Measuring Female Progress in Academic Work in Colombia

Abstract

The feminist movement has suggested that women, because of their socialization, tend to choose jobs imposed by the culture, such as psychology, child care, and social work, while careers such as engineering are seen as more masculine. We measured the numbers of women attending Colombian universities and what categories and disciplines they were enrolled in. Our aim was to either corroborate or refute the feminist hypothesis and to examine whether women’s university paths correspond to the theory that predicts there will be fewer women in highresponsibility jobs and many more serving in administrative functions without decision-making power. In addition to measuring how slowly or quickly the female presence in university research is being established, our results also allow us to discuss and evaluate the progress of females in academic work. Government promotion of scientific research in Colombia began with the creation of the Colombian Institute for the Development of the Science and the Technology (COLCIENCIAS) in 1968. In 1991 COLCIENCIAS began collecting data about the scientific community. In this paper we focus on the gender distribution among group leaders and the production of research results. It is worth noting that the basic information used is incomplete because the data were given freely and do not cover 100% of Colombian research groups. Nevertheless, we think the data are adequate for estimating gender participation in research in Colombia. The total number of people dedicated to research in the groups is 5429 in the examined period, 1998–2002. COLCIENCIAS data show that the number of Colombian women participating in scientific research steadily grew from 34% in 1998 to 40% in 2002. Growth has occurred in all scientific fields, with the medical sciences registering the biggest increase. It seems that most Colombian research groups are composed mainly of men, with women participating as parttime research assistants only. However, in 29% of the groups the group leaders are women. Taking into account only master’s- and PhD-level researchers, women constitute 18%. As commonly known, engineering is dominated by men, while women have gained participation in medical and social sciences. In the medical and social sciences disciplines, some groups consisted only of women. Among the 42% of researchers who are women, only a small portion are at the level of researcher or PhD student, while the percentage of men and women at the level of research assistant and support worker is equal. Twice as many men than women are PhD students. The majority of women working as assistants are between 26 and 35 years old; as age increases, the number of women decreases compared with the number of men. The highest title usually found among researchers in any discipline is the master’s degree. In the medical and social sciences, where there are more women than men at the undergraduate level, there are fewer women than men (38% women) at the specialist, master’s, and PhD levels. Why do women not reach the higher levels of master’s and PhD? Women increased their participation in PhD groups during the 1990s, mainly in the social and basic sciences, especially in cellular biology, biochemistry, and related areas such as biotechnology, applied microbiology, education and teaching research, languages, and anthropology.