Ten years ago Dr. Maureen Polsby had a promising career in academic medicine - a career that should have led to medical breakthroughs and international renown. But sex discrimination derailed her career and her potentially life-saving neurological research. To help Polsby with the legal fees for her sex discrimination case against the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Feminist Majority Foundation has formed the Dr. Maureen Polsby Legal Fund. Polsby's case will be heard this fall - ten years after the initial discrimination complaint was filed.
A graduate of Northwestern University Medical School, Polsby was Chief Resident in Neurology at Tufts New England Medical Center when she was recruited for a prestigious fellowship at NIH. Her research on multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases had the potential to save lives and enhance the quality of living for patients.
But all that came to an abrupt halt when Polsby filed a sex discrimination complaint against NIH. Now, instead of helping to save lives, Polsby is fighting for her rights in court. And she is not alone. According to Self-Help for Equal Rights, an NIH women's rights group, there are about 70 sex-discrimination complaints filed per year against NIH. To make matters even more difficult, NIH virtually controls academic medicine because it is the source of most research grants, making it hard for women medical researchers to get jobs elsewhere after they have challenged sexism at NIH.
"Dr. Polsby's case will help expose and challenge the pervasive sex discrimination at NIH, and in the field of medicine," said Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation. "Too often the most outstanding women in a field are hardest hit by sex discrimination, because they are seen as threats to the men in power."
Dr. Polsby's troubles started even before she began her fellowship at NIH. The man who recruited her for the fellowship, Dr. Thomas Chase, pressured her to have sex with him at a conference, according to Polsby's lawsuit. She tactfully declined his advances; but as a result, when she started her fellowship, she says she was hindered from pursuing her own full-time research, as her male colleagues were allowed to do. Instead she was assigned administrative and support tasks and was expected to help the male fellows with their projects. When she overcame Chase's efforts to block her and managed to carry out her own research, Dr. Daniel Weinberger, a senior collaborator of Chase's, took it over and claimed the credit for himself and his fellow, Polsby alleges.
Polsby says that when she approached the Equal Employment Opportunity office at NIH about filing a complaint, she was advised not to do so - "It will ruin your career," the EEO officer said. Polsby filed the complaint anyway. A few weeks later Dr. Mark Hallett, Clinical Director for Neurology at NIH, retaliated by denying her the credit she had been promised toward residency requirements, according to Polsby. As a result, Polsby could not take her neurology boards and could not practice medicine. She was unemployed for five years and has spent her life savings on legal fees and living expenses.
In the meantime the men who had destroyed her career were continuing to be professionally successful - in part by using Polsby's research. Polsby says she discovered that Weinberger and Chase had published the results of her research without her knowledge, and listed her as a minor author. Even worse, some of the data was falsified, Polsby says.
Polsby sued Chase, Weinberger, and NIH for the fraud in 1990. Yet it was not until 1993, after an article on the fraud appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, and after the New York Times and Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD) had asked NIH why they had not investigated, that NIH finally appointed an inquiry committee.
The head of the inquiry committee told Polsby that the committee had found serious scientific misconduct, but no report was ever issued. Polsby was told that a separate investigation by the Government Accounting Office also found misconduct, but again no report has been issued. The fraud allegations are currently being investigated by the Office of Research Integrity at the Department of Health and Human Services. To date, no action has been taken against Chase or Weinberger. Polsby comments, "It is not surprising that the kind of people who exploit women are also the kind of people who are unethical in other areas. Men who think nothing of ruining the career of a female colleague are also the type of peo le who might think nothing of putti nffalse information into medical journals, thereby endangering the health of patients."
Although the discrimination started ten years ago, Polsby still has not had her day in court. In 1987 a District Court judge dismissed the case, saying Polsby had missed the 30-day time-period in which federal employees must file a sex-discrimination complaint. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. In 1993 the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the lower court rulings after the U.S. Solicitor General conceded that Polsby may not have been informed of the time limit. NIH could not prove they had ever posted the time limit or
informed employees about it. This fall, the case will finally be heard on its merits in District Court.
Had Dr. Polsby been a man, today she would most probably be at the top of her profession as a tenured professor at a university, carrying out crucial research into debilitating neurological diseases, presenting papers at conferences, and teaching the next generation of medical students. Instead, she works as a disability claims examiner and sees patients part-time in her home. She finally did receive residency credit from the New England Medical Center, but only after agreeing to put in four free months of work. She is now studying for her neurology boards.
Despite the financial and career losses she has faced as a result of the lawsuit, Dr. Polsby is not sorry she filed her complaint. "It's like being raped," she said. "Will you report it and fight back? If you don't, you're saying what happened was OK. But if you do, you get victimized all over again. I will keep pursuing this case. I want these men to realize they cannot always get away with the kind of misbehavior that has become commonplace at NIH."
To contribute, please send a check payable to the Dr. Maureen Polsby Legal Fund, c/o Feminist Majority Foundation, 1600 Wilson Blvd. #801, Arlington, VA 22209.