Gender Gap In Science Research Articles

The path to gender equality in R&I

There is a well documented gender gap in science and technology and, despite advancements, women remain underrepresented, particularly in fields such as engineering, mathematics, computing and physics. This is worsened still by the presence of skills shortages in these fields and UNESCO recommends efforts to attract and retain women to these fields. The European Commission (EC)'s European Research Area (ERA) Policy Agenda intends to 'promote gender equality and foster inclusiveness'. 'She Figures' is a study that began in 2003 and collects data and statistics on the status of gender equality in European research and innovation (R&I). It is updated every three years, allowing progress with the evolving situation to be closely monitored. In the 2021 edition of 'She Figures' it is highlighted that while numbers of female students at bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels are steadily rising, women are distinctly underrepresented in R&I careers. Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: "We still need to do more to promote gender equality, in particular to inspire girls for a career in STEM." The report highlighted disparities among different fields of study with, for example, only 21 per cent of female ICT graduates and 27 per cent of female engineering graduates, while in health and welfare, the figures rise to 60 per cent and 67 per cent respectively. This suggests remaining outdated misconceptions in terms of traditionally male-dominated and female-dominated areas and the need for change.

Gender representation in science publication: evidence from Brain Communications.

The persistent underrepresentation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) points to the need to continue promoting the awareness and understanding of this phenomenon. Being one of the main outputs of scientific work, academic publications provide the opportunity to quantify the gender gap in science as well as to identify possible sources of bias and areas of improvement. Brain Communications is a ‘young’ journal founded in 2019, committed to transparent publication of rigorous work in neuroscience, neurology and psychiatry. For all manuscripts (n = 796) received by the journal between 2019 and 2021, we analysed the gender of all authors (n = 7721) and reviewers (n = 4492). Overall, women were 35.3% of all authors and 31.3% of invited reviewers. A considerably higher proportion of women was found in first authorship (42.4%) than in last authorship positions (24.9%). The representation of women authors and reviewers decreased further in the months following COVID-19 restrictions, suggesting a possible exacerbating role of the pandemic on existing disparities in science publication. The proportion of manuscripts accepted for publication was not significantly different according to the gender of the first, middle or last authors, meaning we found no evidence of gender bias within the review or editorial decision-making processes at Brain Communications.

Science Gender Gap: Are We in theRight Path?

Women are entering the medical and scientific community in growing numbers, reaching and even surpassing their male counterparts in medical schools. However, a settled imbalance between men and women is still a reality in the international cardiology community despite these recent advances. The female presence in Brazilian medical schools was barely noticed until the 1960s; in the following years, there was a gradual increase in the number of women in the medical field, mainly in the first decade of the [...]

Towards women-inclusive ecology: Representation, behavior, and perception of women at an international conference.

Conferences are ideal platforms for studying gender gaps in science because they are important cultural events that reflect barriers to women in academia. Here, we explored women's participation in ecology conferences by analyzing female representation, behavior, and personal experience at the 1st Meeting of the Iberian Society of Ecology (SIBECOL). The conference had 722 attendees, 576 contributions, and 27 scientific sessions. The gender of attendees and presenters was balanced (48/52% women/men), yet only 29% of the contributions had a woman as last author. Moreover, men presented most of the keynote talks (67%) and convened most of the sessions. Our results also showed that only 32% of the questions were asked by women, yet the number of questions raised by women increased when the speaker or the convener was a woman. Finally, the post-conference survey revealed that attendees had a good experience and did not perceive the event as a threatening context for women. Yet, differences in the responses between genders suggest that women tended to have a worse experience than their male counterparts. Although our results showed clear gender biases, most of the participants of the conference failed to detect it. Overall, we highlight the challenge of increasing women's scientific leadership, visibility and interaction in scientific conferences and we suggest several recommendations for creating inclusive meetings, thereby promoting equal opportunities for all participants.

