Encouragement and recruitment of young women and men to work in S

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Encouragement and recruitment of young women and
men to work in ST in CEE countriesFacts and
problems A proposal to the WIST2 Working group

• Magdalena Piscova
• Institute for Sociology, Slovak Academy of
  Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia

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• Brief overview of the situation in science and
  technology in CEE countries (Bulgaria and Romania
  not included)
• Main problems and barriers in ST in CEE
  countries
• How to bring more women into science and
  engineering

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(No Transcript)
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Source Indicators for monitoring the Employment
guidelines 2006 compendium, EC DG Employment,
Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, latest
update 01/08/2006
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Science and technology graduates - females and
malesFemale and male tertiary graduates in
science and technology per 1 000 of female and
male population aged 20-29 years

• The indicator Tertiary graduates in science and
  technology includes new female or male tertiary
  graduates in a calendar year from both public and
  private institutions completing graduate and post
  graduate studies compared to women or males in
  an age group that corresponds to the typical
  graduation age in most countries. It does not
  correspond to the number of female graduates in
  these fields who are available in the labour
  market in this specific year. The levels and
  fields of education and training used follow the
  1997 version of the International Standard
  Classification of Education (ISCED97) and
  Eurostat Manual of fields of education and
  training (1999).
• Source http//epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu

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Doctorate students in science and technology
fields - females and males( of the population
aged 20 - 29)
Students participating in second stage of
tertiary education in science and technology
fields of study, as a percentage of the female
or male population 20-29 year old. This table
includes the total number of students in tertiary
programs which leads to an advanced research
qualification (ISCED level 6), in the
educational fields Science, Mathematics and
Computing and Engineering, Manufacturing and
Construction. The levels and fields of education
and training used follow the 1997 version of the
International Standard Classification of
Education (ISCED97) and the Eurostat Manual of
fields of education and training (1999). Source
http//epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu
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Highly qualified scientific and technical workers
(HRSTC)as a of total ST human resources with
tertiary education (HRSTE), share of women and
age distribution in 2006

• Country as of labour as a of
  share of Age distribution ()
• force HRSTE women () 26-34
  35-44 45-64
• Czech Republic 10.8 59.3 45.6
  31.8 25.8
  37.8
• Estonia 16.8 41.7
  71.6 27.6 25.9
  36.2
• Latvia 13.8 50.0
  71.1 29.6 24.5
  32.7
• Lithuania 16.6 45.3
  71.2 35.2
  27.7 28.8
• Hungary 14.1 53.2
  57.2 34.3 23.6
  37.6
• Poland 13.7 53.7
  59.1 43.1
  23.6 28.1
• Slovenia 16.6 59.6
  59.6 33.9 29.2
  33.9
• Slovakia 10.6 57.0
  50.0 33.7 23.0
  39.0
• EU 27 15.4 50.6
  51.4 30.6 29.3
  35.3
• HRSTC refers to the group of people both
  educated and employed in scientific and technical
  occupations.
• Source Key figures 2007 on Science, Technology
  and Innovation. Towards a Europe Knowledge Area.
  DG RTD / C03, June 2007

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Source for EU EUROSTAT (New Cronos), WiS
database, Reference year Source for Slovak
Separate of the Yearbook of Education in SR 2001,
The Institute of Information and Forecasting on
Education 2002, (Note Students and doctoral
students data are from 2001, university
lecturers data are from 1999)
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Proportion of men and women in academic carrier
in Slovakia in 2006
Source The Institute of Information and
Forecasting on Education, http//www.uips.sk/stati
s/index.html
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The main problems of ST research in CEE countries

• Sphere of ST in longterm suffers from lack of
  financial resources
• Industrial research is underdeveloped (the former
  sphere of industrial research was substantially
  reduced and not substituted for by new subjects)
  
• Governmental sector in research strongly
  prevails
• Cooperation between universities academic
  research - and industrial research is very poor
  and insufficient
• Promotion of excellency in ST is weak and not
  motivated
• Mechanisms to attract more young people into
  science and research are absent

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• Prestige and attractiveness of scientific
  and research work is
• remarkably low in society

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• On the other side
• there is  a significant interconnection
  between the prestige and attractiveness
  of science and participation of women in science.
  Due to unsatisfactory working and social
  conditions in science and technology there was
  a drain of men from and an influx of women to
  many fields of science in last years. That would
  be in accord with a longer and general
  observation that claims that women win and
  feminize positions which men in turn, willingly
  leave in search of a better pay and prestige.

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Perception of attractiveness of the position of a
scientist (researcher) to graduates ()
Source Women in science in SAS, n209,
Bratislava 2005
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The low prestige of scientific and research
professions is mainly connected with

• Generally low financial remuneration
• Low chance of specialists to enter into decision
  and governance processes
• unfavorable social position of doctoral students
  in some countries
• In case of the highly qualified women, the gender
  pay gap is the deepest (high education level does
  not bring the same advantage as it does for men)

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Low attractiveness of scientific profession is
emphasized by a widespread opinion that
scientific work is

• extremely demanding requires studying
• excessively time-consuming in irregular time
  regime (very difficult WLB especially for women)
• effortful but uncertain in acquired results
• low appreciated and respected in society
• job with low transparency in advancement criteria
• and

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• Of particular importance is the
• low awareness of the public about the sense,
  potentials and possible achievements of
  scientific work.

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• How to make ST more attractive for young women
  and men?
• What can be the next step?
• Where should we start?

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Possible solutions

• Mobilizing (recruitment) of young people for ST
  professions has to start early, before the
  university graduation
• 2. The period of secondary school studies can
  play a decisive role in aspiration and motivation
  for work in ST

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Proposal to start with collecting data on the
attitudes and aspirations of young students
generation.

• Target groups
• women and men in the following categories
• secondary school students
• technical and natural sciences university
  students
• doctoral students (post docs)Methodologyquanti
  tative research

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Objectives

• To observe in the group of secondary students
• - professional (and private aspirations)
• the factors playing role in choosing the future
  branch of study (family background, economic
  reasons, carrier's perspectives?)
• influence of teachers (good and bad examples)
• results and skills reached in natural and
  technical study subjects
• perception of particular professions as suitable
  or not suitable for women

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Objectives

• To observe in the group of university students in
  technical and natural sciences and doctoral
  students
• level of satisfaction or frustration in filling
  the expectations
• stability in branch of study or search for a
  change
• mobility opportunities
• attitudes towards the building of own carrier
  (barriers and opportunities)
• contacts and experiences with business
  (industrial) sector

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• Estimated timescale
• Preparing the methodology 1-2 months
• Fieldwork interview with respondents (including
  pilot survey) 2 months
• Controlling and analysis the data 2 months
• Preparing the research report 2 months