How cultural shifts can lift up women in science - TECTONIC MOVEMENTS - Fondation L'Oréal
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TECTONIC MOVEMENTS How cultural shifts can lift up women in science
TECTONIC MOVEMENTS
How cultural shifts can lift up women in science
FOREWORD 3
The world needs science and science needs women
INTRODUCTION 5
WHY THE WORLD NEEDS MORE WOMEN IN SCIENCE 6
How gender diversity leads to better science and stronger institutions 6
IS THE LEAKY PIPELINE A USEFUL VISUAL CONSTRUCT ? 9
CULTURE CREATES PIPELINE STRESSES 11
Science culture: the one-track mind 11
Academic culture: inside the ivory tower 12
Science doesn’t exist in a vacuum: milieu matters 13
Developing & non-Western economies: the picture for women in science 15
How cultural clashes magnify inequity 16
POSITIVE ANTIDOTES: SOLVING THE GENDER EQUATION 19
Visibility, advocacy and women’s networks 21
Hiring and retention 23
Funding and power 25
Scientific professional societies: policy changes 29
Cultivating flexibility 31
CONCLUSION 34
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 35
ABOUT THE L’ORÉAL FOUNDATION 36
2
FOREWORD
The world needs science and science needs women
Alexandra Palt,
Executive Vice President
of the L’Oréal Foundation
have ever been awarded to women scientists. How
can we explain that after years of fighting for gen-
der equality, the under-representation of women
in science should still be so glaring, and above all,
what are the consequences for our world?
They are numerous and we must collectively seek
to understand them, as much for the society that
we want to build, as for the advance of scientific
© Philippe Calandre for L’Oréal
progress and knowledge, which is critical to solv-
ing the great challenges of our time.
The absence of women has had and will have ma-
jor consequences. Let’s take two fields of scientific
application.
First, in the area of health care, there are many
These past few months will be recorded in history examples of the consequences of under-represen-
as a time when the global liberation of women’s tation. Have we finally gotten over, for example,
voices accelerated in the worlds of cinema, poli- the idea that cardiovascular illnesses are a mas-
tics, the not-for-profit sector and even business. culine issue? As recently as 1999, doctors ex-
Yet, there is one sector where women’s voices amined half as many women for cardiac illness
have remained astonishingly silent: science. This as men. What’s more, many clinical trials on
despite the fact that science faces the kind of dis-reducing risk factors have been led exclusive-
parity about which we should all, as a society, be ly by men. The result? The landmark study
concerned. on aspirin as a means of reducing the risk of
cardiac arrest included more than 22,000 men
The proportion of women engaged in scientific ca- and not a single woman¹. Sadly, this led to in-
reers has grown, albeit too slowly. Many still come appropriate treatment for women.
up against obstacles to accomplishing long and
flourishing careers, achieving positions of respon- Second, and just as concerning, is the digi-
sibility or gaining access to funding. As a result, tal revolution. Men’s control over key tech-
in the European Union, for example, only 11% of nologies has implications for women. In the
senior roles in academic institutions are currently early stages of voice recognition, for example,
held by women. Less than 30% of researchers are men dominated software development. Con-
women and only 3% of Nobel Prizes for Science sequently, the number of transcription errors
3
when women used voice recognition appli- Alexandra Palt
cautions was considerably higher than amongst
their male counterparts. Now, along comes artifi- Executive Vice President of the
cial intelligence (AI), which will have a profound L’Oréal Foundation.
effect on our future. We haven’t learnt from our
mistakes. Sure enough, studies have shown that For 20 years, the L’Oréal Foundation has
AI-powered image banks, developed mostly by worked to empower women in science,
men, associate women with domestic tasks and through a programme of recognition for bril-
men with sport². Indeed, image recognition soft- liant women scientists called ‘For Women
ware not only reproduces these prejudices; it am- in Science’. The programme is implemented
plifies them. Unlike a person, an algorithm cannot globally in partnership with UNESCO. The
fight consciously against acquired prejudices. As Foundation also raises awareness of scientif-
AI gradually pervades our lives, the issues will only ic careers amongst school pupils in France.
become more acute. If we use robots to shape our In March 2018, the L’Oréal Foundation is
world in the near future, it is vital that they should launching an initiative called ‘Men for Wom-
be programmed by men and women. en in Science’, calling male scientists to take
action to empower women in their institu-
The takeaway is not that women would be better tions by signing a charter. More than 25
scientists than men, but rather that we have to be male scientists occupying key positions with-
conscious of our need for a more gender balanced in the scientific world have already joined
scientific community. The decision is between de- the initiative.
priving ourselves of valuable creativity and tal-
ent, or designing a more inclusive society through
scientific progress. The choice is clear.
