I think, I want to make the point to you that--
think about the power of words.
Sometimes words can have unintended consequences.
They may be good.
They may not be good.
But I want to talk about some words today.
An example of something that happened
when I was a first year medical student here years ago that
at the time seemed to be disparaging and insulting
that I perhaps ended up having very positive effects
on my life.
So I want to tell you about something
that happened when I was a first year medical student here
in this campus back in 1963.
And, by the way, I just noticed on the program
that it says I was the first woman.
I was not the first woman to finish medical school here.
I was actually the second woman of color
to finish medical school here, because there
were some wonderful brave women who preceded me in the school.
So I don't want to take credit for what they did.
But I was in a class where I was the only person of color.
And I had no other women in my class.
And I was trying to find my way and adapt.
And think will I make it through this all-male setting,
especially after having gone to an all women's college?
When one of my classmates came up to me in anatomy lab.
And he said to me, Vivian, you have no business being here.
You're just taking the place some man should have.
I looked at him.
And he said, I read ahead in my anatomy book.
And I saw that women have smaller brains than men.
So you'll never make it through medical school,
because you don't have a brain big enough to let you do that.
Well, I did graduate in 1967.
And it was a great day.
But [? we ?] [? remind ?] [? us of ?] that classmate.
He flunked out the second year.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
In spite of my smaller brain I made it through.
But let me jump ahead just thinking about that to 1991.
I actually had been a practicing academic pathologist enjoying
being a pathologist when I was invited to come to the National
Institutes of Health to start up this new office, one
that had not existed before.
And that is the Office of Research on Women's Health
to study those conditions that affect women and men
beyond the reproductive system that previously had primarily
been studied in men, with the presumption that if it worked
in men it would work in women too.
So that was the purpose of starting this new office,
to ensure the inclusion of women in clinical studies.
And along with that, we also focused in this office
on promoting careers for women in science.
So I was involved in many discussions
about women in research careers and women
in biomedical careers.
And then let me jump ahead a few years later.
And I don't know how many of you remember, but in about 2005,
the president of a very prestigious university
in the northeast made a comment at a conference
on women in science and math, that perhaps the reason
that women did not excel in math and science
was because they lack the innate ability to do so.
Well, he later said that he only made those comments
to stimulate discussion.
And I must say he did stimulate discussion.
I even was at a conference in Europe
and I was asked about this guy's comments
about women not having the innate ability.
There was a lot of attention and a lot of discussion
following his comments.
And, actually, he did cause a lot of discussion,
a lot of wonderful reports.
And we were seeing articles in scientific journals about women
and why perhaps women were having difficulty.
I could give you a whole speech on why I really
think what was behind-- nothing to do
with our lack of innate ability, but that's not
what I was asked to do today.
But thinking of that and even not just scientific journals,
but even Time Magazine had a cover about women
and their smaller brains.
And US News and World Report had an article.
Everybody was looking for something to explain.
And of course, looked at the morphology of the brain.
And actually with all that discussion
I think I had forgotten about that guy's comment to me.
And all of a sudden, there was all this attention
to women's brains.
Do they function differently?
What about differences in the makeup of the gray matter
and the white matter.
But all of them came to the conclusion
that the size of the brain had nothing to do
with intellectual ability.
And I thought about it and thought, gee,
all of this in 2005.
I've known this since the 60s, because I'm a living example.
I've proved that the size of my brain
didn't keep me from going forward.
And so I thought about it.
And actually I had to laugh.
You know, it wasn't funny when he said that
to me in September of 1963.
But I thought about it, and then I thought isn't this something.
I started in this field of women's health research, which
actually over the past 25 years has now
evolved into what we call the Science of Sex
and Gender in Human Health.
And it's a whole new blossoming field
that you hear so much about, thank goodness.
And to the men in the audience, because it's
studying sex and gender.
Is not limited just to women.
It does benefit men, because you can study sex and gender
differences without including men.
So men have benefited from our work in that area.
But just think, I've spent now in the last 25
years of my career--
I'm focusing on learning about normal differences between men
and women.
One of their differences is how we react to interventions
about how our diseases present.
And I wonder, thinking back, maybe that guy really
got me started on thinking about sex and gender differences
by his comment many years ago.
Because, when I think about it, that was something
that I learned back in that fall, a first year
medical school that there are morphological differences,
but it's not always significant in terms
of how that causes us to behave or what our abilities may be.
So I've thought about it.
And thinking I wish I knew where that guy was.
I really don't know where he went.
And my classmates don't--
they really claim they don't remember him saying that,
but I'll never forget him saying it.
But I'd really like to find him.
And thank him for getting me started
on what has been a wonderful second career for me.
And hoping that he has learned that his naive and ignorant
comment was wrong and that he's learned the difference today.
And I would thank him, but I'd have to stick it
to him a little bit.
The point of my story, it may not
be as deep and as passionate as some of those
that we've heard already that really touched me.
Your accounts and your stories have just been wonderful.
But when I was asked to present, for some reason,
thinking about UVA building bridges
and that one experience back then.
And how it may or may not have affected my life and my career.
And I'd like to think has affected biomedical science,
because we have seen a change in the construct of what
is required in the design of biomedical research.
But I wanted to make the point that words can matter.
Some of you have heard me tell stories
about some other instances when I was first year here,
when some wonderful things happened because
of very kind words that were said
to me by fellow classmates that made it possible
for me to survive and to feel comfortable here.
But this was an example that was a little bit different.
But looking back, maybe it really did
have a positive effect.
And unfortunately, or fortunately, I've
always been a little bit stubborn.
So his disparaging comments only caused me to persevere
and to get through.
And so here I am now, over 50 years in the field of medicine
in spite of my smaller brain.
And I think about the only thing I have really flunked
has been retirement.
Thank you.