Women in Biotechnology

Biotechnology is one of the STEM areas where women's participation is strongest - both in research labs and in the rapidly growing commercial biotech sector. Here's a guide to careers, programs, and the structural factors shaping the field.

Why biotech is distinct

Women earn the majority of biological-science PhDs in most high-income countries - a substantial reversal from the situation thirty years ago. The translation into senior research and commercial leadership has been slower but is visibly accelerating. Companies like Ginkgo Bioworks (co-founded by Reshma Shetty), Genomic Health, and many therapeutics startups have visible women in technical and leadership roles, and the venture-funded biotech sector has more women founders and senior executives than most other technology sectors.

Career pathways

• Academic research - the traditional path through PhD, postdoc, and faculty appointment. Women are well-represented through PhD and increasingly through associate-professor levels, with continuing gaps at full-professor and lab-director levels.
• Industrial R&D - research positions at biotech and pharma companies. Strong women's representation at scientist and senior-scientist levels; gaps at VP-of-research and CSO levels.
• Computational and bioinformatics tracks - the intersection of biology and computing, where women have made substantial gains over the past decade.
• Synthetic biology and biomanufacturing - the newer commercial side of the field, with many woman-founded and woman-led companies.
• Regulatory and clinical-trial work - large women's representation including at senior leadership levels at the FDA, EMA, and other regulatory bodies.

Major programs and fellowships

• Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Awards at the Scientific Interface - for early-career researchers at the bio-computing intersection
• HHMI Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program - postdoctoral fellowships with explicit diversity criteria
• NIH F32 and K99/R00 awards - postdoctoral fellowships and career-development awards, gender-balanced application pools
• Schlumberger Faculty for the Future Fellowships - for women from developing countries pursuing PhDs including in biological sciences
• L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Life Sciences awards - annual national recognitions
• Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation fellowships - strong gender balance in awards

Top employers for women in biotech

Many large pharma and biotech companies maintain visible women-in-STEM programs - Pfizer, Roche, Novartis, Genentech, Amgen, Moderna, Regeneron, Vertex, and many others. In the synthetic biology and biomanufacturing space, Ginkgo Bioworks, Zymergen (acquired), Twist Bioscience, and others have built reputations for women-supportive workplaces. For specific employer information, see the employer directory.

Featured women in biotechnology

See Inspiring Women in STEM - including profiles of Reshma Shetty (Ginkgo Bioworks), Frances Arnold (Nobel laureate chemistry), Gagandeep Kang (virologist), and Quarraisha Abdool Karim (epidemiologist).