We commissioned this report with that choice in
mind, to inform the future focus of the L’Oréal
Foundation’s work. We reached out to over a doz-
en experts around the world to inform this report
in the spirit of building coalitions. We owe a debt
of gratitude to all of them. Creating coalitions for
a more inclusive science is urgent, in order to best
address the challenges facing the world, while ad-
vancing knowledge for the benefit of all.
The world needs science, and science, more than
ever, needs women.
4INTRODUCTION
How cultural shifts can lift up women in science
This report, commissioned by the L’Oréal Foundation, examines the state of gender balance
in science, taking stock of emerging solutions and promising areas of further investigation. It
supports with empirical research the programmes of the L’Oréal Foundation, including the
L’Oréal-UNESCO FWIS scheme.
The Age of Enlightenment brought a scientific Research on gender imbalance in science has
revolution that led to our modern practice of sci- tended to focus on those critical junctures and on
ence. It was accompanied by the important notion important issues of bias. But despite the best in-
that humanity could improve itself by responding tentions of leaders and scientists, the imbalances
to rational thought. of our scientific research institutions have persist-
ed. Cultures are slow to change.
Lately, however, our scientific output has begun to
flag, at a time when the stakes for humanity grow Addressing culture change is the key to addressing
larger. We’re relying on the scientific community to gender imbalances in science. Our own research
help solve existential crises. For example, anti-mi- revealed that, rather than focusing on cultural bi-
crobial resistance threatens modern medicine. ases at critical junctures, change is more likely to
And the climate change we’ve effected through occur when scientific institutions take a systems
our industrial economies may surpass humanity’s view of the imbalances. It’s not enough to point
capacity to cope, as the atmosphere warms to lev- to self-confidence issues, harassment or bias at
els never experienced by modern civilisations. It is discrete parts of the career track. Academia’s gen-
a moral imperative for us to raise the effectiveness der imbalances stem from the interaction of many
of our scientific research and spark a new scientif- factors: some unique to science, such as highly
ic revolution to help humanity improve itself once structured and closed career paths; others specific
again through rational thought. to academia, like rigid hierarchies; and still others,
like unconscious bias, found across society.
That revolution will require us to unleash all of
human potential on scientific endeavour. And yet, The interactions amongst cultural biases need to
we are currently struggling to resolve one of the be addressed simultaneously. Strategies and ini-
more obvious imbalances in science: the gender tiatives that have been successful, to a degree, can
gap. Girls and women are entering scientific study be combined in the right measures within an in-
at rates similar to their brothers, but they system- stitution. Initiatives designed to combat combina-
atically leave at critical junctures of the education tions of cultural factors, some of which we outline
and scientific careers pipeline at higher rates. How here, can be successful in re-balancing the gender
can we hope to spark a scientific revolution if we equation in science.
continue to push away half of humanity?
5Why the world needs glect the talents of half their population. In
India, for instance, women make up only
More women in science 14% of researchers6. Research done by BCG
and the L’Oréal Foundation finds that there
are 300,000 ‘missing’ doctoral degree hold-
Science and technology, and in particular ers a year across 14 developed and develop-
basic research, are part of the foundation for ing countries studied. If women began to earn
economic development and societal well-being. doctorates at the same rate as men, within 15-
Recent evidence suggests however, that innova- 20 years there would be 3 million more PhD
tion and technological progress are becoming holders contributing their skills to progress.
more expensive and labour-intensive, requiring
more researchers to achieve the same degree of
breakthroughs than in the past. Research pro-
ductivity is falling by half every 13 years3. Put
differently, we need to double the number of
researchers every dozen years if we are to im-
prove our scientific output.
Scientific research doesn’t occur in a vacuum.
It’s directed not only to advance our basic
understanding of how the universe operates,
but also to achieve normative outcomes that
benefit society and humanity. The challenges
facing society and humanity are enormous
in the life sciences, in physical sciences and
in other disciplines.
Research also drives the economy. The OECD
found that the long-term elasticity of govern-
ment and university-performed research on
multi-factor productivity is 17%, even higher
than for business R&D4. In the United States,
as in many other countries, science and tech-
nology-related employment is growing faster
than the overall job market. The U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics projects that 853,600 new
science and technology jobs will be added be-
tween 2016 and 2026, a growth rate rough-
ly 1.5 times faster than that of the overall
workforce5.
