International Women’s Day (March 8) is all about celebrating women’s achievements, while calling for a more gender-balanced world.
While there is still much ground to make up to achieve gender equality in the STEMs (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), positive changes are continuing to happen: The proportion of women researchers in increasing globally, and gender-based research is also growing in terms of size and complexity.
At The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research (IMHR), a large proportion of our scientists, trainees and staff are women who are making extraordinary contributions to mental health research and care.
In honour of International Women’s Day 2019, we sat down with just a few of the many inspirational women who work in mental health research to talk about their greatest career accomplishments; the ongoing research projects they are most excited about; the particular challenges and gender biases that still persist for women in science today; and why women’s contributions to mental health research are critical.
Kim Matheson, PhD
Joint Research Chair in Culture and Gender Mental Health
The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research and Carleton University
IMHR: What led you to pursue a career in mental health research?
KM: For me, mental health is a social justice issue. The lack of social equality and the marginalization of members of various groups based on, for example, culture and gender, is a strong stressor contributing to poor mental health.
IMHR: Can you tell us about a project you’re currently working on that you think can help give people hope about the future of mental health research and care?
KM: The Indigenous Youth Futures Partnership brings together a large team of researchers, frontline organizations, First Nations communities, and youth. We have the common goal of co-creating conditions in communities that are supportive of youth wellness and resilience. To date, youth have been subjected to the intergenerational and ongoing discrimination and trauma that undermine their well-being - but many youth have strong spirits and a determination to claim their sense of identity, culture, and community in order to prevent future generations from suffering in the same way they have seen their peers and family members suffer. These young people are inspiring and give us hope that the disproportionate rates of depression, suicide, and substance use that exists among First Nations youth will be diminished.
IMHR: Have you experienced any particular barriers as a woman in science and research?
KM:As long as gender biases continue to exist, one can’t help but be affected. While the barriers are not as explicit as they used to be, they are evident in how seriously women are taken.
"It continues to be a world in which exuding an assertive and confident aura of being the expert (a ‘masculine’ way of interacting) is respected, whereas listening, working in the background to empower, and recognizing your limits (a more ‘feminine’ approach) are much less recognized for the value that they add. Things are changing, though, and I think as long as we’re true to who we are and appreciate our own strengths, things will continue to change."Learn more about Dr. Matheson.
Patricia Burhunduli
M.Sc. Candidate, Neuroscience, University of Ottawa
IMHR: What do you think is the biggest question or challenge facing mental health research today?
PB: I think that the development of biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment of mental illness is extremely important. I study depression and suicide, and work with people who are diagnosed with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder. You can have two people come in who are both diagnosed with major depressive disorder, for instance, but have completely different symptoms. Mental illness is so complex, and this emphasizes the importance of biology, and finding underlying biomarkers that can explain this.
IMHR: What is your proudest career accomplishment to date?
PB: I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to speak directly with patients who have been diagnosed with depression and are experiencing suicidal ideation, and really understand what has happened in their lives -- and what it is about their biology -- that is leading them to want to lose their lives.
IMHR: What do you think are some of the main challenges still faced by women in science?
PB: I have two perspectives on this – one comes from the perspective of being a woman in science, and the other comes from me being a woman of colour in science.
"For me, I see the opportunity to be an example and inspiration for youth. For young girls, for instance, it’s important for them to be able to see women in positions that they hope to one day attain. The same goes for someone of colour: When minorities see someone in certain positions, they are then able to see that it’s also possible for them. "Learn more about Patricia.
Katie Dinelle
Manager, Brain Imaging Centre
IMHR: What led you to pursue a career in research?
KD: In high school I had a really amazing physics teacher, who got me thinking about studying science in my undergraduate degree. I was lucky enough to choose a co-op program in university, where I did four different research terms and realized that I really enjoyed the applied side of science. The thing I really love about research is that every day is different, and there’s a lot of problem solving and teamwork involved. As Manager of the Brain Imaging Centre (BIC), I work with so many different researchers on a diversity of research studies -- which inevitably presents different challenges from day to day.
IMHR: What do you think is the biggest question or challenge facing mental health research today?
KD: I’ll give you my biased answer because I’m standing in front of our PET-MRI scanner – but I think the biggest challenge is the development of some sort of diagnostic imaging tools. Developing tools that are going to help us with diagnosis and treatment planning for those with mental illness is critical, because these just don’t really exist right now.
IMHR: Have you experienced any particular barriers as a woman in science and research?
KD: I’ve been amazingly lucky in that I haven’t experienced any major barriers because of gender, and I’ve had both male and female mentors all the way through.
