Transcript Document 7214517

Representation of Women in
Science and Engineering in
Canada and Europe
Julita Vassileva
Computer Science Department,
University of Saskatchewan, Canada
Outline
• Differences and similarities between women’s
representation in sci.& eng. In Canada and in
Europe
• European programs for advancement of
women
• US and Canadian Programs
Canadian Situation in Universities
• Lack of women progressing through the academic
ranks is a concern of all granting councils
• Many grass-root organisations
• Government agency: Status of Women – wide
mandate
Difficult to coordinate activities
Figures: CAUT Almanac 2007
(women in sci. & eng. vs. women in all fields)
70
60
~58%
~49.6%
50
40
~35%
~39%
32.6%
SciEng
All
30
20
~14%
10
38%
51.4%
31%
45.6%
0
BSc
MSc
PhD
Faculty
Vertical cross-section
Women faculty in sci. & eng. vs. Women faculty in all fields
45
41.1%
40
34.7%
35
30
25
20
19.43%
18.8%
13.88%
15
10
7.72%
5
0
Assistant
Associate
Full
SciEng
All
Canada Research Chairs
Distribution of Allocated Canada Research Chairs by Tier and Gender (December 2006) /
Répartition des chaires de recherche du Canada octroyées, par niveau et par sexe (décembre 2006)
Chairs from All disciplines: SHHRC, CIHR, NSERC, etc.
90%
80%
84.2%
70%
60%
50%
40%
All NSERC Chairs
2008
Total: 817
Women: 115 (14%)
Tier 1 Women: 27
 3.3% of all Chairs or
 7.56% of all Tier 1
72.7%
All NSERC Chairs
2007
Total: 780
Women: 90 (11.5%)
30%
20%
27.3%
10%
15.8%
0%
Tier 1 / Niveau 1
Men / Hommes
Tier 2 / Niveau 2
Women / Femmes
UNESCO Science Technology and Gender Report 2007:
http://www.unesco.org/science/psd/focus/focus07/gender_rep.shtml
What is the situation in Europe?
Can we learn something?
http://kif.nbi.dk/She_Figures_2006.pdf
All disciplines
Poor retention rates from
education through employment in
EU-15
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In the UK, calculations from the 2001 Labour Force Survey show that at any one
time 50,000 women with science, engineering, and technology degrees were not
in paid work;
of these, only half can be expected to return to paid work, of whom only a third
will take science-based jobs, often in ‘associate professional’ technician jobs for
which they are overqualified (DTI, 2002).
>45%
Women
In SciEng
High proportion of women in sci. &
eng in eastern and southern European
countries
• Example: Bulgaria
– Entrance exams for University - quotas required to
ensure that there will be men accepted; otherwise
would be completely feminized
– 50% women enrollment in first year, possibly
increasing over the course of studies.
– Equal representation of men and women in the
workplace
Reasons?
• Different educational system (old-fashioned)
– more streamlined, rigid, less choice
– math is emphasized throughout school and university
• Different social policies
– in former socialist regimes women were expected to work,
there was ubiquitous state-funded daycare system
– two generations of women fully integrated in the
workforce during their lifetimes – plenty of role-models
• Different culture: in socialist Bulgaria
– intellectual work WAS associated with prestige
– was fairly well paid (money didn’t matter that much then),
– this is changing now, quickly
Musings on this side of the Atlantic
• Perhaps we give kids too many choices too early?
• importance of Math, boring practice not emphasized
enough
• Prestige goes with money-earning or with high-power
jobs, not so much with intellectual work
• Women encouraged to “find their way to express
themselves” in different ways
• mothers, homemakers, professionally (lots of choices) …
• but men are encouraged to find a well-paid, prestigeous,
high-power job.
• Virtually not existent government support for work-life
balance
So the numbers in some European
countries look fine…
• Let’s see if it is really a wonderful life for
female scientists over there…
Vertical sex segregation
31
38
19.4
13.8
7.72
7.72
Vertical sex segregation
• Similar to Canada, the proportion of women in Sci. & Eng. in
higher ranks in Europe decreases.
