Status of Women in Physics in Croatia

Abstract

In this report we describe the status of women physicists in Croatia and offer some statistical data illustrating the present situation. According to the statistics of the Croatian Physical Society, women represent about 30% of its 700 members. Approximately half of this number are active school teachers and the remaining hundred are women physicists whose professional occupation is scientific research. Research in physics in Croatia is mainly concentrated in two institutes in Zagreb, the Rugjer Boskovic Institute and Institute of Physics, and in the university physics departments. There are five universities in Croatia, the one in Zagreb being the largest. However, following the tradition of Central Europe, each university consists of a number of faculties. If the faculty is in the field of science or technology, in most cases it has its own department of physics. There are more than 10 such departments, and the largest is the Department of Physics at the Faculty of Science of the University of Zagreb. Table 1 shows the numbers and percentages of men and women physicists in various Croatian institutions by professional status. In the two largest institutions the number of women in the highest positions is conspicuously low. Because the criteria for promotion in principle do not depend on the institution, this can be partially attributed to the atmosphere in large institutions, which is not friendly to women. Table 1 also hints at the fact that women working there tend to stay in lower professional positions. The truth is that in large university departments, women often do not receive appropriate encouragement from their advisors and do not get promoted. They retain positions with lower pressure for publishing, but with large teaching duties and lower salaries. Smaller institutions seem to be more pleasant places for women to work successfully. There they have more opportunities than in the large departments to make independent decisions vital to their careers.