To boost their research and meet their em-
ployment goals, countries can’t afford to ne-
6Why the world needs more women in science
How gender diversity with known causes result from motor vehicle
collisions13. Medical science failed to realise until
leads to better science the last few decades that heart disease in women
& stronger institutions looks different from that in men, leading to mis-
diagnosis or under-diagnosis15. And because clin-
Neglecting talent has real consequences for sci- ical trials do not always include equal numbers
entific innovation and economic productivity7 of men and women, the effects of new drugs on
For example, women held fewer than one in five women may not be adequately studied. Between
patents – a measure of scientific output – in 2010 1997 and 2001, eight of the 10 prescription drugs
according to a 2016 report from the Institute for released in the US had to be recalled because they
Women’s Policy Research. And they made up just posed greater health risks for women than men15.
8% of primary inventors8. Globally, women make
up less than 30% of workers in STEM fields9. Of course, there’s nothing stopping male-domi-
nated research teams from considering gender in
This imbalance of women as researchers and in- their design of scientific studies, products or ser-
novators represents more than a loss of talent and vices. But this has historically not been true. And
skilled labour. There’s also evidence that gender there is a clear link between increased women’s
diversity tends to coincide with better science. authorship on studies and the integration of gen-
Peer-reviewed ecology publications with gen- der and sex analysis into medical research. When
der-diverse teams of co-authors received 34% researchers examined more than 1.5 million
more citations than publications by more gen- medical research papers, they found that papers
der-homogenous teams, suggesting that scientists with women authors were more likely to include
judged the former papers were higher quality10. gender and sex-related factors in their analysis16.
That effect could come down to diversity in the
teams. Or, it could be due to underlying causes; Finally, even though plenty of evidence supports
academic institutions that do well on representa- the merits of bringing more women in science,
tion and fairness may be likely to perform strongly programmes that overtly support women are often
elsewhere too. In R&D, too, gender-diverse teams perceived – by both men and women – as token-
are more innovative: a Spanish study of 4,277 ism, diffusing or sacrificing scientific excellence
companies found that those with more gender-di- for diversity. However, we argue that supporting
verse R&D teams were more likely to put radical women in science simply levels a playing field that
new innovations on the market in a two-year pe- has long been greatly skewed, and correcting this
riod11. The overall evidence for a business case for imbalance helps drive scientific excellence.
diversity in STEM is mixed, a 2014 Royal Society
“
report finds; the impacts of increasing diversity
are contextual, and research quality may improve
More visibility and representa-
not by increasing diversity per se, but through the tion may lead to greater diver-
changes in culture, leadership, behaviour, norms sity in public support as more
and values that underpin successful diversity ini-
tiatives12. Gender imbalances also perpetuate the
gender biases built into research and testing. For
people see themselves repre-
sented in science. „
example, US and European automobile crash – Dr Maryam Zaringhalam
tests do not require the use of pregnant crash test of the US grassroots network 500 Women Scientists,
dummies, even when 82% of US foetal deaths which is dedicated to training diverse leaders in science
7source: L’Oreal Foundation 2018
Is the leaky pipeline a useful visual construct ?
Is the leaky pipeline a • Entering higher education: Women re-
ceive 32% of STEM Bachelor’s degrees
useful visual construct? around the world, according to a BCG-
L’Oréal study. That figure differs across
disciplines; in many biological and medi-
cal subjects, women outnumber men. Just
The image of a pipeline with ‘leaks’ at various
a quarter of STEM PhDs are awarded to
points along the way is often used to describe
women. That research also found that the
the problem of achieving gender equality in
gap between men and women studying
STEM. The pipeline metaphor has long been
STEM subjects begins roughly when stu-
used to describe STEM careers, implying that
dents transition to university, depending
a certain quantity of entering students is need-
on the discipline.
ed at one end to produce sufficient graduates
or researchers at the other. Girls and women
• Entering a research career: Women are
are thought to drop out at various stages of
also more likely to leave STEM after re-
an academic science career, pushed out by a
ceiving their doctorates. Globally, women
buffet of challenges, from internalised stereo-
make up less than 30% of those in re-
types about scientists, to unconscious bias in
search careers.
hiring or publishing, to the opacity of the ten-
ure process itself.
• After postdoctoral training: In the bio-
medical sciences, women constitute ap-
The pipeline model is a useful construct to al-
proximately 45% of postdoctoral fellows
low us to visualise the critical junctures in a
at universities and research institutions in
career at which women tend to leave:
the United States, but only 29% of ten-
ure-track principal investigators18.