• Also in Eastern European countries:
– men are on average 3 times more likely than women to be
in Grade A (Full professor) positions
– Women are considerably more likely than men to be in
technician jobs (versus “researcher” jobs), despite being
similarly qualified
– Result: pay gap.
Women’s and Men’s Average Monthly Earnings
Country
Latvia
Lithuania
Poland
Romania
Slovakia
Portugal
Higher Educ. math. lecturer
Women (% of male) Men
€358 (81)
€439
€373 (75)
€494
€544 (79)
€688
€173 (77)
€223
€294 (91)
€322
€1309 (98)
€1341
Chemical engineer
Women (% of male)
Men
€359 (80)
€450
€461 (61)
€759
€671 (85)
€786
€197 (83)
€238
€409 (77)
€533
€1558 (72)
€2167
Portugal is the lowest paid EU-15 country;
calculations based on data from the ILO Laborsta database
Back to
Canada
Horizontal / Geographical Sex
Segregation
Let’s see now where the research money is
>45%
Women
researchers
in SciEng
Research
funding
Nearly no
overlap!
The Honeypot indicator
• The proportion of female researchers is the highest in those
scientific fields and countries where the least money is spent
on research from the GDP;
• Women are heavily concentrated in the government sector,
but the R&D funding is concentrated in the private sector
• Women are usually substitutes for those men that left the
research profession because of its decreasing prestige and the
dwindling salaries over the past 15 years.
• EC, 2003: ‘women are being used as a kind of secondary human resource . . .
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because the reward system is no longer sufficiently attractive [to men]’
Why don’t women switch to those sectors that offer the best opportunities?
The Commission acknowledges women’s agency: their location in the more stable, but poorly paid, publicly funded science
may be a strategy of women ‘choosing to work here in order to support their families with at least one stable income in the
new competitive and risky environment’
Glover, J. (2005) Highly Qualified Women in the “New Europe”: Territorial Sex Segregation
http://ejd.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/11/2/231.pdf
Studies: Central European Center
for Women and Youth in Science
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great differences exist between the perception by men and women scientists of the
role and position of women in science
parenthood is a major inhibitor to the development of scientific career
gender stereotyping persists
affirmative action rejected – especially by men
what is “natural”? Most young scientists thought that men and women by NATURE
have different preferences.
gender issues are perceived as an imported topic and are displaced in domestic
social–economic, political and cultural context by other problems, widely considered
as more important (high unemployment rate, low-cost labour, regional disparities,
effects of social and economical reforms on the population, demographic problems
etc.).
analogically, in the sphere of science gender studies are considered as not relevant
(interviews with women scientists), and there are more pressing and real problems in
science and research – science financing, insufficient infrastructure, under-financed
scientific work and its low social status, lack of interest of young people in scientific
career and leaving science to work in other sectors.
I am a father, so I will say something about family and having a career.
Because if you are in academia, in Slovenia you collect points and it is a system
that makes it possible to be compared with colleagues, and the number of points
gives you access to the next step. Now, being a father it also means that I cannot
engage myself ten hours or twelve hours a day in work but only eight if I want to
be a father also, not just a working man… This also means that I cannot compare
with my colleagues that just work because they collect more points than I do.
Now, being a mother, this is at least ten times more problematic than being a
father. So, I think it is a difficult issue, especially in academia. Not to mention the
old boys’ club.
[male, physicist]
ENWISE Report 2002
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Enwise – Enlarge Women In Science to East – with members from Central and
Eastern Europe and the Baltic States (The Enwise countries are Bulgaria, the Czech
Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic
and Slovenia)
The report highlights that for many women, becoming a scientist often means
accepting an under-funded position within the scientific community, a double
burden in maintaining a satisfactory worklife balance and an implicit expectation
that all hindrances form part of the private sphere without any public recognition
or remedy.
