A group of prominent MIT scientists that formed to address gender inequities in the biotech industry released a report Tuesday that says male faculty at the school start companies at a higher rate than their female peers, and proposes a way to help close the gap.
The report ― which comes after two years of research by the Boston Biotech Working Group ― outlines a plan, called the Future Founders Initiative, that calls for collaborations between the university, venture capital firms, and faculty.
The findings, published in a special-edition Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty newsletter, comes two decades after “A Study on the Status of Women Faculty in Science at MIT,” a 1999 report championed by biologist Nancy Hopkins, which highlighted gender discrimination against female faculty. That study not only led to changes at the school, but it sparked a reckoning at other universities across the country.