• At the secondary education level: In
secondary school, by the OECD’s PISA
• Tenure and beyond: Women may not
(Programme for International Student As-
drop out of science while and after they
sessment) test results, girls and boys are
get tenure, but they may not thrive, ei-
equally prepared and qualified in STEM
ther. In US universities, women make up
subjects. Indeed, they outperformed boys
43% of doctorates working in science,
in 22 of 72 countries where the PISA tests
engineering and health roles 10-14 years
were administered. However, an OECD
after receiving their degrees. That figure
study found girls and boys had different
drops to 29% for those 15 years after
expectations about their future careers;
their doctorate19.
girls were more than three times as likely
as boys to expect to work in health pro-
fessions, while boys were twice as likely to
expect to become engineers, scientists or
architects17.
9Is the leaky pipeline a useful visual construct ?
The pipeline model has its uses, in helping It might be science-related, it might be politics
to imagine the points where women leave – you mustn’t devalue those contributions to
the traditional scientific career track and to society.” She also suggested STEM academia
be able to measure progress. However, the could learn from diversity practices and wom-
pipeline construct also has its limits. First, en’s leadership experiences in other sectors,
it assumes that career paths are linear and such as the corporate world.
one-directional, and that individual scientists
seek to remain on these career paths. Such a What’s more, the metaphor of the linear pipe-
model posits only two types of solutions; in- line does not fully explain the impact of un-
creasing capacity at the front end and plug- derlying, external factors. It shows where and
ging the leaks along the way. when women leave academic science careers,
but fails to explain why – and the why is as
Yet today’s career paths are not necessarily important, or more important, as when. Are
linear; they may be more of a ‘jungle gym’ they victims of harassment? Or are the reasons
than a ‘ladder’20. To be sure, almost all aca- less malignant, such as a desire to apply one’s
demic STEM leadership is path-dependent: skills to policy or communications, or getting a
it’s nearly impossible to become the dean of job offer from industry that is more attractive
a faculty or chair of an academic department than a short-term postdoctoral contract? The
without a PhD in the relevant subject, tenure pipeline model doesn’t show, either, how ad-
and years of service. But referring to a ‘leaky dressing those underlying external factors may
pipeline’ implicitly devalues anyone who elects address leaks at multiple points simultaneous-
to leave. It does not acknowledge the necessary ly. A dedicated university initiative to reduce
and valuable contributions of women and men bias in hiring and leadership promotion halts
scientists who bring their skills to other con- leaks at multiple stages, and also creates con-
texts; government, industry, entrepreneurship ditions that are conducive to retaining younger
and elsewhere. Policymakers set the tone for women scientists.
research nationally and regionally, and much
“
high-impact innovation stems from industry
It’s important that we don’t just
and its symbiotic relationships with academ-
ic research. While we focus in this paper on define success in science as being
gender equality in academic STEM, a broader just success in academia. If you
question might be: how might women scien-
tists in academia, as well as those who have
train to a very high academic lev-
‘leaked’ from the academic pipeline into oth- el, like a PhD, you can take that
er sectors, strengthen conditions for women in knowledge and skills and use that
academia and contribute in valuable ways to
the state of scientific knowledge? in many important and valuable
ways in society. It might be sci-
“It’s important that we don’t just define suc-
ence related, it might be politics
„
cess in science as success in academia,” Nature
editor Helen Pearson told us. “If you train to a – you mustn’t devalue those con-
very high academic level, like a PhD, you can tributions to society.
take that knowledge and skills and use that in
many important and valuable ways in society. – Helen Pearson, chief magazine editor for Nature
10Culture creates pipeline stresses
Rather, we could consider careers as part of Science culture:
an ecosystem, in which changes to some parts the one-track mind
have an impact on other parts. To provide ef-
fective solutions we need to understand how Academic science careers are linear paths;
different ecosystem forces and factors interact without a PhD, you can’t go on to do a post-
to put pressure on scientists throughout their doctoral fellowship. Without a postdoc (or
careers. These include factors unique to the several) you can’t secure a tenure-track job.
culture of science or academia, such as ten- Without tenure, forget about a leadership
ure and promotion metrics, and other societal position in a university department. And
and cultural forces, such as unconscious bias they’re path-dependent; if you begin your
or harassment. career studying a specific topic like Arctic
climate or a specific organism such as yeast,
expect to continue in the same vein for at
Culture creates least some time.
pipeline stresses STEM’s closed hiring and promotion are a
related factor. Though they are employed by
universities, faculty members are essentially
self-employed in that they must source their
We asked a series of STEM academics, STEM own grants and sustain a record of publica-
diversity practitioners, gender diversity ex- tions, making career breaks difficult. Mean-
perts and others to talk about the systemic while, there are lots of off-ramps, but no on-
factors that influence why women leave, as ramps for people who wish to return to science
well as potential solutions that take a sys- after leaving.
temic view. It’s not enough to say ‘the system
is sexist’ and provide a list of examples from Closed systems lead to ongoing gender
discrete points in the career pipeline. Rather, disparities. The largest gender gaps were
an understanding of the ecosystem – of how in the labs of the 22 male Nobel Prize win-
cultural factors in science, academia and so- ners included in one study. Male postdocs
ciety combine to discourage women – will be outnumbered women three to one. This can
important for establishing how to retain them create gender disparities in future hiring,
in greater numbers. Some factors do involve because where a candidate is trained and
inherent gender biases; others are not gen- by whom has enormous influence on his or
dered, but they interact with others to pro- her hiring potential21.
duce gender-unequal results.