Gender gaps in science: systematic review of the main explanations and research agenda

Despite improvements in the incorporation of women in tertiary education and science, today persist several gender gaps in some scientific and technological areas worldwide. Understanding the factors that determine these gaps is essential to the incorporation of women into knowledge societies in terms of equity. The present research sought to explore and systematize the explanations given to this phenomenon by the international literature in the last four decades. The objectives were: (1). Analyze the evolution of the main research agendas and categorize these into groups (or clusters) of explanations, and (2) discuss the challenges that research agendas face in addressing the phenomenon in a multi-causal way. The data were obtained from the articles contained in the Web of Science (WoS) and were subjected to a systematic review using bibliometric and qualitative techniques. The analysis reveals an important growth of the research in this area within the social sciences, which is grouped into five main types of explanation: (1) student performance in STEM areas, (2) influence of gender stereotypes and models, (3) interests and educational-learning experiences, (4) educational-occupational expectations and choices, and (5) uneven advancement and performance in scientific careers. Evolution shows that explanations about performance and individual choice have lost weight in the present, giving rise to explanations about the influence of gender stereotypes and models within educational systems and socialization stages. This study thus contributes to the understanding of the causal factors that have determined gender gaps in science while identifying some gaps in research agendas.

Gender gap in science in Africa: experience of African women in mathematics association

Abstract This paper deals with gender gap in Mathematics across Africa. Reducing the gender gap in Mathematics in Africa, is the major aim of African Women in Mathematics Association (AWMA) through various activities. Using macrodata from two international surveys and microdata from two African universities (Joseph Ki-Zerbo of Burkina Faso and Monastir in Tunisia), differences in favor to men in the participation of female teachers and teacher-researchers in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Computer Sciences are highlighted. Some practices, considered by AWMA, aiming to reduce the Gender Gap are also evoked.

The Gender Gap in Science:PAC Special Topics Issue

The Gender Gap in Science:PAC Special Topics Issue

The Gender Gap in Science – A PAC Special Topics Issue

The Gender Gap in Science – A <i>PAC</i> Special Topics Issue

Highlights of the 1st Latin American Conference of Women in Bioinformatics and Data Science

Highlights of the 1st Latin American Conference of Women in Bioinformatics and Data Science

Gender-based violence in higher education and research: a European perspective

Abstract The gender gap in science is intrinsically linked to gender-based violence in academia. Gender-based violence is a form of discrimination against women that occurs in an academic environment, and it often takes the form of sexual harassment. Some European countries, such as France, Italy, and Ireland, have solid legal systems in place to address sexual harassment in academia. However, as the report of the European Research Area and Innovation Committee Standing Working Group on sexual harassment points out, not all European countries have legislation in this area, or if they do, it is often ineffective. While national surveys generally show that it is difficult to prevent or combat sexual harassment in universities, practices related to corporate social responsibility could be used to start the conversation about the social responsibility of universities to fight against sexual harassment, which is reflected in this article.

Determinants of inventorship: family environment and parental forces

With registry data on 1.4 million individuals in Denmark born 1966-1985, we document large differences between genders in their propensities to become inventors. We also show that parental resources and background predict children’s choices of high school track and field of tertiary education, and through them they affect the probability to become an inventor. These factors benefit boys disproportionately more than girls, causing at least part of the gender gap in science and innovation. Parental inventorship matters for children to transition into the inventive job, over and above their educational trajectories, but only for boys. By focusing on a sample of first-born girls and exploiting the randomness of the gender of their second-born sibling, we investigate the mechanisms that likely drive these asymmetric effects. While role models and parental specialization seem to drive the educational choices of children, the effect of parental inventorship that benefits mostly boys is likely because parents anticipate girls to be confronted with a “men’s job”. Thus, to raise the share of women inventors, in addition to further women’s enrolment into STEM, we need to change the threat of this profession being a male kingdom.

Male homophily in South American herpetology: one of the major processes underlying the gender gap in publications

Abstract The growing number of gender studies encourages more refined analyzes and greater conceptualization of the underlying processes of gender gap in science. In Herpetology, previous studies have described gender disparities and a scrutiny of individual interactions may help revealing the mechanisms modelling the global pattern. In this contribution we modeled a co-authorship network, a previously unexplored methodology for gender studies in this discipline, in addition to a broad and classic bibliometric analysis of the discipline. Co-authorship networks were modelled for two South American journals, because this geo-political location is considered to present the best gender balance within general scientific communities. However, we found a pattern of male preferential connections (male homophily) that marginalizes women and maintains the gender gap, at both regional and global scales. This interpretation arises from results coming from multiple analyses, such as high homophily index in collaboration networks, lower female representation in articles than expected in a non-gender biased environment, the decrease of female co-authors when the article leader is a man, and the extreme masculinization of the editorial boards. The homophilic dynamics of the publication process reveals that academic activity is pervasive to unbalanced power relationships. Personal interactions shape the collective experience, tracing back to the Feminist Theory’s axiom: “the personal is political”.

