Underrepresentation of women in the senior levels of Brazilian science

Abstract

Despite significant progress, there is still a gender gap in science all over the world, especially at senior levels. Some progressive countries are recognizing the need to address barriers to gender equality in order to retain their best scientists and innovators, and ensure research excellence and social and economic returns on the investment made by taxpayers each year on training women scientists. We investigated the gender distribution of: (i) the productivity scholarship (PS) holders of the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, CNPq, N = 13,625), (ii) the members of the Brazilian Academy of Science (Academia Brasileira de Ciências, ABC, N = 899), and (iii) the amount of funding awarded for top quality research (“Universal” Call of CNPq, N = 3,836), between the years of 2013 and 2014. Our findings show evidence for gender imbalances in all the studied indicators of Brazilian science. We found that female scientists were more often represented among PS holders at the lower levels of the research ranking system (2). By contrast, male scientists were more often found at higher levels (1A and 1B) of PS holders, indicating the top scientific achievement, both in “Engineering, Exact Sciences, Earth Sciences”, and “Life Sciences”. This imbalance was not found in Humanities and Social Sciences. Only 14% of the ABC members were women. Humanities and Applied Social Sciences had a relatively low representation of women in the Academy (3.7%) compared to Engineering, Exact and Earth Sciences: 54.9% and Life Sciences: 41.4%. Finally, female scientists obtained significantly more funding at the lower level of the research ranking system (2), whereas male scientists obtained significantly more funding at the higher levels (1A and 1B). Our results show strong evidence of a gender imbalance in Brazilian science. We hope that our findings will be used to stimulate reforms that will result in greater equality in Brazilian science, and elsewhere.

Vivencias de las mujeres egresadas del Programa de Posgrado en Tecnología y Sociedad (PPGTE) de la Universidad Tecnológica Federal del Paraná (UTFPR)

“…En algunas áreas, las mujeres representan menos del 5 % del total de investigadores. El testimonio, proporcionado por Valentova et al, (2017), que nos apoya sobre las dificultades de ayuda en el posgrado.…”

“…Al buscar conciliar el trabajo con los estudios, la falta de recursos económicos y los hijos pueden ser obstáculos en la carrera. Según Valentova et al, (2017), la falta de becas interfiere en tener mayor participación de las mujeres en las universidades y cursando postgrado, así como dificulta a las mujeres llegar a la carrera de docencia. Las condiciones Vivencias de las mujeres egresadas del Programa de Posgrado en Tecnología y Sociedad (PPGTE) de la Universidad Tecnológica Federal del Paraná (UTFPR) sociales, como la situación de casada o soltera, con o sin hijos, son elementos diferenciadores de posiciones sociales que repercuten en las narrativas de las egresadas.…”

Panorama Da Macroecologia Brasileira

“…Em países desenvolvidos, a desigualdade de representação tem diminuído, embora o processo seja bastante lento (van Arensbergen et al 2012). No entanto, a ocupação por mulheres em altas posições acadêmicas é muito baixa (Timmers et al 2010, Valentova et al 2017. No Brasil, a falta de dados sistemáticos sobre o perfil dos recursos humanos na ciência dificulta as análises dos efeitos de gênero sobre a produção científica (Leta 2003).…”

“…Entre 1980 e 1990, as mulheres brasileiras aumentaram a sua participação na ciência (Leta 2003). Todavia, as instituições de ensino superior ainda detêm a maior produção científica do país e, em diversas universidades, a proporção de professoras pesquisadoras é muito menor em relação ao número de professores pesquisadores (Leta 2003, Valentova et al 2017. Além disso, a representatividade de ambos os gêneros nos quadros de pesquisadores contratados tem sido pouco discutida.…”

Women in neotropical science: Gender parity in the 21st century and prospects for a post-war Colombia

“…As a result, for the first time in history we have 62 quantitative data to analyse the current state of the R&D workforce (Ceci et al, 2009;63 Ovseiko et al, 2016), allowing us to make more informed decisions at an individual, 64 institutional and governmental level. Although major improvements have been accomplished 65 on gender parity in undergraduate education, where women are increasingly studying 66 science-related degrees (Franco-Orozco & Franco-Orozco, 2018; Valentova et al, 2017), 67 women representation at postgraduate studies and research positions steadily decrease as they 68 pursue research-intensive careers at more senior levels (Pell, 1996). Moreover, this 69 phenomenon has shown differential trends depending on the area, with engineering and 70 physics consistently showing more dramatic gender disparities (Holman et al, 2018).…”