Additionally, a survey by the UK’s Royal So-
ciety of Chemistry found that women saw ac-
ademic science careers as too all-consuming
and solitary, and not collaborative enough22.
During their doctoral studies, they were also
more likely than male counterparts to have
had little pastoral care or have had to cope
with a supervisor who lacked interpersonal
or management skills. Moreover, they were
11Culture creates pipeline stresses
more likely to experience a lack of integration may assume that outstanding scientists are
with their research group, isolation and ex- already being identified and rising to the top,
clusion (and more rarely, bullying), or to have said Professor Abigail Stewart, the Sandra
been been uncomfortable with their research Schwartz Tangri Distinguished University
group’s working patterns, time, level of com- Professor of Psychology and Women’s Stud-
petition and expectations. ies and former director of the University of
Michigan ADVANCE/STRIDE programme to
Keen competition for academic jobs – there improve campus environment and faculty di-
are too many PhDs and not enough academic versity from 2001-2016. However, that com-
positions – is limiting. In the US, for instance, placency causes leaders and practitioners to
only about 26% of PhD students eventually doubt the value of efforts to boost diversity.
move into tenured or tenure-track positions. “We stress [to faculty] that we endorse the goal
Yet many PhD students harbour unrealistic of excellence, and that we don’t see diversity
expectations. A 2015 Nature survey of more and excellence as opposed; we agree that of
than 3,400 science graduate students around course every department is searching for the
the world suggested that many were overly best scientists but up till now, we have been
optimistic about their chances in academia. populating our departments with bias that has
About 78% of respondents said that they led us to an unequal situation,” she said.
were ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ to follow an ac-
ademic career, and 51% thought that they
would land some type of permanent job in Academic culture: inside
one to three years23.
the ivory tower
That level of competition also pushes ear-
ly-career researchers to do multiple post- Academic organisations often fall into famil-
doctoral fellowships to bolster their resumes iar gendered patterns. Ethnographic studies in
before applying for faculty positions, said the US point to gendered academic norms:
Weill-Cornell Medicine Qatar associate dean professors and institutions assume the ‘ideal’
of research Dr Khaled Machaca, which adds or default math or physics student is a young,
to the length of their training. Long train- middle-class, white male, one with no finan-
ing with little security may be a turnoff for cial constraints or caregiving responsibili-
scientists who don’t wish to move themselves ties24. That’s not what today’s classroom looks
and their families around the globe, or who like25. Likewise, university departments may
watch non-academic peers climb the career fall into gendered assumptions about labour,
ladder much earlier, particularly in an eco- making early-career women faculty teach
nomic climate where job security is valued. more introductory courses, which takes time
“Most scientists in the biomedical field don’t away from their research26. Similarly, wom-
en spend more time on service work in their
get their first ‘real’ job until they are in their
late 30’s” added Dr Machaca. departments than their male counterparts;
they are also appointed to multiple adminis-
trative-leadership positions earlier in their ca-
Finally, science assumes it is a gender-neutral reers than male counterparts. That detracts
meritocracy, and its leaders and practitioners from their research and hampers progression
12Culture creates pipeline stresses
as administrative roles are not rewarded27. may face stereotype threat in which they
There’s also funding – and its relationship conform, subconsciously and unwillingly,
to power. In some disciplines, the funding to prevailing stereotypes when reminded of
that pays for graduate stipends is controlled their identity as female. Stereotype threat
by a student’s supervisor, concentrating power occurs when negative stereotypes about a
in the supervisor’s hands. In others, graduate group, such as ‘girls can’t do mathematics’,
students get funding from multiple sources, raise doubts and anxieties that subconscious-
including teaching assistantships and other ly affect group members’ ability to perform.
grants, which empowers them and gives them So, for example, when test-takers are told a
more flexibility to leave or switch supervisors mathematics test shows gender differences,
if they face harassment or bullying. women perform worse than men. This mani-
fests later in careers as ‘imposter syndrome’,
Finally, our interviewees agreed that academ- in which a lack of confidence inhibits the
ic institutions could have more transparent pursuit of key career enhancers, such as
and swifter complaint investigations, such speaking engagements.
as in cases of harassment or assault. When
it comes to investigating and addressing ha- Early-stage pipeline measures often take
rassment, “In some ways, corporate environ- aim at stereotypes, enlisting role models and
ments do this better than academia,” said Dr girls-only STEM programmes to boost girls’
Kathryn Clancy of the University of Illinois at confidence and increase the number of girls
Urbana-Champaign. “They have much faster who view science and engineering as a viable
turn-around.” At the same time, she added, career path. That may work in some subjects
due process is still necessary, and universities or fields where the pipeline narrows at an ear-
should not necessarily be fully corporatized ly stage. But at UK universities, the women
either. The tenure system may also make it enrolled in some science subjects outnumber
difficult to remove harassers28. Some suggest the men, yet disparities persist at the top30,
there are lessons from the corporate sector so early-stage steps to boost pipeline capacity
here; women in flatter, less-hierarchical bio- may not be enough.
tech firms are eight times more likely to hold
supervisor positions than those in more tradi- Later in careers, workplace expectations
tional organisation structures – and paths to and demands implicitly cater to men with
progression based on business outcomes, like stay-at-home spouses. Workers in many pro-
the creation of new intellectual property, are fessional jobs work longer hours than ever; a
less susceptible to biased evaluation29. third of college-educated American men work
50 or more hours a week31.
Science doesn’t exist in
a vacuum: milieu matters At the same time, outdated attitudes persist
about work and family. A Harvard Busi-
Bias in society is not limited to science, of ness School study found that while its female
course. Societal norms also colour women’s graduates expected their careers would take
experiences in STEM. equal priority as their spouses’, the majority
of the men still assumed their careers would
To begin with, girls in school (and beyond) take precedence, and that their spouses would
13Culture creates pipeline stresses
do most of the child-rearing32. It’s not known
if such disparities in beliefs are as prevalent
amongst men and women in science, but such
“ The science drew me to Jim’s lab
every available moment. I lived
attitudes certainly play out in practice in the in a state of euphoric scientific
US, where women more than men adjust their
careers for family life33.
excitement. Jim told me repeat-
edly I should be a scientist. I
And widely prevalent sexual harassment
has been revealed in industries from media to
knew I couldn’t live without this
government; science is no exception. In many science, but how could I be like
STEM fields, field research is an integral com-
ponent of scholarship, but women face sexual
these men? Even postdocs had
harassment and assault in hostile field environ- wives who stayed home to care
ments. A 2014 survey of 666 scientists found
that 70% of women and 40% of men had ex-
for their children while the men
perienced harassment in the field, while 26% of put in 70-hour weeks at the lab.
women and 6% of men had been assaulted34.
Who would care for my children?
Finally, the gender biases in hiring found I knew I would have to give up
elsewhere are also found in science. Those bi-
ases perniciously include unconscious biases
science before I had children:
that are unrecognised by those making deci- in the era before amniocentesis,
sions. In an experiment, researchers submitted
fictitious student resumes for a lab manager
that meant before the age of 30.
position with the name changed – on half the So I made a plan: do the most
applications, the candidate was ‘John’, on the
other half, ‘Jennifer’. Both male and female
exciting science possible as fast
science faculty rated the male student as more as you can, hope you do a No-
competent and hireable, offered a higher start-
bel Prize-winning experiment
„
ing salary, and offered more career mentoring.
Another qualitative study uncovered persistent before the age of 30, then retire
biases in junior faculty hiring, such as factoring
in (illegally, in the US) the relationship status
and be a wife and mother...
of women candidates but not men35. In hiring
interviews, faculty members may think asking
about family plans is small talk that makes
candidates feel more comfortable, but instead it
pushes them away.
Indeed, biologist Nancy Hopkins of MIT out-
lined the extent to which prevailing norms, ste-
reotypes and biases can be internalised by even
women scientists themselves in this anecdote
about her advisor, James Watson:
14Culture creates pipeline stresses
“ Given such an auspicious start, no support both for women and for science in
wonder I didn’t see any gender dis- general. Some countries invest heavily in sci-
ence training as part of a knowledge-based
crimination in science. But looking economic strategy, producing many women
back, it’s hard to understand how PhD graduates but lacking programmes spe-
cifically targeted at retaining them. Others
I could have been quite so slow to may be woefully under-resourced, with few
recognize that a profession in which resources to devote to research at all.
