{"id":65624,"date":"2016-03-09T02:47:47","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T00:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/women-in-science-equality-is-impossible-unless-society-shifts-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2016-03-09T02:47:47","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T00:47:47","slug":"women-in-science-equality-is-impossible-unless-society-shifts-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/women-in-science-equality-is-impossible-unless-society-shifts-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Women in science: equality is impossible unless society shifts | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"
Women scientists are far more common today than they were in the early 1900s.<\/span> Reuters\/National Photo Company Collection\/Library of Congress<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s a lot more good news for women in science than you might expect. Research shows that the landscape for women working in scientific disciplines \u2013 including maths, engineering and technology \u2013 has improved dramatically over the past 50 years.<\/p>\n

Gender representation and sexism are taken far more seriously than used to be the case. Behaviour that may once have been swept under the carpet is now openly and roundly condemned.<\/p>\n

A Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Sir Tim Hunt, resigned in 2015 from University College London in the wake of a sexism row. Also in 2015, renowned astronomer Geoff Marcy quit the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, after being found guilty of sexually harassing women students. And the world\u2019s most important science journals have dedicated entire issues to gender and equality concerns.<\/p>\n

These sea changes have been largely driven by three factors: the general advancement of women in society; the implementation in many countries of gender-sensitive policies designed to attract more women to the sciences; and, as illustrated above, a growing awareness in the global scientific community about the realities of gender bias.<\/p>\n

But, as the world celebrates International Women\u2019s Day on March 8, it\u2019s worth exploring what still needs to be done \u2013 and whether science can ever be a truly equitable space while society more broadly is not.<\/p>\n

No gender parity yet<\/h2>\n

The United Nations\u2019 2016 theme for International Women\u2019s Day is:<\/p>\n

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Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step it up for gender equality.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is linked to the UN\u2019s Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals. Scientists still have a long way to go before hitting the 50\/50 mark for women\u2019s representation.<\/p>\n

The problem starts from student years: women are significantly more likely to drop out of science careers at doctoral level than their male counterparts.<\/p>\n

Beyond university, women scientists remain in the minority. The most recent UNESCO Science Report shows that only about 30% of the world\u2019s researchers in science, technology, engineering and maths are women.<\/p>\n

Their under-representation is even more pronounced when one considers rank \u2013 women are far less likely to become full professors in these fields, to become members of the prestigious Academy of Science or to sit on scientific journals’ editorial boards.<\/p>\n

So what is holding women back in university classes and research labs? A number of studies have suggested the following factors:<\/p>\n