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I think, I want to make
the point to you that--

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think about the power of words.

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Sometimes words can have
unintended consequences.

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They may be good.

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They may not be good.

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But I want to talk
about some words today.

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An example of
something that happened

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when I was a first year medical
student here years ago that

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at the time seemed to be
disparaging and insulting

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that I perhaps ended up
having very positive effects

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on my life.

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So I want to tell
you about something

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that happened when I was a
first year medical student here

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in this campus back in 1963.

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And, by the way, I just
noticed on the program

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that it says I was
the first woman.

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I was not the first woman to
finish medical school here.

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I was actually the
second woman of color

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to finish medical school
here, because there

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were some wonderful brave women
who preceded me in the school.

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So I don't want to take
credit for what they did.

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But I was in a class where I
was the only person of color.

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And I had no other
women in my class.

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And I was trying to
find my way and adapt.

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And think will I make it
through this all-male setting,

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especially after having gone
to an all women's college?

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When one of my classmates
came up to me in anatomy lab.

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And he said to me, Vivian, you
have no business being here.

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You're just taking the
place some man should have.

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I looked at him.

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And he said, I read
ahead in my anatomy book.

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And I saw that women have
smaller brains than men.

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So you'll never make it
through medical school,

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because you don't have a brain
big enough to let you do that.

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Well, I did graduate in 1967.

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And it was a great day.

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But [? we ?] [? remind ?]
[? us of ?] that classmate.

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He flunked out the second year.

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[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]

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In spite of my smaller
brain I made it through.

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But let me jump ahead just
thinking about that to 1991.

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I actually had been a practicing
academic pathologist enjoying

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being a pathologist when I was
invited to come to the National

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Institutes of Health to
start up this new office, one

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that had not existed before.

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And that is the Office of
Research on Women's Health

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to study those conditions
that affect women and men

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beyond the reproductive system
that previously had primarily

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been studied in men, with the
presumption that if it worked

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in men it would
work in women too.

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So that was the purpose of
starting this new office,

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to ensure the inclusion of
women in clinical studies.

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And along with that, we
also focused in this office

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on promoting careers
for women in science.

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So I was involved
in many discussions

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about women in research
careers and women

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in biomedical careers.

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And then let me jump
ahead a few years later.

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And I don't know how many of
you remember, but in about 2005,

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the president of a very
prestigious university

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in the northeast made a
comment at a conference

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on women in science and
math, that perhaps the reason

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that women did not excel
in math and science

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was because they lack the
innate ability to do so.

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Well, he later said that
he only made those comments

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to stimulate discussion.

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And I must say he did
stimulate discussion.

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I even was at a
conference in Europe

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and I was asked about
this guy's comments

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about women not having
the innate ability.

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There was a lot of attention
and a lot of discussion

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following his comments.

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And, actually, he did
cause a lot of discussion,

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a lot of wonderful reports.

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And we were seeing articles in
scientific journals about women

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and why perhaps women
were having difficulty.

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I could give you a whole
speech on why I really

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think what was
behind-- nothing to do

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with our lack of innate
ability, but that's not

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what I was asked to do today.

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But thinking of that and even
not just scientific journals,

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but even Time Magazine
had a cover about women

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and their smaller brains.

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And US News and World
Report had an article.

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Everybody was looking
for something to explain.

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And of course, looked at
the morphology of the brain.

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And actually with
all that discussion

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I think I had forgotten about
that guy's comment to me.

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And all of a sudden, there
was all this attention

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to women's brains.

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Do they function differently?

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What about differences in
the makeup of the gray matter

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and the white matter.

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But all of them came
to the conclusion

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that the size of the
brain had nothing to do

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with intellectual ability.

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And I thought about
it and thought, gee,

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all of this in 2005.

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I've known this since the 60s,
because I'm a living example.

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I've proved that
the size of my brain

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didn't keep me
from going forward.

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And so I thought about it.

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And actually I had to laugh.

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You know, it wasn't
funny when he said that

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to me in September of 1963.

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But I thought about it, and then
I thought isn't this something.

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I started in this field of
women's health research, which

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actually over the
past 25 years has now

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evolved into what we
call the Science of Sex

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and Gender in Human Health.

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And it's a whole
new blossoming field

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that you hear so much
about, thank goodness.

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And to the men in the
audience, because it's

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studying sex and gender.

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Is not limited just to women.

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It does benefit men, because
you can study sex and gender

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differences without
including men.

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So men have benefited from
our work in that area.

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But just think, I've
spent now in the last 25

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years of my career--

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I'm focusing on learning about
normal differences between men

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and women.

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One of their differences is
how we react to interventions

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about how our diseases present.

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And I wonder, thinking
back, maybe that guy really

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got me started on thinking
about sex and gender differences

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by his comment many years ago.

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Because, when I think about
it, that was something

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that I learned back in
that fall, a first year

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medical school that there are
morphological differences,

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but it's not always
significant in terms

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of how that causes us to behave
or what our abilities may be.

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So I've thought about it.

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And thinking I wish I
knew where that guy was.

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I really don't
know where he went.

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And my classmates don't--

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they really claim they don't
remember him saying that,

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but I'll never
forget him saying it.

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But I'd really like to find him.

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And thank him for
getting me started

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on what has been a wonderful
second career for me.

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And hoping that he has learned
that his naive and ignorant

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comment was wrong and that he's
learned the difference today.

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And I would thank him,
but I'd have to stick it

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to him a little bit.

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The point of my
story, it may not

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be as deep and as
passionate as some of those

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that we've heard already
that really touched me.

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Your accounts and your stories
have just been wonderful.

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But when I was asked to
present, for some reason,

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thinking about UVA
building bridges

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and that one
experience back then.

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And how it may or may not have
affected my life and my career.

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And I'd like to think has
affected biomedical science,

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because we have seen a change
in the construct of what

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is required in the design
of biomedical research.

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But I wanted to make the
point that words can matter.

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Some of you have
heard me tell stories

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about some other instances
when I was first year here,

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when some wonderful
things happened because

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of very kind words
that were said

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to me by fellow classmates
that made it possible

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for me to survive and to
feel comfortable here.

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But this was an example that
was a little bit different.

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But looking back,
maybe it really did

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have a positive effect.

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And unfortunately,
or fortunately, I've

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always been a
little bit stubborn.

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So his disparaging comments
only caused me to persevere

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and to get through.

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And so here I am now, over 50
years in the field of medicine

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in spite of my smaller brain.

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And I think about the only
thing I have really flunked

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has been retirement.

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Thank you.

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