STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94303

 

 

STANFORD University SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Department of Genetics

(415) 497-5052 May 19, 1977

Dr. Ruth Kirschstein, Director
National Institute of General Medical Sciences
Bethesda, MD 20014

Dear Dr. Kirschstein,

Porm R Onan npiinceenaenteaitly

One of our excellent postdoctoral trainees, Dr. Jane Gillen, interrupted her

postdoctoral traineeship recently for the legitimate and laudable purpose of having
a baby. All went well, until she sought some weeks later to resume her work in the
department on a part-time basis, when we encountered the bureaucratic turn-down
which is documented in the enclosed correspondence. We are all agreed that it would
be unduly stressful for her to attempt a more than half-time committment away from
her baby until at least this September. I suspect that it will not be possible to
straighten out this situation for the result to be altogether helpful in the instant
case, but I wish to bring the matter to your attention to help avert future hardships.

While we can all understand the intent in the guidelines to filter out what
might be viewed as frivolous commitments of a less than full-time character; and
we can also envisage certain abuses if careis not taken; it is obvious that the
stringent application of this "no part-time appointment" policy is unnecessarily
prejudicial and even discriminatory with respect to the career interest of women
seeking to retain their foothold in an investigative career. This matter has my
personal sympathy both as a matter of principle and from somewhat comparable
experiences in my own family during the past three years. I hope I may have found

a sympathetic ear, and that you may be in a position to undertake some steps
toward remedial action.

These regulations seem particularly bizarre in contrast to the very strong
pressure that the institution continues to face both in principle and by regulation
from other branches of the Department of HEW to make any reasonable accomodation to
women interested in academic careers, and to avoid practices that cannot be inherently
justified and which in practice result in gratuitous obstacles.

With best regards,

Sincerely yours,

 

Jgs ua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

LT. J. Pp. KENNEDY, JR. LARORATORIES FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE, DEDICATED 1G RESEARCH IN MENTAL RETARDATION

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY HEREDITY NEUROBIOLOGY DEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE