One solution that's often offered is just to get the numbers right. And that's just not the answer because you create, I would say, more damage than problems that you solve. So, the real problem is A: having women who are prepared to be on an equal footing and then providing them with the resources they need to be successful. So, for women, you're fighting with two hands tied behind your back. You probably have less grant support. You probably have had less experience. And you've got to navigate the way on your own. So, I don't have the solution to the persistent equity problem, but I don't think that the simply number counting, bean counting, is going to fix anything because then there is likely to be obvious inequality. But I think women can help women more than they have, and part of it is numbers. I mean, are there women around to go to lunch with? No, because there are going to be fewer of you in your department then there are generally.

And so if I had an answer, I would implement it, but I don't have an answer. But I think part of it is consciousness, both by women and by men and some of those partnerships, some of that colleagueship is between women and men. And seeing if we can level the playing field in terms of the kinds of topics that are talked about and the kind of help that's given. So, I think if men on the faculty were more aware of the need to mentor women, everyone's proud of the women they have in their lab. And some male faculty have been fantastic about promoting their women students, their women trainees into bigger positions and I think that's really important.

Susan Hockfield is a neuroscientist whose research focuses on brain development and glioma, pioneering the use of monoclonal antibody technology demonstrating that early experience results in lasting changes in the molecular structure of the brain. She is a Professor of Neuroscience and President Emerita at MIT. She was the first woman and life scientist to serve as MIT’s sixteenth president from 2004-2012.

Hockfield earned her B.A. in biology from the University of Rochester (1973) and a Ph.D. from Georgetown University at the School of Medicine (1979). In 1980, Hockfield completed an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California at San Francisco. She then joined the scientific staff at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York where she ran her own lab for five years. She also served as director of the Summer Neurobiology Program from 1985 to 1997. In 1985, Hockfield became the William Edward Gilbert Professor of Neurobiology at Yale University. She went on to serve as the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 1998-2002, and Provost from 2003-2004.

In December 2004, Hockfield assumed office as the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She held this role until June 2012 and continues to hold a faculty appointment as professor of neuroscience and as a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.

Hockfield has received numerous awards including the Charles Judson Herrick Award from the American Association of Anatomists, the Wilbur Lucius Cross Award from the Yale University Graduate School, the Meliora Citation from the University of Rochester, the Amelia Earhart Award from the Women’s Union, and the Yale Science and Engineering Association 2021 Award for Distinguished Service to Industry, Commerce or Education.

She also holds honorary degrees from Brown University, Duke University, Georgetown University, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York University, Northeastern University, Tsinghua University (Beijing), Université Pierre et Marie Curie, University of Edinburgh, University of Massachusetts Medical School, University of Rochester, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory School of Biological Sciences.