Difference between revisions of "Gender"

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=== Gendered Mobilities ===
 
=== Gendered Mobilities ===
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Ackers and colleagues in Europe emphasize the importance of gender and life course in the migration decision-making processes of male and female scientists. Partnering, particularly in the context of dual science careers, constitutes a serious challenge to migrant scientists, as does parenting and the need to support family members in other countries (Ackers, 2001<ref name="ackers_2001">Ackers, L. (2001) The Participation of Women Researchers in the TMR Marie Curie Fellowships 1994–1998. Brussels: European Commission.</ref>, 2005<ref name="ackers_2005">Ackers H. L. (2005). Gender Mobility and Career Progression in the European Union. Unpublished Final Report, Bruxelles, European Commission, DG Employment</ref>). Dual or same career partnering has a particularly significant effect (Ackers, 2010; Cox, 2008<ref name="cox_2008">Cox D., 2008, Evidence on the Main Factors Inhibiting Mobility and Career Development of Researchers. Final Report to the European Commission, Brussels, Research Directorate General.</ref>). Female researchers also display reduced fertility in comparison with their male peers (Buber et al., 2011<ref name="buber_et_al_2011">Buber, I., Berghammer, C. & Prskawetz, A.  (2011). Doing Science, Forgoing Childbearing? Evidence from a Sample of Female Scientists in Austria. Vienna Institute of Demography Working Papers 1/2011</ref>) and have a marked tendency to delay motherhood. The presence of children has a complex effect, generally contributing to a degree of ‘stickiness’ reducing longer term forms of mobility and also increasing the resistance to precarious forms of employment (Ackers & Oliver, 2007). The increasing use of inappropriate indicators in the assessment of research performance may exacerbate the leakage of women (Ackers, 2005<ref name="ackers_2005" />).
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Ackers and colleagues in Europe emphasize the importance of gender and life course in the migration decision-making processes of male and female scientists. Partnering, particularly in the context of dual science careers, constitutes a serious challenge to migrant scientists, as does parenting and the need to support family members in other countries (Ackers, 2001<ref name="ackers_2001">Ackers, L. (2001) The Participation of Women Researchers in the TMR Marie Curie Fellowships 1994–1998. Brussels: European Commission.</ref>, 2005<ref name="ackers_2005">Ackers H. L. (2005). Gender Mobility and Career Progression in the European Union. Unpublished Final Report, Bruxelles, European Commission, DG Employment</ref>). Dual or same career partnering has a particularly significant effect (Ackers, 2010<ref name="ackers_2010">Ackers, L 2010, Internationalisation and Equality: The Contribution of Short Stay Mobility to Progression in Science Careers, Journal Recherches Sociologiques et Anthropologiques, XLI (1), pp.83-103.</ref>; Cox, 2008<ref name="cox_2008">Cox D., 2008, Evidence on the Main Factors Inhibiting Mobility and Career Development of Researchers. Final Report to the European Commission, Brussels, Research Directorate General.</ref>). Female researchers also display reduced fertility in comparison with their male peers (Buber et al., 2011<ref name="buber_et_al_2011">Buber, I., Berghammer, C. & Prskawetz, A.  (2011). Doing Science, Forgoing Childbearing? Evidence from a Sample of Female Scientists in Austria. Vienna Institute of Demography Working Papers 1/2011</ref>) and have a marked tendency to delay motherhood. The presence of children has a complex effect, generally contributing to a degree of ‘stickiness’ reducing longer term forms of mobility and also increasing the resistance to precarious forms of employment (Ackers & Oliver, 2014<ref name="ackers_oliver_2014">Louise Ackers & Liz Oliver (2014). From Flexicurity to Flexsecquality?: The Impact of the Fixed-Term Contract Provisions on Employment in Science Research, International Studies of Management & Organization, 37:1, 53-79, DOI: 10.2753/IMO0020-8825370103</ref>). The increasing use of inappropriate indicators in the assessment of research performance may exacerbate the leakage of women (Ackers, 2005<ref name="ackers_2005" />).
  
