Improving Diversity in Life Sciences: 4 Ways to Turn Outrage into Action

By Amy Schulman & Alan Crane

For an industry that is all about solving the world’s hardest problems, life sciences companies have lagged in an area where we should be leaders. This year’s news cycle has been a hard reminder of just how far we have to go in making life sciences companies truly welcoming to women, people of color, and other minority groups: topless dancers at an industry party (and the defense of it), systematic harassment in STEM academia, and the Chemical and Engineering News report on the “leaky pipeline,” where women employees make up 50 percent of entry-level positions but 20 percent of leadership roles and 10 percent of board seats in life sciences (a phenomenon that is compounded for minority women employees).