A persistent problem

Abstract

W omen hold less than 15% of the full professorships in Europe, even though more than half of the European student population is female (EU, 2006). In the light of this, there are contrasting views about the future of women in academic research. Some analysts perceive an intractable gender gap at the higher levels of academia owing to the lower success rate of women at every step up the career ladder; others expect the gap to close over time, although it might take many years for equality to be achieved. A metaanalysis of 21 studies has shown that men have a statistically significant (7%) higher chance of receiving grants than women (Bornmann, 2007;Bornmann et al, 2007). We have noticed that female applicants have had a consistently lower success rate when applying for the European Molecular Biology Organization's (EMBO) Long-Term Fellowships (LTFs) and Young Investigator Programme (YIP)-in which success rate is measured as the proportion of awards given to applicants of each sex. In this study, we investigated various aspects of how a scientist's gender influences selection processes and careers.EMBO has been monitoring its selection processes for fellowships and awards with regard to gender for some time (Gannon et al, 2001; http://www.embo.org/gender/ publications.html). Gender disaggregated statistics for the EMBO LTF programme are available from 1996 onwards and, on average, the success rate of women has been 20% lower than that of men. This difference has persisted despite the selection committees' awareness of and stated commitment to gender equality, and despite the fact that EMBO has received an almost equal number of applications from men and women in recent years. It is EMBO's policy that the only criterion for selection is scientific quality, and the scores from the committee are not adjusted to balance the results on any other terms.

Transnational mobility among early-career academics: gendered aspects of negotiations and arrangements within heterosexual couples

“…Compared to men, female academics are more likely to be married to other academics and to experience the so-called dual-body problem, in which the partners -both confronted with a high demand for mobility -have to coordinate their career plans (McNeil andSher 1999, Rusconi andSolga 2007). Female academics also more frequently follow their partners to a new location as so-called tied migrants (Ledin et al 2007) without always finding a job corresponding to their qualifications and experiencing a devaluation of their scientific knowledge (Riaño and Baghdadi 2007).…”

Lagging Behind: The Current State of Females in Physics

“…The report ended with suggested interventions to prevent this female "brain drain" (Hewlett et al, 2008) This problem of less success for women in science careers is not just an American problem. Ledin et al (2007) reported for a study done for the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), which found that traditional gender roles in combination with a negative work culture result in a lower success rate for female researchers versus male researchers. Women in Europe hold less than 15% of the full professorships, even though more than half of the student population is female.…”

Quotas are questionable

“…Scientists are evaluated on the basis of creativity and productivity, and scientific excellence requires steely focus and lots of time. Female scientists are more likely than males to bear domestic duties 2,5 , making their time already stretched. My estimate, based on the proportion of ERC grantees who are women, is that the burden of panel participation would be three or more times higher for these women than for men in equivalent positions.…”

“…This general trend has been observed in other funding schemes, including the European Molecular Biology Organization 2 and the international Human Frontier Science Program 3 . Despite several studies on the issue, the reasons for these disparities are still elusive 2,4 . The dearth of women in academia's upper ranks translates into their scarcity on committees, and it has been argued that this gender imbalance could be feeding back into the lower success rate of female applicants for funding schemes and positions.…”