 
=== Partnerships ===
 
=== Partnerships ===
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Latest revision as of 14:10, 13 June 2018

Main

The gender dimension is as a specific one to take into account when considering obstacles and bottlenecks in research careers because it has been shown to impact careers in a number of different dimension.

Impact of Gender on Careers

Policy Background

The principle of equality of opportunities for men and women is enshrined in the European Treaty of Amsterdam (Articles 2, 3). The ‘mainstreaming’ of gender equality of opportunity into all policy areas has been subsequently pursued. In 1999, the European Commission communication on ‘Women and science: Mobilizing women to enrich European research’ recommended several measures to mainstream gender equality for integration into the Fifth Framework Program. The European Council Resolution of 20 May 1999 on women and science welcomed these recommendations and encouraged their adoption by Member States. The recommended strategies and measures included 40% participation rate of women, on average, throughout the 5th Framework Program, in Marie Curie scholarships, advisory groups and assessment panels. In November 1999, the Commission established the Helsinki Group on ‘Women and Science’, as a space for dialogue on local, regional, national and European policies, experiences and best practices for promoting gender equality and the participation of women in scientific fields. In its Resolution of 26 June 2001 the Council urged the Commission to reach its target of a 40 % participation of women at all levels in implementing and managing research programs, while continuing to bear in mind the need to ensure scientific and technological excellence. The Council invited Member States to collect gender-disaggregated statistics in human resources in science and technology and to develop indicators in order to monitor progress towards equality of opportunity and equity of outcomes for men and women in European research. The Council also invited Member States and the Commission to continue support for the ongoing work of the Helsinki Group.

Leaky Pipeline

Career development strategies recognize the importance of the objectives of equality of opportunity and gender mainstreaming in European science and research. Overall, quantitative indicators suggest that whilst progress has made toward gender balance in European science, “[w]omen in scientific research remain a minority, accounting for 30% of researchers in the EU in 2006” (European Parliament, 2009, p.7[1]). Participation of women and men remains uneven, by field. In the EU-27 in 2006, women made up 52% of PhD graduates in Humanities and Arts and 46% of PhD graduates in Social Sciences, Business and Law. In contrast, 41% and 25% of PhD graduates in Science, Maths and Computing and Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction, respectively, were women. Data also shows the careers pipeline remains leaky for women scientists with under-representation of women at higher levels/ranks. For example, women made up 36% of PhD graduates in science and engineering in the EU-27 in 2006, but just 22% of researchers at Level B (mid-level research positions) and 11% of Level A (top level research positions) within professional science (European Parliament, 2009, p. 74[1]). Gender balance in the science careers pipeline is thus an issue with important implications for gender representation within high profile support mechanisms such as the ERC Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grant Programs for example.

Productivity Differences

Zuckerman (1991)[2] reviewed the state of the art in US research explaining differences in productivity between women’s and men’s research careers. The differences were explained by social selection (discrimination, differences in role performance and the distribution of rewards), self-selection (family choices, career commitment) and cumulative advantage. Women tended to have lower expectations about what it was possible for them to achieve and to be less vocal, or take less ownership, of their achievements. Zuckerman noted the interplay of these various factors, with cumulative advantage amplified by women’s lower expectations and disadvantage due to career breaks. Small differences could become more significant gaps over the duration of the career, particularly as women scientists tended to prefer working with others to make a contribution to the pursuit of rewards and recognition.

