Black women in sciences to get child-care aid
For Tamar Gur, working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic has meant writing papers, conducting telehealth appointments with her psychiatry patients, and overseeing several students and scientists working on her research project in an Ohio State University laboratory.
She also has four children at home with her in Bexley, ages 2 to 11, and a husband working long hours as an obstetrician-gynecologist.
“The only reason I know it’s not impossible is because I’m doing it,” said Gur, an assistant professor of psychiatry, neuroscience and obstetrics and gynecology at OSU.
Gur knows she is fortunate: She and her husband can afford a regular baby sitter.
Many other women who are trying to establish themselves in the fields of science or medicine struggle with child care and end up dropping their careers. A 2019 study from the National Academy of Sciences found that 42% of women in those fields dropped out within three years of having their first child.
In 2014, Gur co-founded an online support group called Academic Research Mothers, which has grown to include
about 2,500 women. Earlier this year, one of those women listened to group members discuss the Black Lives Matter movement, and she hatched an idea.
“I saw a lot of white women posting, ‘What can I do?’ (to help),” said Mariya Sweetwyne, an acting assistant professor in the department of laboratory medicine and pathology at the University of Washington.
“I thought, ‘Why don’t you do something besides reposting a bunch of memes?’”
The result was a Gofundme drive to help pay for child care for Black women either studying to enter a science or medical career or doing post-doctoral work in those fields.
From its creation on June 19 through midday Wednesday, the fund had raised more than $41,000 toward the goal of $60,000.
And Sweetwyne and Gur are wasting no time getting the money into the hands of those who need it.
The HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) Foundation, headquartered in Gahanna, and Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, have agreed to help administer the funds. In the next month, they are to identify candidates for grants, which probably will be $3,000 to $4,000 apiece.
“I thought it was a fantastic idea,” said Daniel Moss, the HBCU Foundation’s executive director and CEO. “It was an unsolicited inquiry from a group of mothers on Facebook, which made it all the more novel and exciting for us to help facilitate this as best we could.”
Sweetwyne said that in Seattle, where she lives, apartment rent averages about $2,000 a month, and child care is $1,700. Given that the pay of those doing post-doctoral work averages about $4,000 a month, it’s easy to see why women might drop out.
She and Gur hope that the
Gofundme campaign continues to feed money to the HBCU Foundation and Meharry. Both of those institutions also are setting up ways to donate. “Women, after they have children, tend to drop away,” said Sweetwyne, who is researching the cell biology behind kidney aging and regeneration. “It’s sort of treated like, ‘Well, she chose to have a child instead.’ So it’s heartening to see people stepping up to support this fund.”
To donate to the Gofundme account, visit www.gofundme. com/f/the-arm-fund-for-medicaland-research-trainee-moms. Donations also can be made through the HBCU Foundation at https:// thehbcufoundation.org/ or Meharry Medical College at home.mmc.edu and click “Give Now.” In the Memo field, specify “ARM grant.” kgordon@dispatch.com @kgdispatch