Transcript Slide 1

Women in Research
Yafit Stark PhD, Vice President
Chief Clinical Officer
Innovative R&D
Global Innovative Resources
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd.
Introduction
• The relatively low number of women in science, in
particular in senior positions, is an unacceptable and
unaffordable waste of human resources and a distortion
of the relationship between science and society.
• Industry plays a leading role in research, innovation and
development. About 56% of research and technological
development investment in the EU Member States –
R&D expenditure – is funded by industry.
• The situation of women in industrial research in Europe
has never been analyzed before. The results are
alarming. The first official statistical data show that the
participation of women in industrial research is less than
half that of the higher education sector.
Women in industrial research – an
overview
• Women make up between 18% -28% of
industrial researchers in eight out of ten
Member States
• The statistics show the untapped potential
of women in industrial research
• The proportion of women among science
and engineering students has grown
Women Lag in Scientific Research
A non-European Gender Survey
•
•
•
•
Women lag significantly behind men in scientific research
Fewer women are found in higher positions
Roughly equal numbers of men/women start off in science
83.6% of men are employed on a permanent basis as opposed to
56% of women
• Women concentrate on subjects like biology and medicine
• Male scientists - much more diversified
• EADGENE Network of Excellence and SABRE project seem to
suggest that women who approach science accept lower status for
themselves
Numbers & Proportions of Female Researchers
in Industrial Research (BES), EU, 1999
Countries
All researchers
ranked by total
number
Number of
women
% of women
Germany*
150,149
14,414
9.6
Denmark
11,292
2,218
19.6
Greece
3,931
940
23.9
Spain
17,310
3,353
19.4
France
86,215
17,787
20.6
Ireland
1,900
536
28.2
Italy
29,706
5,490
18.5
Luxembourg**
1,217
No data
No data
Austria
13,966
1,258
9.0
Portugal
3,328
793
23.8
Finland
22,515
3,999
17.8
Sweden**
39,921
No data
No data
UK**
98,587
No data
No data
EU (10)
340,312
50,789
14.9
Source: DG Research, Unit C5
Data: Eurostat, new Cronos; DG Research, WiS
database
Exceptions to the reference year: Austria (1998);
France, Italy (2000); Ireland (2001)
* = Full time equivalent
** = No gender differentiation data available
No data for Belgium & The Netherlands
Female proportion of industrial scientists &
engineers in scientific & technological
occupations, 2000
Luxembourg
Germany
Belgium
UK
Austria
Netherlands
EU
Finland
Italy
France
Denmark
Ireland
Greece
Portugal
Spain
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Median annual salaries of employed scientists & engineers,
by broad occupation & sex in the US (1999)
Source: NS, Sciences & Engineering Indicators (2002)
Female
Male
70,000
60,000
Dollars
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
All S&E
Computer &
occupations
maths
scientists
Life &
related
scientists
Physical &
related
scientists
Social &
related
scientists
Engineers
Women in Industrial Research (WIR)
• WIR is concerned with Europe as a whole, but concentrates on the
15 European Union (EU) Member States in the year 2002
• The European Council agreed at the Barcelona summit that the
proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) spent on R&D in the
European Union (EU) should increase from 1.9% in 2000 to 3% by
2010. This will mean substantially increasing the numbers of
researchers: indeed, investment in industrial R&D is expected to
double by 2010. Given that it plays the leading role in R&D, this is a
major challenge for industry
• In this report the position of women in industrial research is
analyzed and recommendations as to how this talent pool could
better be used are presented.
• At present, women constitute only around 15% of industrial
researchers in the EU. As significantly more women are graduating
in science and engineering, they are an obvious source of new
recruits. In addition, the disproportionate loss of women from
scientific careers needs to be overcome
Industrial Research – WIR Initiative
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Leading role for research and development
56% of all research in Europe is undertaken by industry
Every second researcher in the EU-15 is working in industrial R&D
More women graduate below 30 years of age than men
In European research women are under-represented, especially in senior
positions
In the public sector – universities and research institutes – proportion of
formal researchers is about 30% on EU average
In industry – only 15% are women
Some industries have implemented specific strategies to raise
attractiveness for high potential females researchers and engineers
76.6% of women agree that “research is ruled by men”
Only 47.3% of men judge the situation in the same way
57.4% of women respondents believe that “female research lacked the
competitive behavior required to reach more important positions”
Work ambition reduced after having children
Why focus on women for science
& development?
• Women constitute about 50% of the population worldwide
• The labor supply in Europe is getting smaller and is
ageing
• Young people are making different lifestyle choices from
that of their parents
• Different countries offer very different framework
conditions for employment, such as parental leave,
childcare, eldercare, etc.