half the population can’t partici- Even in Western countries, the argument
pate equally and also have children arises that funding and resources should
be devoted to areas that are integral to sci-
is by definition discriminatory. I ence overall, rather than gender-equality
saw the family–work problem as a programmes36. On the other hand, retain-
ing women in science is necessary to ensure
biological one – a woman’s choice, that investments in basic science training
unfixable. It would be years before are well-spent.
my colleague, Professor Lotte Ba-
ilyn, helped me see that the way IN FOCUS: KENYA:
science careers and institutions RESEARCH IN UNDER-
are structured is an artificial and RESOURCED ENVIRON-
hence changeable system designed
MENTS
by men, for men, in an era when
their families. „
men had full-time wives to care for
Research on Africa is typically done by
those from outside Africa, said Dr Rose Mut-
iso, co-founder of the Mawazo Institute, a
—Nancy Hopkins ‘50 years of progress for women in
non-profit supporting women’s academic re-
STEM’,DNA and Cell Biology (2015).
search and thought leadership in Kenya. Data
on women’s career paths in science is sparse,
Developing and non-Western but Kenya produces roughly 300 PhDs a
year across all disciplines out of a population
economies: the picture of 48 million. 26% of its researchers are female.
for women in science Male-dominated Kenyan culture also pos-
es extra constraints for women; for example,
women may be less able to move freely or
Addressing the challenges for women in sci- leave the country for further education and
ence is context-dependent; programmes and training due to family commitments, and they
interventions must take into account differ- may face open bias and hostility in the culture
ent cultures and varying levels of geopolitical of universities and science departments.
15Culture creates pipeline stresses
In such an under-resourced environment, thing else specific to one geography or anoth-
laboratory-based science fields may not get er – is responsible for the departure of women
the resources and equipment they need, and from science. Long hours and lengthy training
getting training in these fields is challenging have not deterred women from becoming doc-
for both men and women, Dr Mutiso said. tors or pharmacists, nor has fierce competition
Less resource-intensive fields such as math- deterred them from seeking careers in biomed-
ematics and computer science may provide ical sciences where they outnumber men at en-
more opportunities for aspiring scientists. try level. Much paid employment remains im-
plicitly structured for people with stay-at-home
Challenges which confront women in science spouses, yet this does not deter women from
also vary across and within African countries, remaining in the labour force; in the US, 70%
where science uptake is generally low, said Dr. of women with children under 18 are in paid
Peggy Oti-Boateng, senior programme spe- employment and three-quarters of those work
cialist for science and technology at UNES- full time37.
CO’s Office for Southern Africa and Coordi-
nator for the African Network of Scientific and These cultural stresses and their interactions
Technological Institutions (ANSTI). Some re- help explain why some interventions to boost
gions don’t have adequate systems to train or gender parity in science, as well-intended as they
support scientists at all, and aspiring scientists are, fail. Measures that operate at only one point
must travel abroad to study. For those who in the pipeline are not effective if they fail to
cannot afford to leave, or who have family take into account how culture influences earlier
care or other obligations, this is a major barri- or later stages. For instance, early-stage pipeline
er. For others, relocating takes away systems interventions such as increasing girls’ interest in
of social support which would be crucial to science, are useful and sustainable only if the
achieving their goal. deep and structural patterns of discrimination
that exist in science and academia at later stag-
In addition, attitudes about women in science es are properly addressed. Meanwhile, career
even from teaching staff can be negative. Dr coaching workshops that try to help women
Oti-Boateng has encountered many teach- succeed may be less effective in environments
ing staff who think women are incapable of where hiring and funding bias persist. And uni-
doing well in science; in that context, she be- versities may provide well-intentioned policies
lieves it’s essential for women to have strong to pause the tenure clock for parental leave, but
social support to stand a chance of ascend- when men continue to assume their spouses will
ing to professorship. make concessions for them, that leads to un-
equal outcomes: men simply use this extra time
to write more38.
How cultural clashes
However, broader societal mores - the culture of
magnify inequity
academic institutions and the culture of science
- appear to interact in ways that are especially
None of these cultural factors alone – not closed damaging to gender equality. Here are some ex-
systems of hiring, nor outdated attitudes about amples that may force girls and women out at
work and family, nor harassment, nor any- various stages of a scientific career.
16Culture creates pipeline stresses
Example 1: Gendered academic norms Even after a woman is hired on the tenure or
interact with outdated attitudes to work principal-investigator track, the effects of un-
and family and gender biases in hiring conscious bias accumulate over time to hold
them back. Women in science receive academ-
Women constitute approximately 45% of the ic grants at a lower rate than men in science,
postdoctoral fellows in the biomedical sciences compared to social science where funding pat-
at universities and research institutions in the terns are more even42; women scientists receive
US, but a much lower percentage of women on average less than half the startup funding
hold faculty positions. In the US National Insti- of male scientists43. Women are also requested
tutes of Health Intramural Research Program, as journal reviewers less often than men44and
for example, women make up only 29% of the are invited to speak at conferences less often45
tenure-track investigators and hold just 19% of 46while author gender has been shown to have
the tenured senior investigator appointments. an impact on the perceived quality of a paper47.
