Page 15 - Women Unlimited | Rochester Medicine | University of Rochester Medical Center

When Barbara Iglewski and her husband both were hired at the Oregon Health and Science University School of
Medicine—she as an instructor, he as an assistant professor—her salary was almost 40 percent less than his. Though
she received a promotion a year later to assistant professor, her salary boost was minimal.
But money has never stopped Iglewski from excelling in her field, in which her landmark research launched an entire field
of study into how the system in many types of bacteria works—and led to her 2015 induction into the National Women’s
Hall of Fame.
She is recognized by the Institute of Scientific Information as a “highly cited” scientist, a designation bestowed on
fewer than 0.5 percent of all publishing researchers.

Iglewski came to the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1986 as a professor and chair of the
Department of Microbiology and Immunology. While salaries weren’t discussed between departments, Iglewski, who
served as chair for more than two decades, says she wanted from the start to make them more equitable in her own
department.
“Several women had vastly inferior salaries to men at comparable stages,” she says. “I said I would only come to the
university if I could change that. And I did. That’s one of the things I’m most proud of.”

As her reputation in research grew, the climate for women in medicine and science was experiencing an evolution of
its own. Barbara H. Iglewski,
PhD
“I had doors open for me as a woman that would not have necessarily been available for men, and the reason was
things were changing,” Iglewski says. Professor Emeritus of Microbiology
and Immunology
The federal government, as an example, was trying to show it had women on their research panels, and in the late University of Rochester School of
1980s she became president of the American Society for Microbiology. Medicine and Dentistry

“The reason I wanted that position was that there were still very few women on the editorial boards of the ASM Director of International Programs
journal who were reviewing,” she says, “and those who were asked to review didn’t have their names on the pages of University of Rochester Medical
the journal.” Center

After her one-year term as president ended, she became
chair of the ASM Publication Board for nine years, where
she appointed female editors-in-chief and “lobbied hard” to
get male editors-in-chief to appoint women as editors and
editorial board members.

At the same time, she was working with “truly outstanding”
grad students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty
collaborators, many of them women.

To this day Iglewski is a mentor, adamant that women
deserve better start-up packages, including protected time to
develop their research projects.

For all of her work, which includes also serving as vice
provost for Research and Graduate Education at the
University of Rochester, Iglewski earlier this year was
presented with the Eastman Medal—the university’s highest
recognition for outstanding achievement and dedicated
service.

She continues to spread the word about opportunities that
may fly under the radar.
“It’s important that women help other women,” she says.

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