Gender Equality in European Research
Ray King
For this weeks blog, I found an article
that is an accumulation of data from the nations of the European
Union regarding gender equality in math and scientific research
fields. The report, called She Figures 2012: Gender in Research and
Innovation, analyzes all of these countries to come to some
surprising conclusions. On average, 33% of all researchers are women.
Lithuania and Latvia had more female than male researchers, while in
Luxembourg women only held 21% of these positions. Interesting to
note is that across the E.U. Female researchers increased in number
by about 5% annually since 2002 while men increased only about 3%. In
terms of advanced degrees, there is more strive toward gender
equality overall with women claiming 46% of all the degrees within
scientific fields in 2010. Looking a bit closer, in specific fields
like engineering, women only earned 26% of degrees, while in fields
like humanities, business, and veterinary men and women were
predominantly on equal ground with almost 50% of degrees going to
both. Further into the article, the author mentions a 'glass ceiling
index' system in order to measure how difficult it is for women to
reach full professorship in certain countries. As of 2010, women
overall in the European Union held a 1.8 on this scale (with a 1.0
meaning full equality with men). Specific countries like Romania have
a 1.3 rating, while Cyprus held a 3.6 rating of equality. Another
stated that only ten percent of all the universities across the EU
had a female rector. Finally, as far as being able to secure funding
for research, men were more successful than women, thought that gap
varies from 1% in Belgium to 11% in Austria. These numbers stack up
to show both that the EU is serious about giving women more of a
voice and representation in science and math driven fields, yet there
is also much work to be done to accomplish this. Women have made
great strides in these areas, yet many countries block women with the
glass ceiling in some form. In order for equality to be universal,
they will have to make sure men are more involved and understand why
it is crucial for the success of all of these fields and their
nations to allow women fair opportunity. I certainly hope that these
numbers continue to move toward more equal numbers, and maybe the EU
can be a model to other areas of the world that are not as fair
towards women.
No comments:
Post a Comment