"Definitely in the STEM sciences there’s still a bias though, and in physics – I mean, how many male physicists do you know and how many female physicists do you know? I think there’s just a lack of exposure to high-school aged girls to see that physics is a reasonable career path to choose, and there are options there."Learn more about the Brain Imaging Centre.
Tanya Halsall, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Youth Mental Health Research
The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research
IMHR: What is your proudest career accomplishment to date?
TH: Definitely the work I’ve been involved in with Dr. Ian Manion here at the IMHR. I connected with him when I was finishing my PhD, looking for opportunities to do evaluation research, and he was interested in submitting a proposal for what eventually became an international knowledge translation platform for integrated youth services (FRAYME). I helped him bring all the partners together, create the network, and support strategic development of the initiative. Today, FRAYME is a pan-Canadian and global network of research practitioners and policy makers, who are all focused on increasing the uptake of integrated youth services to promote wellbeing.
IMHR: What do you think is the biggest question or challenge facing mental health research today?
TH:I think it’s really looking at how interventions can bring individual strengths and contextual strengths into consideration when serving people. It means ensuring a more holistic approach that can serve and empower individuals with mental illness beyond clinical support or treatment, and enable them to actually make bigger contributions to society.
IMHR: Have you experienced any particular barriers as a woman in science and research?
TH: Definitely, yes – I think that most of the challenges I’ve experienced are related to being a working mother. There are other systemic issues that exist as well, but there are definitely a lot of opportunities that are just not open to someone who is caring for dependants for part of their time. . I know that personally, I’ve missed out on some opportunities. You have to sort of divide your time commitments between work and family, and you always feel like you’re saying ‘no’ to somebody.
"I have been lucky to have mentors who are progressive and understanding of the challenges related to work-life balance. They have been flexible when difficulties come up related to childcare while also helping me to recognize my potential. Also, I have had mentors who were mothers with young children. Seeing them handle these challenges has been really helpful for me to recognize that there are ways to pursue a career in research while also raising a family. "Learn more about FRAYME.
Jennifer Phillips, PhD
Associate Scientist, Mood Disorders Research Unit,
The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research
IMHR: What do you think is the biggest question or challenge facing mental health research today?
JP: One of the biggest challenges in mental health research is suicide prevention. Suicide itself is such a rare event that it is has been difficult to make progress in predicting suicide at an individual level. Suicidal thoughts can be very common among individuals with mental illness, yet not all will progress towards making a suicide attempt. Learning how to identify those at highest risk is a key goal in this field.
IMHR: Can you tell us about a project you’re currently working on that you think can help give people hope about the future of mental health research and care?
JP: A new project we are starting in the Mood Disorders Research Unit will harness ten years of data from electronic medical records to identify factors that distinguish risk of suicidal thoughts from risk of suicide attempt, among individuals admitted to The Royal. A particular focus of this project is examination of the data through a gender lens: While men more often die of suicide, women make 3-4 times more suicide attempts. We hope to identify gender-specific risk factors that are modifiable, as these features may be amenable to intervention.
IMHR: What do you think are some of the main challenges still faced by women in science?
JP:Gender bias is still an issue in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields and in academia as a whole. There is, perhaps, an even stronger bias against mothers. I became a parent during graduate school and was fortunate to have received exceptional support from my supervisor and my program - the federal scholarship I held even provided paid maternity leave, which is rare for trainees.
"As a mother in science, there still exist a number of challenges. For example, while granting agencies allow for the declaration of formal leave periods on one’s CV, parenting does not end with the return to work. The productivity expectations and single career track model of academia make balancing work and family life challenging -- and for some people, impossible. "Learn more about Dr. Phillips.
Tracie Afifi, PhD
Winner, The Royal-Mach-Gaensslen Prize for Mental Health Research
University of Manitoba
IMHR: What is your proudest accomplishment to date?
TA: My proudest career accomplishment was being selected as the 2018 recipient of The Royal-Mach-Gaensslen Prize for Mental Health Research. It was an honour to have my work recognized with such a significant award.
IMHR: Can you tell us about a project you’re currently working on that you think can help give people hope about the future of mental health research and care?
TA: I am currently working on understanding the additive or interactive effects of the experiences of child maltreatment and bullying on mental health outcomes among adolescents. There is a large literature on child maltreatment and also a large literature on bullying. However, a smaller body of work exists on understanding the links between child maltreatment and bullying and how these experiences together impact mental health. I hope that this work will inform prevention efforts to reduce mental disorders in adolescence.
IMHR: What do you think are some of the main challenges still faced by women in science?
TA: There are data that indicate that women compared to men have slower career progression, have lower success at obtaining national funding, have fewer publications, and are less likely to have leadership roles in Universities.
"Although efforts have been made to remove barriers for women, more progress to support women in science is needed."Learn more about Dr. Afifi's work.