Now, Hopkins investigates the genetics of zebrafish, isolating genes that are necessary to the development of the fish.

“We isolated a very big fraction of genes necessary to make these fish, and it turns out that many of them have human counterparts, and many of them turn out to be involved in human diseases,” she says.

By focusing on her research, Hopkins says, she did not fully recognize the extent of the discrimination she and female colleagues faced in everything from lab space to salaries.

Eventually, though, Hopkins could not ignore the situation any longer.

“I had to address it,” she says. “It didn’t occur to me I would be addressing it for anyone other than myself.”

She surveyed other women in MIT’s School of Science—and found that there were only 15 female senior faculty members, compared to 197 men. The survey led to the creation in 1995 of a Committee on Women Faculty, chaired by Hopkins and tasked with studying gender discrimination at MIT.

After five years, the committee released its ground-breaking report, finding discrimination in resources ranging from salary to office size.

“As women moved up through the ranks, they hit this higher-level glass ceiling, which was invisible, even to the women themselves,” Hopkins says.

After the MIT committee released its report, Hopkins says she was surprised to hear from women outside of academia who had faced gender discrimination.

“It was a real revelation to people,” Hopkins says.

Since the release of the MIT report, Hopkins has continued to advocate for women in science, even raising the issue with Summers last fall.

WALKING OUT

After a decade of attempting to address the problems faced by women in science, Hopkins says she left Summers’ Jan. 14 speech because she felt that his remarks were “just not right.”

Hopkins says that as Summers was speaking on the social and biological divides between the sexes, she looked around the conference room to gauge the reactions of her colleagues, and wondered aloud to her neighbors if they should leave.

“I didn’t want to make a visible statement, really,” Hopkins says. “I just quietly got up and left.”