Title: Representation of Women in Science and Engineering in Canada and Europe
1Representation of Women in Science and
Engineering in Canada and Europe
- Julita Vassileva
- Computer Science Department,
- University of Saskatchewan, Canada
2Outline
- Differences and similarities between womens
representation in sci. eng. In Canada and in
Europe - European programs for advancement of women
- US and Canadian Programs
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4Canadian 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
5Figures CAUT Almanac 2007
(women in sci. eng. vs. women in all fields)
58
49.6
35
39
32.6
14
6Vertical cross-section
Women faculty in sci. eng. vs. Women faculty in
all fields
7Canada Research Chairs
Chairs from All disciplines SHHRC, CIHR, NSERC,
etc.
All NSERC Chairs 2007
Total 780 Women 90 (11.5)
8UNESCO Science Technology and Gender Report 2007
http//www.unesco.org/science/psd/focus/focus07/g
ender_rep.shtml
9What is the situation in Europe?
Can we learn something?
http//kif.nbi.dk/She_Figures_2006.pdf
10All disciplines
11Poor retention rates from education through
employment in EU-15
- 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).
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13gt45 Women In SciEng
14High 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
15Reasons?
- 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 didnt matter that
much then), - this is changing now, quickly
16Musings 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
17So the numbers in some European countries look
fine
- Lets see if it is really a wonderful life for
female scientists over there
18Vertical sex segregation
7.72
13.8
19.4
38
31
197.72
20Vertical 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.
21Womens and Mens Average Monthly
Earnings Country Higher Educ.
math. lecturer Chemical
engineer Women ( of
male) Men Women ( of male)
Men Latvia 358 (81)
439 359 (80)
450 Lithuania 373 (75)
494 461
(61) 759 Poland
544 (79) 688
671 (85) 786 Romania
173 (77) 223
197 (83) 238 Slovakia
294 (91) 322
409 (77) 533 Portugal
1309 (98) 1341
1558 (72) 2167
Portugal is the lowest paid EU-15 country
calculations based on data from the ILO Laborsta
database
22Back to Canada
23Horizontal / Geographical Sex SegregationLets
see now where the research money is
24gt45 Women researchers in SciEng
Research funding
Nearly no overlap!
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26The 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 RD 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 . . . because the reward
system is no longer sufficiently attractive to
men - Why dont women switch to those sectors that
offer the best opportunities? - The Commission acknowledges womens 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
27Studies Central European Center for Women and
Youth in Science
- 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 socialeconomic,
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.
28I 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
29ENWISE Report 2002
- 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 - 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.
30ENWISE - Activities
- Raising visibility and inclusion of women
scientists in the scientific community by - creating an interdisciplinary database of women
scientists from Central Europe, awareness of
which was promoted among national and
international organisations, industrial bodies
and RD employment sites - developing information material and workshops for
women to inform and mobilise them to register in
the European Commission database of expert
evaluators - Building capacity and skills by
- 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
- 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
31EC 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/doc
s/gendervademecum.pdf
32- 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
- - Womens participation in research must be
encouraged both as scientists/technologists and
within the - evaluation, consultation and implementation
process - Research must address womens needs, as such as
mens 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. Mens 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.
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34- 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 199140) - 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.
35Why Gender Action Plan?
- To increase womens 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.
36Gender 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.
37Reaching the 40 target
38EC Future Priorities
- 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
39Groups
- 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.
40National 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
41More 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
42USA
- 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.
lthttp//www.nap.edu/catalog/11741.htmlgt - 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.
43NAS Report recommendations
- 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.
44NSF 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
45Canada
- 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!
46NSERC 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
47NSERC Chairs for Women in Science and Engineering
(CWSE)
- 5 Regional Chairs established 1996
- Increase participation of women in SE 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 womens
decisions to remain in SE. -
48NSERC 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
49Conclusions
- 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).