Johanna Joyce, President and Member of Board of Directors at European Association for Cancer Research (EACR), shared on LinkedIn:

”Have you ever been told that something was impossible?

Not long after I started my laboratory, a prominent scientist told me it was impossible to be both a successful leader and a mother.

I didn’t believe it then, and I certainly do not believe it now.

But when I shared this story here recently, I was struck by how it resonated with so many people – women and men, scientists and professionals beyond science.

In this new Nature Reviews Cancer World View,

“Who gets told what is impossible?”

I was invited to reflect on how women’s experiences in cancer research have changed over the past 25 years – and why increased visibility should not be mistaken for equality.

The next phase of progress cannot simply be about helping women navigate systems that were not designed with them in mind. It must be about redesigning the scientific ecosystems that determine who is retained, recognized, resourced and trusted.

And the next measure of progress will be whether the women entering the field today are still told, explicitly or implicitly, what is impossible – or whether they are free to focus their energy where it should be: on doing the most imaginative, rigorous and consequential science of their lives.”