It gives an overview of the participation of women from the Enwise countries in
the European Research Area, revealing the following main problems:
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there are big differences among the scientific disciplines, the proportion of women is high in social
sciences but very low in engineering
women mainly work in those fields where the salaries are the lowest and the circumstances the
worst
very few women work in industry, where the financial conditions are the best
more than 40% of PhD degrees are acquired by women but their representation is much lower in the
upper levels of the hierarchy.
ENWISE - Activities
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Raising visibility and inclusion of women scientists in the scientific community by
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Building capacity and skills by
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creating an interdisciplinary database of women scientists from Central Europe, awareness of which was promoted
among national and international organisations, industrial bodies and R&D employment sites
developing information material and workshops for women to inform and mobilise them to register in the European
Commission database of expert evaluators
developing a Project Sourcebook which introduces the European Commission research funding tools and offers
experience-based tips and suggestions on proposal writing and project coordination and management
fostering reflective practices among scientists by developing a manual on the inclusion of the gender dimension in
research questions and methodology and organised workshops to introduce the concept and look at concrete
examples of how this can be done
holding seminars for young men and women scientists, aiming to prepare young researchers to take ownership of
their research projects, and to develop skills in communication and responsible conduct of science, and provide them
with skills to enable them to develop into effective supervisors and mentors
explaining and informing scientists about the opportunities and processes of participating in European Commission
funded research
Contributing to policy development
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CEC-WYS has built on the Enwise Workshop on Young Scientists and follow-up online questionnaire to write a report
on young scientists’ perceptions of the issues they face. Results have been made publicly available and synergised
with the activities of other organisations and activities concerned with young scientists as a tool to lobby for policy
development.
Based on the Enwise expert group recommendations concerning the position of women in science in Central and
Eastern Europe, CEC-WYS partners monitored policy developments by conducting a mapping exercise and writing
national reports and a comparative international report with which to lobby at national level
EC Programs
• EC aims to achieve at least 40% repesentation
for women at all levels of implementing and
managing research programmes
– e.g. in Marie Curie research scholarships, advisory
groups and assessment panels for the various
Frameworks for research and technological
development
• Gender Mainstreaming throughout the whole
process of the 6th Framework of the EC:
Vademeccum:
ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/science-society/docs/gendervademecum.pdf
What does “Integrating the gender dimension in FP6 projects” mean?
The Commission recognises a threefold relationship between women and research, and has articulated
its action around the following:
- Women’s participation in research must be encouraged both as scientists/technologists and within
the
evaluation, consultation and implementation process
- Research must address women’s needs, as such as men’s needs
- Research must be carried out to contribute to an enhanced understanding of gender issues
Promoting women does not mean treating them in the same way as men. Men’s characteristics,
situations and needs are often taken as the norm, and – to have the same opportunities- women are
expected to behave like them. Ensuring gender equality means giving equal consideration to the life
patterns, needs and interests of both women and men. Gender mainstreaming thus includes also
changing the working culture.
We need to go a step further by engendering research. This means questioning systematically whether,
and in what sense, sex and gender are relevant in the objectives and in the methodology of projects.
Many science and research projects include humans as subjects. There is no such thing as a
universally neutral person. Because gender differences are fundamental organising features of life and
society, recognising these differences has important implications in scientific knowledge.
… whoever gets to define what counts as a scientific problem also gets a powerful role in shaping
the picture of the world that results from scientific research. (Harding 1991:40)
The following list shows examples of gender relevant research topics:
-Gender differences are relevant in health research for combating diseases, and in the fundamental
research on genomics and its applications for health
- In information technologies, gender disparities exist at user level and in the labour market.
By assuming that information technology is neutral, biases can enter into technological research and
development, which can have a negative impact on gender equality.
- Gender-specific needs could be relevant to the development of materials for use in the biomedical
sector.
- Gender differences could exist in the impact on health of food products, such as those containing
genetically modified organisms.
- Gender may also be relevant in the epidemiology of food-related diseases and allergies.
- Gender differences are relevant in the design and development of sustainable technologies and in
sectors such as transport
- There are differences in gender roles and responsibilities, as well as in the relationship to the resource
base, which are relevant to sustainable development research (land management, agricultural and
forest resources, water cycle)
- Developments in the knowledge-based society and in the new forms of relationship between citizens
and institutions in Europe have some significant gender dimensions.