Gendered Mobilities

Ackers and colleagues in Europe emphasize the importance of gender and life course in the migration decision-making processes of male and female scientists. Partnering, particularly in the context of dual science careers, constitutes a serious challenge to migrant scientists, as does parenting and the need to support family members in other countries (Ackers, 2001[3], 2005[4]). Dual or same career partnering has a particularly significant effect (Ackers, 2010[5]; Cox, 2008[6]). Female researchers also display reduced fertility in comparison with their male peers (Buber et al., 2011[7]) and have a marked tendency to delay motherhood. The presence of children has a complex effect, generally contributing to a degree of ‘stickiness’ reducing longer term forms of mobility and also increasing the resistance to precarious forms of employment (Ackers & Oliver, 2014[8]). The increasing use of inappropriate indicators in the assessment of research performance may exacerbate the leakage of women (Ackers, 2005[4]).

Partnerships

In US research universities, academic women have been found to have lower marriage and partnering rates compared to men (Fox, 2005[9]; Probert, 2005[10]). In partnerships of two academics who have children at home, women tend to have greater child rearing responsibilities (Hamovitch & Morgenstern, 1977[11]) women more often the ‘trailing spouse’ (Bailey & Cooke, 1998[12]; Shauman & Noonan, 2007[13]). Women in academic science report higher work-family conflict than do men; gender difference is greater for conflict of family with work than for work with family (Fox et al., 2011[14]).

Collaboration

Research collaboration is an important area in which differences appear to exist based on gender. Women tend to have a higher percentage of female collaborators than do men (Bozeman & Corley, 2004[15]), with untenured women scientists’ collaborators are likely to be other women (84%). Tenured women tend to have gender collaboration patterns similar to tenured men (around 35% female collaborators). Men seem to experience gains in the number of collaborators via three collaboration strategies: instrumental, experience and mentoring, whilst women’s mentoring strategies are the only ones that predict the number of research collaborators (Bozeman & Gaughan, 2011[16]). A recent paper (Bozeman & Gaughan, 2011[16]) found no effect of either marriage or dependent children on collaboration, suggesting decades long policy focus on reducing family-related barriers to women’s participation in scientific work may be paying off, at least in the US. Studies of the structural context of female and male scientists’ work focus on scientific productivity or collaboration (Fox, 2010[17]; Xie & Shauman, 1998[18]), finding that if one compares men and women working within similar structures and hierarchies differences in productivity or collaboration are reduced or vanish.

Underrepresentation of Women in STEM

A large and growing body of research highlights the impacts of the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields (Fox, 2010[17]; Fox & Stephan, 2004; Gaughan & Corley, 2010[19]). The organizations conducting and administering scientific research are largely of the hierarchical and bureaucratically organized type in which, according to Acker (1990, p. 146[20]), “men are almost always in the highest positions of organizational power”. The organizational and institutional contexts of STEM are thus systemically gendered (Acker, 1990[20]), which has significant and pervasive effects on the social processes of working in STEM – leading to differential outcomes in careers. The degree of women’s underrepresentation increases with the level of occupational hierarchy in STEM, with statistical data showing women clustered in low-ranking positions in both the U.S.A. (NSF, 2012<ref_name="nsf_2012">National Science Foundation (NSF, 2012). SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING INDICATORS 2012: A broad base of quantitative information on the U.S. and international science and engineering enterprise. Available online: https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind12/</ref>) and Europe (EC, 2013[21]). The underrepresentation of women in STEM peer communities means that women have less same-sex peers than men, which can impact women’s access to strategic scientific information (Villanueva et al., 2015[22]). According to this literature, careers of scientific researchers in ‘gendered organisations’ (Acker, 1990[20]) will be differently structured according to whether they are women or men.

