By Madeleine Stone  @themadstone

While most students at the University of Pennsylvania relish the opportunity to sleep in when the weekend comes around, a group of young women and men in Ware College House see Saturday mornings as special for another reason. There, dedicated freshmen are getting together in the early hours, still in pajamas, armed with bagels and coffee, for lively discussions on women who have made important contributions to science and society.

“It’s a great experience for freshmen,” says Maddie Armer, a junior who is majoring in biology with a concentration in neuroscience and serves as a residential assistant for the hallway of 32 freshmen that comprise Ware’s Women in Science program. “It’s a casual, safe space where students can get together and just talk. And they always end up getting passionate, which makes me really happy to see.”

Penn’s College House residential programs with academic components have always been popular, particularly among incoming freshmen. But the Women in Science Program and its sister Infectious Disease Program are particularly competitive, in part due to the involvement of microbiology professor Helen Davies, the live-in faculty member and Ware House Fellow who founded both.

“It’s great to have Dr. Davies here,” says Armer. “She comes to our presentations every Saturday morning. She sometimes gives her two cents, but mostly listens. I think the students really benefit from her presence.”

For Davies, the reason for the Women in Science program is perfectly clear.

“Attitudes toward women in science have improved over the years, but there is still the sense that, well, you made it because you’re a woman. That’s just not true at all,” Davies says with a laugh.  “It’s the opposite.”

Davies would know. The Perelman School of Medicine’s longest standing faculty member has been an advocate for women at Penn for nearly 70 years. Coming to Penn in 1949 to begin a Ph.D. in biophysics, Davies found herself in a male-dominated environment.

“I don’t think there was a single other woman in my department when I arrived, other than the cleaning staff,” Davies recalls.

Over the years, Davies has raised her voice for women at Penn countless times.

In the early 1970s, she helped to orchestrate the all-female sit-ins at College Hall in protest to the University’s response to a rash of sexual assaults on campus. The sit-ins, which drew more than 200 participants, helped catalyze the establishment of an evening bus service, self-defense classes for women, the Penn Women’s Center and the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Department, where Davies is now core faculty.

“We knew women were being treated as second-class, and we didn’t leave until the administration did something about it,” says Davies.

Davies moved into Ware in the mid-1990s because she believed she could help improve racial tensions between students. Once there, she saw an opportunity to support young female scientists as well and soon founded the Women in Science program.

“I felt it was a part of my job to find a way to support these women,” says Davies. “The group is really a network for incoming female students, it makes them feel they have a community. It’s been tremendously rewarding for me.”

The program’s activities have varied from year to year, sometimes taking the form of weekly journal clubs, sometimes outreach activities. This year, members of the Women in Science program have arranged to get together every other Saturday morning and give presentations on important female scientists of their choosing.  Following a presentation, residents discuss how the scientist influenced her field and how her contributions were received by society.

“We recently had a student give a presentation on Rosalind Franklin,” says Armer. “After the presentation, Davies asked the students whether it was just bad luck that Franklin’s contributions to science went unmentioned, or if there was sexism involved.”

After a few minutes of discussion, Davies chimed in again.

“She said, ‘Well, when I knew Dr. Franklin, we were all definitely sure it was sexism,’” Armer says. “That was really amazing for the students to hear!”

While the hallway of 32 students is largely female, the handful of male residents eagerly contribute to these discussions as well.

“During the conversation about Rosalind Franklin, students began debating whether, in the grand scheme of things, it mattered that Franklin wasn’t given due credit for her discoveries,” Armer says. “It was actually a male student that was Franklin’s strongest advocate.”

Interspersed with discussions about female scientists are presentations on infectious diseases, Davies’s area of expertise.

“Recently, we’ve had several talks about Ebola,” says Armer. “Helen is always happy to answer questions. She sings songs about diseases for us as well.”

A 2011 feature in The Philadelphia Inquirer dubs Davies “the singing professor,” noting that her songs on infectious diseases and microbiology, have for decades helped students memorize details.

Davies also takes the freshmen of Ware House to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania every Friday morning to sit in on meetings where Penn physicians discuss the latest infectious disease challenges. Students eagerly sign up for this rare opportunity.

“Helen is the only person who brings non-physicians to these meetings, and certainly the only person with the gall to bring 17-year-old students,” says Armer. “The students find it absolutely entrancing.”

Looking forward, today’s female scientists of Ware and beyond seem to have more opportunities than ever before. Armer, who has been working in neuroscience labs since she was 15, is now a research assistant studying electroneurophysiology at Penn’s Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, where she has received strong support from her advisors.

“From my perspective, things feel a lot better for women in science today,” says Armer. “Hearing Davies’s stories about being a young scientist, you can tell she was always fighting for her place. We still face challenges, but on the whole my experiences and those of my residents seem very positive.”

Hope Merens, a Ware resident studying chemistry and neurobiology in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences, says, “The Women in Science program has really shown me some of the challenges women in the sciences encounter. However, the program has also highlighted how conditions are changing and what we as women in the sciences can do to combat remaining gaps between men and women.”

For Davies, who looks at the Penn students as her family of thousands, closing those gaps means bringing strong and intelligent women together. And she’s doing just that through the community she’s built at Ware.

“Meeting other people who want to be active and independent women in science is awesome,” says Ware resident and pre-med student Rani Richardson. “We have similar mindsets and know our goals. And Dr. Davies is always available for good conversation. She really wants us to do well.”

“Coming to Penn, I wanted to be surrounded by a community of support and other strong women who are also entering into the sciences,” says Meren. “It's nice to have other women around me who inspire me each day and remind me just how fascinating the sciences are.”