• The “leaky pipeline” in academic life: qualified women
disappear in disproportionate numbers from every stage
in the hierarchy and as a consequence, are underrepresented in senior decision-making positions
• Research shows that larger
numbers of women have
expanded the entry and middle
ranks of science, and have
earned Ph.D.’s in ratios
approaching men.
• Only a relatively small number
of these women have reached
the upper tiers of their
profession as evident by the
numbers of women becoming
tenured professors, running
large laboratories, or
presenting keynote addresses
at major scientific meetings of
their peers.
• ‘Girls’ self-esteem, confidence in their
abilities, expectations for life, interest in
challenging courses and rewarding careers,
and pursuits in math and science decline as
they get older.'
• Contrary to commonly held public opinion,
parents, rather than peers or the media still
have the greatest influence on their
daughter's lives and life choices.
• Studies show that expectations and
experiences from family and community
members are more likely to influence girls'
decisions to go into science, technology,
engineering, and math, than even their
innate abilities.
• Despite the hundreds of programs
and millions of dollar devoted to
increasing the numbers of women in
science, technology, engineering and
math, studies indicate that in many
science careers, the number of
women has actually stayed the
same, or in a few instances, dropped.
• Some organizations working to
increase these numbers claim they
are fighting an uphill battle against
mass media and hormones.
The Lifeblood of the EU Economy
• The number of women-owned businesses in Europe is
growing
• Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are
a top growth business and employment area. Despite
the fact that 19% of new PhDs in computing in the EU
area are awarded to women, few have so far started an
ICT business enterprise
• The biosciences might seem to be an obvious area for
women
• The challenges facing women entrepreneurs include the
fact that they are likely to start with less finance than
men
• Recommendations focus on creating a better
understanding of the challenges faced by women
entrepreneurs
Biotechnology
• Biotechnology is a natural career choice
for life science students, a discipline which
for some years has shown higher
percentages of female than male students
• Biotechnology is a recent industry and
thus free from past burdens and patterns
of gender segregation
Biotechnology (contd.)
• The number of women in management positions is very low both in
start-ups of up to 10 employees as well as in companies established
over 20 years ago
• An analysis of the presence of women in the 17 companies quoted
on the American Stock Exchange Biotechnology Index (BTK) shows
that only 16.4% (29 out of 141) of middle to top management
positions are held by women
• Out of the 17 companies that have most recently completed Initial
Public Offerings (IPO) in the US, only 8 out of 124 company
directors were women (6.5%) and there were no women board
chairs
• However, the number of women occupying middle to senior
management positions is increasing and could serve as a pool on
which to draw in the future
• Nevertheless, today the presence of female entrepreneurs or even
chief executive officers in biotechnology companies continues to be
insignificant in Europe
What can companies do to increase diversity &
the number of women in industrial research?
Detailed recommendations for companies to become leading edge in
diversity management and in the employment of women:
• An attractive work environment
• A commitment from the top to gender equality, diversity policies and
dignity at work values – integrated into strategy and action plans,
reporting mechanisms and performance review systems
• A high degree of transparency and two-way communications
systems
• Sound work/life balance policies: maternity and paternity leave,
child-care facilities or subsidised child-care costs and emergency
leave for caring for sick family members
• Flexible work schedules
Women & The Nobel Prize
• Approx. 500 men have received the Nobel Prize
for Science since 1901
• In the course of almost a century, only 10
women scientists have won Nobel prizes (2%)
• Religion: Half of these women had Jewish
backgrounds, and particularly influential parents
and relatives
• Behind many of these successful women stood
a man – more than 50% of the women married
and raised children
• These women had to overcome many barriers
Marie Curie
Born Warsaw Poland November 7, 1867
Died France July 4, 1934
Marie Curie, née Maria Sklodowska, received a general education in local schools and some scientific
training from her father. In 1891, she went to Paris to continue her studies at the Sorbonne where she
obtained Licenciateships in Physics and the Mathematical Sciences. She met Pierre Curie, Professor in
the School of Physics in 1894 and in the following year they were married. She succeeded her husband
as Head of the Physics Laboratory at the Sorbonne, gained her Doctor of Science degree in 1903, and
following the tragic death of Pierre Curie in 1906, she took his place as Professor of General Physics in
the Faculty of Sciences, the first time a woman had held this position. She was also appointed Director
of the Curie Laboratory in the Radium Institute of the University of Paris, founded in 1914.
Her early researches, together with her husband, were often performed under difficult conditions. The discovery of
radioactivity by Henri Becquerel in 1896 inspired the Curies in their brilliant researches and analyses which led to the
isolation of polonium, named after the country of Marie's birth, and radium. Mme. Curie developed methods for the
separation of radium from radioactive residues in sufficient quantities to allow for its characterization and the careful study of
its properties, therapeutic properties in particular.