Gender, education, and career in the Arab world: A literature review

The underrepresentation of females in certain fields has been studied extensively in many countries. Similar to other parts of the World, the number of females graduating each year from universities in the Arab World now exceeds the number of males, yet gender differences in educational fields persist. The objective of this study is to review the extant literature on the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in the Arab World. The review synthesizes the findings of 86 articles that were published in journals and conference proceedings. This review explores gender differences in mathematics performance, math anxiety, self-concept, and occupational career choices. The review also explores social barriers that contribute to the underrepresentation of females in STEM fields. The study highlights differences between results obtained in the Arab World and results obtained in Western countries while also noting the differences between the Arab countries themselves. Finally, the study suggests directions for future research.

How culture, institutions, and individuals shape the evolving gender gap in science and mathematics: an equity provocation for the scientific community

Abstract This essay contextualizes recently measured global gender gaps in science and mathematics within three different themes relevant for enhancing equity in science: journal peer review policies, academic service at US higher education institutions, and parental leave policies and usage. The article aims to problematize potential approaches for reducing such gender gaps, and thus build capacity to advance evidence-grounded transformative change. Framed as an equity provocation for the science community, this piece hopes to elicit productive thought and evidence-based action through informed perspective taking. The vision is not just to enhance gender equity in science and mathematics, but also to ensure the continued quality and relevance of our scientific endeavors for today’s diverse and global world.

Gender gap in STEM education and career choices: what matters?

PurposeThe paper innovates on the existing literature by assessing the gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) tertiary education enrolment and career choice in a small country setting and by extending on Master and Meltzoff (2016) theoretical framework to provide a holistic explanation of the gender disparity through a mix of personal, environmental and behavioural factors. The study first probes into the existence of potential gender disparity in STEM tertiary enrolment in Mauritius. Second, in contrast with existing studies where selective factors are used to measure the gender gap in STEM education, this paper investigates into a combination of personal, environmental and behavioural factors that may influence participation in STEM education and career.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a survey of 209 undergraduates enroled in the main public university and investigates into the existence of a gender gap in STEM tertiary education enrolment and the reasons behind this disparity. Consistent with the theoretical model, the empirical analysis also investigates into the work environment (which cannot be measured from the survey), via semi-structured interviews of 15 women in STEM professions.FindingsThe logit regression results first reveal the existence of a gender disparity in the choice of STEM-related degrees. The probability of a female student to enrol in a STEM degree is lower than that of a male student, after controlling for all the personal, environmental and behavioural factors. The most important set of reasons influencing the student's STEM degree choice are self-efficacy and the student's academic performance in STEM subjects at secondary school level. The findings also demonstrate that young women are relatively more likely to choose STEM degrees than their male counterparts when they are supported by their family, school and teachers. There is further evidence of lower participation of women in STEM professions as well as significant challenges which women in STEM careers face compared to their male colleagues.Originality/valueThis study adopts a holistic framework to assess the factors that hinder women's participation in STEM tertiary education and career in Mauritius.

Addressing the gender gap in science: lessons from examining international initiatives

Abstract From 2017 to 2019 the International Science Council funded a project investigating the gender gap in science disciplines. The aim of the project was to collect and analyse data on the gender gap and to create a database of good practices for encouraging girls and young women to study and pursue education and careers in the mathematical, computing, and natural sciences. In this article, we draw on our work in the Gender Gap in Science project to (1) explain the nature of the gender gap problem, (2) give examples of initiatives that scientists can take to help solve the gender gap problem, and (3) offer guidelines on how to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions designed to address the gender gap in science.

