First of all, there were no women in my fields when I went in, so I didn’t look to women for role models, or I didn’t need to. My father was a good role model and so were many of the wonderful men who supported and nurtured my career. So I would say to women, “Don’t leave it for the guys, right? Don’t wait for someone else to blaze the trail. Just go and do it. We need you. Science needs all the good brains that it can get. And just go and have fun with it, right?”
A lot of women worry about doing something good for humanity. This is a great way to do something good for humanity. A lot of women don’t like to be criticized. Men don’t like to be criticized. Nobody likes to be criticized. But science is all about criticism, right? We peer review each other, we explain why this idea is not good and my idea is better. We have these debates and you have to be willing to jump into those debates and take the parts that are beneficial. The personal parts, the things that hurt you, just set it aside and move forward.