrates for the first time that the overall pool of awardees parallels the diversity of the IADR’s global community. Recommendations were made to correct the discrepancies noted between the total number of women awardees and the percentage of female members of the IADR. 880489 ADRXXX10.1177/0022034519880489Advances in Dental ResearchCelebrating the IADR’s Women Pioneers research-article2019