Industrial research - where are the women?

At a conference organised recently by the German Federal Minister of Education and Research in collaboration with the European Commission, a significant number of researchers and decision-makers met in Berlin to discuss women's level of participation in industrial research.

The European Union targets 3 per cent investment of GDP in research and development by 2010. By investing in research, innovation and development, EU member states will be able to compete internationally, achieve higher performance rates and improve the dissemination of knowledge, as was called for in the 2000 Lisbon Summit by the heads of state and government. To achieve these targets the full participation of researchers, in particular that of women, is called for.

Statistics show that women are still under-represented in science, particularly in senior positions. Across the EU, women constitute a low 15 per cent of industrial researchers.1 Countries employing a high number of researchers, such as Germany, France and the UK, employ the least number of women researchers, with 26 per cent in France and the UK and 14 per cent in Germany.

Most female researchers work in health, social work and financial inter-mediation sectors. Fewer women work in manufacturing and construction. In spite of the general increase in the number of women enrolling in tertiary education across the EU, few women researchers are qualified in fields required by industry, such as science, mathematics, computing and engineering.2

Unfortunately statistics in Malta on the subject are almost lacking, thus making it difficult to obtain a picture of the situation among women researchers, especially those employed in industry.

However one may still assume that the number of female researchers, especially those choosing science as their field of specialisation, is still on the low side.

Despite the higher ratios of women entering tertiary education, women are still under-represented in science subjects. Less female students tend to opt for science and engineering subjects at university. Female students heavily outweigh males in the faculty of arts, education and in the Institute of Health Care.3

The number of female scientists at the University of Malta is significantly low, especially at a senior level i.e. a post as senior lecturer or above. This academic year, out of 267 senior staff only 30 are female. Two of them are employed in the Faculty of Science and none are employed in the engineering, architecture and civil engineering faculties.

The majority of female academic staff (all grades excluding staff employed at the Junior College) is employed in the Institute of Health Care (29.4 per cent), Faculty of Education (19.6 per cent), and the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery (15.3 per cent). Only six out of 99 members of staff employed in the engineering and science faculties are female, one and six respectively.4

A set of recommendations that could help improve women's overall participation in industrial research was brought forward in the Women in Industrial Research conference. Participants claimed that businesses should aim for more diversity and gender balance at the workplace.

There should be a gender balance in laboratories and senior management that reflects people's roles in society as decision-makers and consumers. Companies should adopt a listening culture that is more transparent and allows for recruitment and promotion based purely on merit. Moreover, companies should provide mechanisms for workers to accommodate family and caring responsibilities, as well as other interests such as cultural, community and trade union activities.

The conference also addressed the possibility of having more women starting their own business in the science field. Women entrepreneurs tend to start their business with less finance than men, fewer business networks and less business experience.

Women tend to find it more difficult to access venture capital, but at the same time are less likely to apply for it.

Thus a series of measures could be adopted by governments that address these challenges and provide indirect and direct aid, such as business training, incubators, access to capital, mentors and role models.

Other recommendations included governments' potential in assisting companies to provide more support structures for working parents, such as whole-day schools and tax laws, further collaboration between governments, universities, schools and companies to foster changes in social and organisational cultures, and teachers who are sensitive to the gender disparities in science and their role in helping students, in particular females, make career choices that could lead to a career in the science field.

Finally, most participants called for more gender-disaggregated data that could help researchers and policy makers analyse better the position of women in research and their employment situation in companies.

Moreover, better statistics, indicators and bench-marking would help decision makers to monitor progress in retaining and promoting women and men and to compare effects of national and industrial policies.

Antonella Borg is senior executive at the ETC Research and Development Division; Professor Marie Therese Camilleri Podestà is from the University of Malta.

References

1. European Commission (2003) Women in Industrial research: A report to the European Commission from the High Level Expert Group on Women in Industrial Research for strategic analysis of specific science and technology policy issues (STRATA), OPOCE, Luxembourg
http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/science-society/women/ wir/report_en.html

2. European Commission (2003) She Figures 2003: Women and scince statistics and indicators, European Communities, OPOCE: Luxemboug
http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/science-society/pdf/she_figures_2003.pdf

3. National Statistics Office (2001)
www.nso.gov.mt/publications/EDUC/2000_2001/education%20200002001.pdf

4. University of Malta (2003) Unpublished statistics.