Why Gender Action Plan?
• To increase women’s participation at all levels of the research
workforce.
• To allow a better understanding of the gender dimension in
research.
• To raise gender awareness among different categories of
actors.
• To highlight the responsibilities of all these actors in pursuing
gender equality and implementing gender mainstreaming
policies.
Gender Action Plan
• Gender Awareness Group or equivalent structure to
encourage networking and mentoring amongst women
researchers.
• Outreach activities such as girls days.
• Incentives (fellowships and training awards) for women
scientists.
• Collect sex-disaggregated statistics of the research workforce.
• Address and monitor where relevant the specific gender
aspects in the research.
Reaching the 40% target
40%
35%
35%
33%
31% 31%
30%
29%
29%
28%
28%
27%
27%
% Fe m ale s
25%
25%
23% 23%
22%
19%
20%
25%
23%
22%
21%
21%
23%
FP4
1999
2000
18%
17%
17%
15%
2001
2002
15%
2003
10%
10%
6%
4%
5%
0%
Evaluation
Panels
Expert
databases
Monitoring
Panels
AG's
Programme
Committees
Advisory Boards
EC Future Priorities
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Strengthening the gender dimension of foresight research
Promoting gender awareness and fairness in the definition
and measurement of scientific excellence
Empowering women in decision-making and governance
Benchmarking gender mainstreaming policies and
practices at national and institutional levels and developing
synergies
Research careers: increasing the knowledge base and
redressing imbalances
Enhancing the role of women in innovation
Groups
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http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/cha/c10930.htm
The Helsinki group on "Women and Science": the purpose of this group is to promote gender
equality and the participation of women in scientific fields at European level. Meetings are
held twice yearly and are an important forum for dialogue on national policies. Its main
function is to exchange points of view, experiences and good practice concerning measures
and policies developed and implemented at local, regional, national and European level;
Network development: Networks are an essential tool for making the voice of female
scientists heard in Europe. One of the factors which results from the under-representation of
women in science and research is precisely the feeling of isolation and the lack of support
experienced individually by female scientists in their sectors; The European Platform of
Women Scientists (www.epws.org) supports a range of existing national, European and
International women scientists from all disciplines.
Statistics: to measure collective career progress for female scientists it is crucial to have
regularly updated statistics and indicators in order to check whether or not the situation is
improving and to observe variations according to discipline and country;
The Enwise group: The Commission set up the Enwise Expert Group (Enlarge "Women in
Science" to East) to analyse the situation of female scientists in Central and Eastern Europe
and the Baltic;
The Expert Group "Women in Industrial Research": the purpose of this group is to advise the
Commission, the Member States and private industry on measures to be taken to encourage
employers in the private sector to take advantage of the financial benefits which they stand
to gain from recruiting women into their businesses.
National programs
• Ireland: The Ministry of Trade and Commerce has devoted Euro 4.3 million
to women returning from maternity, career or adoption to reenter their
scientific career.
• Switzerland: Funded by the Federal Office for Professional Education and
Technology, equal opportunities representatives in universities will be
introduced, and projects that create favoruable conditions for women in
technology, IT and management
• Slovakia: Commission for Equal Opportunities of the Solvak Academy of
Sciences
• Slovenia: National Committee for Equality of Genders in Science, estab. By
the Minstry of Education, Science and Sport in 2001 as advisory/expert
body re. research policy, informs public and ministry about statistics
• Norway: National Committee for Promoting Gender Mainstreaming in
Higher Education and Research – identifies best practices and develops
tools
More National Programs
• Germany: Center of Excellence Women and Science funded by the BMBF;
Center for Excellence Women in the Information Society and Technology
• France: Mission for Parity in Research and Higher Education
• Denmark: Koordinationen for Konsforskning – funded by the Minister of
Science and Technology and the University of Copenhagen
• Czech republic: National Contact Center for Women and Youth in Science
• Israel: National Council for the Promotion of Women in Science and
Technology
• Important fact: all these programs are
government-backed and on national / federal
level
USA
• Statistics: NSF, NAS, CRA (computing)
• The 2006 National Academies of Science report on "To Recruit
and Advance: Women Students and Faculty in Science and
Engineering“. <http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11741.html>
• The panel blamed environments that favor men, continuous
questioning of women's abilities and commitment to an
academic career, and a system that claims to reward based on
merit but instead rewards traits such as assertiveness that are
socially less acceptable for women to possess.
