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This issue was addressed on February 1 at the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF)’s Third Annual Meeting of the Initiative on Women in Science and Engineering (IWISE) Working Group, which was run by NYSCF CEO and co-founder Susan Solomon. Soloman founded NYSCF in 2005 with the aim at accelerating cures for major diseases.

Conference attendees included many successful women, including Anna Beringer, director of research at Catalyst; Nancy J. Di Dia, executive editor of diversity, inclusion, and engagement at Boehringer Ingelheim USA; and Andi Karaboutis, executive vice president of technology, business solutions, and corporate affairs at Biogen. They offered invaluable career advice, and shed light on the particular issues women face in the job market. And while their talks were focused on the science industry, their knowledge could be applied to pretty much every woman who’s frustrated by the lack of opportunities out there.

Something interesting we learned: Research from Carnegie Mellon found that when there are more women in a group, the group works better—but white men often think they’ll lose opportunities if they work for a company that’s diverse, so they’re reluctant to hire women. (Even though that’s not the case—in fact, diverse teams are actually more innovative—another nifty tidbit we picked up at the event.)

“There are times I think when, as a woman, you’re underestimated and people don’t really understand how much you’re going to be able to do,” Susan told Women’s Health‘s online health editor, Christina Heiser, during our podcast.

Susan started IWISE three years ago in an effort to encourage and enable women in science to advance in their careers. “When we looked at what was going to be required in order to improve the participation of women in the field—because we saw a lot of young women going into the field but not staying in the field—we put together a group of leaders at all different ages,” she said.

Regardless of what industry you’re in, there’s one thing you should be doing to make moves at the office. Get a sponsor, said Susan—a sentiment that was echoed by all the women who spoke at the IWISE event. And a sponsor is different than a mentor: He or she is someone with a high-level position within your company who will fight for you to get promoted.

“You can and should identify a senior person or people—could be multiple—who you can go to and say…‘I think I can offer this,’ or, ‘I think there might be an open position and I think I can make a contribution. Could you please put me forward?’ said Susan. “That is not only a good thing to do, it’s an essential thing to do, because you’re not going to be in the room when decisions are being made, but you will have someone.”

Photograph courtesy of Bea Arthur

Bea Arthur, the founder and CEO of the online therapy company, InYourCornerOnline.com, echoed a similar sentiment when talking about the importance of having a mentor.

“[A mentor] is somebody who will say, ‘Let’s course correct. Let’s only focus on your strength. Let’s do what you’re good at and put one foot in front of the other.’”

Bea and Susan also agree that it’s helpful to be open to taking risks, even little ones like reaching out to a potential contact on Twitter.

“When I was doing my private practice, there would be so many times when somebody would come to me and they’d be thinking about taking action,” said Bea. “I’d be like, ‘You’ve been talking to me about this for five weeks.’ Once you realize there is no pressure—it’s going to happen or it won’t—and it’s not that big of a deal because it’s Twitter, then you get over it and you do it.”

For more insight from Susan Solomon and Bea Arthur, listen to the entire episode of “Uninterrupted” on iTunes. 

The Women Promoted on This Episode:

Susan Solomon is a huge fan of Valentina Fosssati, who is leading the MS group at her laboratory.

Bea Arthur is all about Bella Acton of Never Liked it Anyway, Kathryn Minshew and Alex Cavoulacos of TheMuse.com, and Sarah Kuntz of ProDay.

Follow These Women on Twitter:

Women’s Health: @womenshealthmag

Caitlin Abber: @everydaycaitlin

Christina Heiser: @xtinaph

Susan Solomon: @SusanNYSCF

Bea Arthur: @BeaArthurLMHC

Episode Credits:

Uninterrupted is produced by Caitlin Abber and edited by Charesse James, with editorial and public relations support from Lisa Chudnofsky and Lindsey Benoit.

Our theme music is “Bullshit” by Jen Miller.