The gender gap among scientists in Africa: results from the global survey and recommendations for future work

Abstract Science in Africa is expanding, but it is important to establish whether the scientific community experiences a gender gap. Where survey results from the project “A Global Approach to the Gender Gap in Mathematical, Computing, and Natural Sciences: How to Measure It, How to Reduce It?” are available for Africa, they indicate that the gender gaps in science are comparable to those in other regions of the world. The major significant survey result for Africa is that approximately 22% of respondents who are women, and 4% of men, report first-hand experience of sexual harassment. Recommendations are quoted from the regional meeting of African scientists at the final conference of the project. The activities of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), and the International Mathematical Union (IMU) in Africa are described, and ways of working for change are recommended.

Using design thinking to cultivate the next generation of female STEAM thinkers

BackgroundCountries around the world have struggled to implement education policies and practices to encourage more female youths to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). This has resulted in a persistent and sizeable gender gap in science and mathematics subjects in some countries. Using mixed-methods sequential explanatory design, this paper explores an educational intervention—specifically, a 3-day design thinking workshop—in Japan, designed to change female youths’ perceptions regarding STEM topics. Framed using a constructivist approach to learning, the workshops aimed to engender creative confidence, empathy, and global competence among youths.ResultsThe findings show that female youths who participated in the workshop had increased interest in engineering, greater creative confidence, more positive perceptions of STEM, higher levels of empathy and pro-social factors, and a more varied outlook on career options. We argue that this short intervention had a strong influence on the female youths’ mindsets, self-images, and perceptions of STEM.ConclusionThis study provides empirical support that a short intervention can produce positive change in how female youths relate to STEM. In gendered societies, an innovative method like design thinking has the potential to revitalize education curriculum in ways that spur female youths’ confidence and creativity, enabling them to imagine a career in the field of STEM.

The 100,000 most influential scientists rank: the underrepresentation of Brazilian women in academia.

Despite the progress observed in recent years, women are still underrepresented in science worldwide, especially at top positions. Many factors contribute to women progressively leaving academia at different stages of their career, including motherhood, harassment and conscious and unconscious discrimination. Implicit bias plays a major negative role in recognition, promotions and career advancement of female scientists. Recently, a rank of the most influential scientists in the world was created based on several metrics, including the number of published papers and citations. Here, we analyzed the representation of Brazilian scientists in this rank, focusing on gender. Female Brazilian scientists are greatly underrepresented in the rank (11% in the Top 100,000; 18% in the Top 2%). Possible reasons for this observed scenario are related to the metrics used to rank scientists, which reproduce and amplify the well-known implicit bias in peer-review and citations. Male scientists have more self-citation than female scientists and positions in the rank varied when self-citations were included, suggesting that self-citation by male scientists increases their visibility. Discussions on the repercussions of such ranks are pivotal to avoid deepening the gender gap in science.

The funding-productivity-gender nexus in science, a multistage analysis

This paper contributes to the literature on the observed research funding and scientific productivity gender gap in science. On the basis of very detailed information for a sample of 276 academics at the University of Turin over a ten year period, we develop a robust new model that takes into account the three main stages of the funding-productivity nexus: applying for a grant, successful fund raising and conducting the research, to investigate at which stage the gender gap emerges. In the model, we control for differences – not previously examined together - in the time allocated to teaching, administration and child care, which might moderate the gender effect. Using a Two-Stage Least Square (2SLS) model we control, for selection into funding, endogeneity of career progress and endogeneity of funding success, and find, first, that researchers who apply for grants are active in teaching and administration and show persistent funding application behaviour, but find no evidence of a significant gender bias; second, when we control for application selection, the negative gender correlation with funding acquisition becomes stronger, while teaching is negatively correlated to the amount of funding raised; and, third, controlling for selection and reverse causality, we find that funding is not associated to higher research productivity. At all stages of the funding-productivity nexus we find negative, albeit insignificant, secondary gender effects associated with administrative tasks, but less so with teaching. In the research impact-quality estimations we provide evidence of a ‘motherhood penalty’ for female academics with young children who did not apply for funding (including evidence of a causal effect). In line with the literature, we find that, after controlling for children, female researchers are less productive in terms of publications, but not in terms of research quality or impact.