It’s common for women in many industries to take years off from their professional careers due to family responsibilities. Women are typically the go-to caregivers for children and aging parents, which can limit how much time women are able to devote to their professional careers. For those who take time off, the gap in employment can present an obstacle to future career advancement.
ORWH’s Associate Director for Careers, Xenia Tigno, Ph.D., is committed to ensuring that women are supported in science-related careers. In the American Physiological Society’s recent article, “Climbing Another Ladder,” Dr. Tigno shares her own experience with navigating career advancement challenges. She also details her emigration from the Philippines to the United States, experience joining NIH, and role at ORWH.
Under Dr. Tigno’s leadership, ORWH has launched a variety of funding opportunities that seek to address the points in a scientist’s career that Dr. Tigno refers to as “precipices where women usually fall off.” While men can also apply to the funding opportunities, the opportunities are designed with the needs of women in mind. Dr. Tigno directly draws from her own experience—and the experiences of her grantees and colleagues in the science and medical communities—to inform the development of policies and new grant opportunities specifically aimed at supporting women in science.
Dr. Tigno’s work has particular significance to ORWH’s mission because many of the researchers who are interested in advancing women’s health are women themselves. “If you want a robust cadre of women’s health researchers,” Dr. Tingo says, “you also have to give equitable representation to women.”