A professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology and the head of a thriving lab at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, she and her team are doing remarkable work advancing blood and blood vessel science as well as exploring the mysteries of microRNAs.
The Faculty鈥檚 Assistant Dean of Research, Dr. Rayner has earned no shortage of high-profile competitive accolades so far in her career. At the same time, she鈥檚 a mom, a wife, a daughter, a runner, and a mentor to an ambitious group of 91精品黑料吃瓜 trainees dubbed the 鈥淩ayhive.鈥
To mark International Women鈥檚 Day, we chatted with Dr. Rayner about her perspectives on finding balance in the workplace, medical research as a career path, and other topics.
Q: What first inspired you to pursue a career in science?
A: Science was easy for me through school, and I was interested in it. So, I鈥檇 say my inspiration initially came from my aptitude and my innate curiosity. But it really wasn't until I was well into university that I even understood you could be a scientist as a profession, let alone an education and career path for myself. It had never occurred to me that you could actually get a job as a scientist!
When I did come to this realization, I became particularly interested in studying the human body and how it works. And I was mostly intrigued by the things we don鈥檛 understand. What is not yet understood was 鈥 and remains 鈥 extremely interesting to me.
Q: What's one piece of advice that you would give to young women considering entering the medical research field in Canada?
A: It's not something to be frightened of! The field of biomedical research has changed 鈥 and it continues to evolve year after year. It's not the intimidating, unwelcoming place of the past that maybe others have made it out to be. Yes, there鈥檚 still work to do, and things don鈥檛 change as fast as you want them to. But I can cite a thousand examples of how things are better than when I first started.
It鈥檚 really a fantastic career. It has tons of opportunities, tons of flexibility. There鈥檚 a lot of room to grow and be better. I think the days are long gone when people thought that women aren鈥檛 good at science, the old aptitude argument. It鈥檚 a great place for smart women who want to do things. We need more of them! They are there at the beginning 鈥 the pipeline is healthy.
Early on in careers, there's absolutely no shortage of women in STEM. Zero shortage. The pipeline is bursting with women. It is toward the end of the pipeline that representation becomes a challenge.
Q: Work-life balance is a big topic in medicine and research. Many young people 鈥 both women and men 鈥 wonder 鈥淗ow am I going to have a career in this very competitive field and start a family?鈥 Can you share anything you鈥檝e learned about building a highly successful career as a researcher and building a family at the same time?
A: Yeah, this is a big topic across any discipline that requires a long educational journey and has competitive stakes, so to speak. And in research 鈥 medical research, in particular 鈥 the funding is very, very tight. You really do have to be doing your best all the time to maintain your program at all. So, for everyone 鈥 male, female, attached, unattached 鈥 if there are other people in your life that depend on you, you鈥檝e got to find a balance.
I think women are generally asked about maintaining a work-life balance and it reinforces that women are the ones who typically have more caregiving responsibilities than men. But I think that what's changing now is that men are also very concerned about this question. They recognize that it's difficult to have a competitive career and a family at the same time.
So, I think the final answer to the work-life balance question is always: support. There's nobody who says 鈥淥h, it's because I really love the work,鈥 or 鈥淚 have really good kids.鈥 Support is the key. That means support from a partner, support from parents or loved ones. Sometimes it鈥檚 institutional support with financial incentives like having day care on site, for instance. Support can look like many different things. But there鈥檚 no secret sauce. The final answer is always support.
Q: What do you think healthcare organizations or institutions may underestimate when it comes to supporting women in the workplace?
A: Well, I do think that there can be old ways of thinking about the way that we work. The concept of the 9-to-5 workday, for instance, that鈥檚 dated from when men had somebody at home doing all the childcare work. That old way of thinking just doesn鈥檛 take into account things like school holidays when you have children.
Because let鈥檚 face it: The people in your life who depend on you 鈥 they don鈥檛 care about an old definition of what a workday is. They certainly don't care whether your meeting technically starts at 9 AM or 7 AM, right? So, I think that organizations that are medicine-related or medicine-adjacent have begun to recognize this, but there are certainly improvements still to make. There are smart ways of supporting people with explicit flexibility. And there has to be financial support for care responsibilities.
Additionally, as you get older, care responsibilities transition away from children to your parents. And the care that you need to be able to give your loved ones as they age is almost always a financial burden, one that is unimaginable at times. We haven't quite yet adapted to realizing that it鈥檚 not just when people are little when they need us 鈥 it's when they're older, too. So that's probably the next step in organizational support of women because they do end up bearing a lot of the caring responsibilities.
Q: Is there any woman in medical research history who you think of on International Women鈥檚 Day? Someone who didn鈥檛 get their fair share of recognition when they were alive?
A: One of my PhD students, a woman, recently shared with me this about 52 women who changed science. And the book begins saying we鈥檙e not going to be talking about historical figures like and because those are the women in science who get talked about over and over. And rightly so! They absolutely deserve it. But there are these other women who have also done revolutionary work, whose names really should be on the tips of our tongues.
So, I'm learning myself all of these other women who are really interesting and inspiring. Perhaps next year if you ask that question again, I鈥檒l give you some really cool stories!
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