NAS Report recommendations
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Trustees, university presidents, and provosts be leaders in changing the culture at
their institutions to recruit, retain, and promote women.
Deans and department chairs and their tenured faculty members take steps to
minimize the effect of biases in recruiting, hiring, promoting, and granting tenure.
Professional and higher-education organizations promote equal treatment of
women and men, and start by collecting data on the numbers of women at various
levels in math and science. The groups should also work to invite a diverse group
of keynote speakers at their meetings, and ensure adequate representation of
women on editorial boards.
Federal grant-making agencies ensure that their practices and rules support the
participation of women by providing workshops to minimize gender bias,
collecting data on grant applications, and creating ways to finance professors who
take leaves of absence to care for children.
Federal agencies and Congress enforce anti-discrimination laws at institutions of
higher education.
NSF Advance Program
• Goal
• to develop systemic approaches to increase the representation and
advancement of women in academic science and engineering
• Grants
•
$3.5 million for 5 years were awarded to 9 new institutions a year.
• Projects:
– Partnerships for Adaptation, Implementation, and Dissemination
(PAID) Awards
• Support analysis, adaptation, dissemination and use of existing innovative materials and
practices, developing national and/or discipline specific leadership
– Institutional Transformation (IT) Awards
• Support innovative and comprehensive programs for institution-wide change
– Institutional Transformation Planning Grants (IT-Start)
• Support basic data collection and analysis functions necessary to understand the status of
women faculty in academic science and eng. At institutions seeking institutional
transformation.
– NSF Advance Fellowships: early-career, spouse-relocation, career interruption
Canada
• Statistics: CCWESTT, CAUT, Statistics Canada
• Programs: NSERC
– UFA (1999-2007)
– Regional Chairs for Women in Science and Engineering
• Initiatives by Universities
– Climate studies: Calgary, UBC
– Creating admin. positions (e.g. vice-deans) overseeing
diversity issues (Alberta, UBC)
– Institutionalization is important to make initiatives
sustainable!
NSERC: Policies with Direct
Implications for Women
• Extension of grants due to parental leave
• Explanation of delays in research activities in
grant applications
• Eligible expenses include child care
Retention
NSERC Chairs for Women in Science and
Engineering (CWSE)
5 Regional Chairs – established 1996
– Increase participation of women in S&E and provide
role models for women in these fields
– Established, recognized researchers
– Total of 9 chairs since inception
– Current Chairs have been selected to submit a proposal
to Canadian Humanities Granting council on
understanding factors that impact women’s decisions to
remain in S&E.
NSERC University Faculty Awards
UFA – established in 1999
– Target retention / early career progression of women in
tenure-track faculty positions
– Annual budget $5 Million; 110 active UFA holders
– Award holders focus on research, receive reduced teaching
and administrative load
• Evaluation of the UFA program
– Not seen as an effective recruitment tool
– Top candidates; would have succeeded anyway
– Informal Survey 2006:
Administrative and teaching release at key
transition periods
Conclusions
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It is inadequate to focus on the numbers of women, without regard to the
conditions, in terms of structure and culture, under which they work.
Even though some European countries are doing very well in terms of numbers
(“critical mass” reached), the “Women in Science” problem is not resolved.
“Contained inclusion” – examples from women US bio-medical, computer research
in the early and mid 20th century
Policy needs to focus on the conditions under which retention and advancement
takes place, as well as on increasing recruitment
In the context of lack for direct government support, Universities have to take an
active role in studying and changing their climates for female researchers.
Sustained leadership from the top is crucial (President / Provost level).