Mme. Curie promoted the use of radium to alleviate suffering and during World War I, assisted by her daughter, Irene, she
personally devoted herself to this remedial work. She retained her enthusiasm for science throughout her life and did much
to establish a radioactivity laboratory in her native city - in 1929 President Hoover of the United States presented her with a
gift of $ 50,000, donated by American friends of science, to purchase radium for use in the laboratory in Warsaw.
Mme. Curie, quiet, dignified and unassuming, was held in high esteem and admiration by scientists throughout the world.
She was a member of the Conseil du Physique Solvay from 1911 until her death and since 1922 she had been a member of
the Committee of Intellectual Co-operation of the League of Nations. Her work is recorded in numerous papers in scientific
journals and she is the author of Recherches sur les Substances Radioactives (1904), L'Isotopie et les Éléments Isotopes
and the classic Traité' de Radioactivité (1910).
Mme. Curie received many honorary science, medicine and law degrees and honorary memberships of learned societies
throughout the world. Together with her husband, she was awarded half of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903, for their
study into the spontaneous radiation discovered by Becquerel, who was awarded the other half of the Prize. In 1911 she
received a second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, in recognition of her work in radioactivity. She also received, jointly
with her husband, the Davy Medal of the Royal Society in 1903 and, in 1921, President Harding of the United States, on
behalf of the women of America, presented her with one gram of radium in recognition of her service to science.
Rita Levi-Montalcini
Born April 22 1909
Rita Levi-Montalcini is an Italian neurologist, who, together with colleague Stanley
Cohen,received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery
of Nerve Growth Factor. Since 2001, she has also served in the Italian Senate as a
Senator for Life.
Today she is the oldest living Nobel Laureate and the first ever to reach the 100th
birthday. On April 22, 2009 she was feted with a 100th birthday party at Rome’s City
Hall.
Born in Turin to a Sephardic Jewish family, together with her twin sister Paola she was the youngest of four
children. Her parents were Adamo Levi, an electrical engineer and gifted mathematician, and Adele Montalcini,
a talented painter described by Levi-Montalcini as "an exquisite human being".
Levi-Montalcini decided to go to medical school after seeing a close family friend die of cancer. She overcame
the objections of her father — who believed that "a professional career would interfere with the duties of a wife
and mother" — and enrolled in the Turin medical school in 1930, studying with Giussepe Levi . After graduating
in 1936, she went to work as Levi's assistant, but her academic career was cut short by Mussolini's 1938
Manifesto of Race and the subsequent introduction of laws barring Jews from academic and professional
careers.
During World War II she conducted experiments from a home laboratory, studying the growth of nerve fibers in
chicken embryos which laid the groundwork for much of her later research. Her first genetics laboratory was in
her bedroom at her home. In 1943, her family fled south to Florence, and she set up a laboratory there also.
Her family returned to Turin in 1945.
In September of 1946, Levi-Montalcini accepted an invitation to Washington University in St. Louis, under the
supervision of Professor Viktor Hamburger. Although the initial invitation was for one semester, she stayed for
thirty years. It was there that she did her most important work: isolating the nerve growth factor (NGF) from
observations of certain cancerous tissues that cause extremely rapid growth of nerve cells in 1952. She was
made a Full Professor in 1958, and in 1962, established a research unit in Rome, dividing the rest of her time
between there and St. Louis.
•
•
•
•
From 1961 to 1969 she directed the Research Center of
Neurobiology of the CNR (Rome), and from 1969 to 1978 the
Laboratory of Cellular Biology.
On August 1, 2001 she was appointed as Senator for Life by the
President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
On April 28–29, 2006 Levi-Montalcini, aged 97, attended the
opening assembly of the newly-elected Senate, at which the
President of the Senate was elected; she declared her preference
for the centre-left candidate Franco Marini. Levi-Montalcini, who is
the senior member of the Upper House, chose not to be the
temporary president on this occasion. She actively takes part in
the Upper House discussions, unless busy in academic activities
around the world. Due to her support of the government of
Romano Prodi, she was often criticized by some right-wing
senators, who accused her of "saving" the government when the
government's exiguous majority in the Senate was at risk. She has
been frequently insulted in public, and on blogs, since 2006, by
both center-right senators such as Francesco Storace, and farright bloggers for her age and Jewish origins.
Levi-Montalcini is currently the oldest living and the longest-lived
Nobel laureate who, though hard of hearing and nearly blind,
recently vowed to remain a political force in her country.
A Vision for 2010
Opportunities & Approaches
• There should be a gender balance of men and women in
laboratories and in senior management
• Work cultures and organizations will need to change to
embrace more women
• Sensible work/life balance
• Women need to exercise equal obligations, rather than
equal rights
• Women should not consider themselves as a minority –
they are 51% of the world population
• In biblical times, women were very strong and
demonstrated leadership
• The sky is not the limit for women (women astronauts)