Sources

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 European Parliament, 2009, Cross-Border Mobility of Young Researchers, Directorate-General for Internal Policies (IP/A/ITRE/NT/2009-08), Brussels, European Parliament.
  2. ↑ Zuckerman, H. (1991). The Careers of Men and Women Scientists: A Review of Current Research. In J. Bruer, H. Zuckerman & J. Cole (Eds.), The Outer Circle: Women in the Scientific Community (pp. 27-56). NYC: Norton.
  3. ↑ Ackers, L. (2001) The Participation of Women Researchers in the TMR Marie Curie Fellowships 1994–1998. Brussels: European Commission.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ackers H. L. (2005). Gender Mobility and Career Progression in the European Union. Unpublished Final Report, Bruxelles, European Commission, DG Employment
  5. ↑ Ackers, L 2010, Internationalisation and Equality: The Contribution of Short Stay Mobility to Progression in Science Careers, Journal Recherches Sociologiques et Anthropologiques, XLI (1), pp.83-103.
  6. ↑ Cox D., 2008, Evidence on the Main Factors Inhibiting Mobility and Career Development of Researchers. Final Report to the European Commission, Brussels, Research Directorate General.
  7. ↑ Buber, I., Berghammer, C. & Prskawetz, A. (2011). Doing Science, Forgoing Childbearing? Evidence from a Sample of Female Scientists in Austria. Vienna Institute of Demography Working Papers 1/2011
  8. ↑ Louise Ackers & Liz Oliver (2014). From Flexicurity to Flexsecquality?: The Impact of the Fixed-Term Contract Provisions on Employment in Science Research, International Studies of Management & Organization, 37:1, 53-79, DOI: 10.2753/IMO0020-8825370103
  9. ↑ Fox, M. F. (2005). Gender, family characteristics, and publication productivity among scientists. Social Studies of Science 35(1), 131-150. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312705046630
  10. ↑ Probert, B. (2005), ‘I Just Couldn’t Fit It In’: Gender and Unequal Outcomes in Academic Careers. Gender, Work & Organization, 12 (1), 50–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2005.00262.x
  11. ↑ Hamovitch, W. & Morgenstern, R.D. (1977). Children and the Productivity of Academic Women. The Journal of Higher Education 48 (6), 633-645. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.1977.11776582
  12. ↑ Bailey A. & Cooke, Thomas J (1999). Family Migration and Employment: The Importance of Migration History and Gender. International Regional Science Review 21 (2), 99-118.
  13. ↑ Shauman K. A. & Noonan, M. C. (2007). Family Migration and Labor Force Outcomes: Sex Differences in Occupational Context. Social Forces (85) 4, 1735–1764. https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2007.0079
  14. ↑ Fox, M. F., Fonseca, C. & Bao, J. (2011). Work and family conflict in academic science: Patterns and predictors among women and men in research universities. Social Studies of Science 41(5), 715-735. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312711417730
  15. ↑ Bozeman, B. & Corley, E. (2004). Scientists’ Collaboration Strategies: Implications for Scientific and Technical Human Capital. Research Policy 33(4), 599–616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2004.01.008
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Bozeman, B. & Gaughan, M. (2011). Job Satisfaction among University Faculty: Individual, Work, and Institutional Determinants. The Journal of Higher Education 82(2), 154–186. Retrieved from http://muse.jhu.edu/content/crossref/journals/journal_of_higher_education/v082/82.2.bozeman.html
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Fox, M.F. (2010). Women and men faculty in academic science and engineering: Social-organizational indicators and implications. American Behavioral Scientist 53 (7), 997-1012. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764209356234
  18. ↑ Xie, Y., & Shauman, K. (1998). Sex Differences in Research Productivity: New Evidence about an Old Puzzle. American Sociological Review, 63(6), 847-870.
  19. ↑ Gaughan, M. & Corley, E.A. (2010). Science faculty at US research universities: The impacts of university research center-affiliation and gender on industrial activities. Technovation 30 (3), 215-222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2009.12.001
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Acker, J. 1990. “Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations.” Gender & Society 4(2):139–58.
  21. ↑ European Commission (2013). Gender in Research and Innovation. She Figures 2012. Statistics and Indicators. Brussels. https://doi.org/10.2777/38520
  22. ↑ Villanueva, A-F. Woolley, R. & Cañibano, C.(2015). Nanotechnology researchers’ collaboration relationships: A gender analysis of access to scientific information. Social Studies of Science 45 (1), 100 – 129. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312714552347

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