Research chalked this discrepancy up to fami-
ly demands and self-confidence and found that Meanwhile, there seems to be a distinct ‘baby
30% of male respondents expected their spouse penalty’ for women academics. Women with
to make concessions for their career paths, com- children under age six were 15% less likely
pared with just 15% of women39. than childless counterparts to obtain tenure,
and 25% less likely than male counterparts
Clearly, many men’s attitudes haven’t caught with children under age six48. Even where uni-
up with the fact their wives work. But 72% of versities provide the option to stop the tenure
full-time faculty and 74% of full-time women clock for family reasons, women may opt not
faculty have employed partners, many of them to take advantage of them for fear of hurting
fellow scientists40. When women (and indeed their careers49.
men) are hired, universities may need to raise
the question of dual hiring and have clear du- Example 3: Stereotype threats and gen-
al-hiring policies. If women are forced to sac- der bias in hiring influence women’s
rifice their careers for their spouses’, both they promotion and leadership – and a lack
and their prospective employers lose out. of representation has repercussions for
future generations
In addition, the structure and demands of the
academic workplace, such as travel require- While women don’t necessarily leave their jobs
ments or expectations that researchers be ful- at the stage when they might potentially tran-
ly devoted to their work, weigh more heavily sition to leadership, they find that pathways to
on women, who disproportionately bear the promotion and leadership are unclear. They
burden of household management and caring may also bear more teaching and service re-
for dependents41. sponsibilities than male colleagues, including
serving as the sole female representative on a
large number of committees50. The criteria
Example 2: Gender bias in hiring in- for promotion to leadership may not be clear,
teracts with the too all-consuming and which opens the door for promotion based on
solitary pressure to publish and shapes vague criteria (and influenced by stereotypes
the output on which a researcher is and unconscious bias) rather than straightfor-
judged for tenure ward expectations51.
17Culture creates pipeline stresses
At the same time, a dearth of women in lead- for funding and elsewhere, can prevent them
ership has implications for women aspiring to from feeling like they are able to report expe-
successful careers in science, who see few role riences of sexual or other harassment: “You
models. This also has implications for wom- have to make reporting mean something. It
en leaders themselves, who unlike men bear must lead to consequences.” It also makes
the burden of having to represent their entire a difference whether the bulk of a PhD stu-
gender. For instance, science communicator dent’s funding is controlled by her advisor,
Maryam Zaringhalam, of the US grassroots or whether she receives it through grants
network 500 Women Scientists said: “When I and teaching assistantships.
get invited to speak on panels, the conversa-
tion often leads away from my science or pol- Harassment may be particularly devastating
icy interests towards the many struggles that at early stages of women’s careers, when wom-
women have in science. I’m excited to go and en researchers are less likely to report issues
talk about my work or my interests, but end due to fear of repercussions or lack of disci-
up being asked about all the different ways plinary action, and are thus most vulnerable.
I’ve been abused or harassed in science while
my male co-panellists are asked about their Even when victims of harassment do report
expertise. It’s not a conversation I want to be it, they may lose access to data or expen-
obligated to have when I have my own exper- sive shared equipment that a harasser con-
tise I’m excited to share.” trols, then leave science as the time and ef-
fort they’ve invested in their particular field
amounts to little without that access.
Example 4: Sexual harassment interacts
with science culture’s closed systems of
hiring and promotion and linear career
pipelines, as well as funding – and its
relationship to power
Sexual harassment is an issue throughout the IN FOCUS:
pipeline; harassment in the field has been
found to occur most often to female under- INTERVIEW WITH
graduates, graduate students and those in
other junior positions. DR. KATHRYN CLANCY
However, this may vary by field of study. Re-
search on astronomy and physics found that We interviewed Dr Kathryn Clancy, associate
women of all ranks, including faculty and professor of biological anthropology, University
senior positions face the same verbal and of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr Clancy also
physical harassment, and were equally likely studies the prevalence of harassment in STEM.
to avoid meetings, fieldwork or other profes- Note: This Q&A has been edited for length and
sional events because they felt unsafe52. clarity.
Dr Clancy notes that the unique depen-
dence of STEM students on their advisors, How did your research on harassment begin?
18Positive antidotes: solving the gender equation
A friend of mine told me about her experi- From the organisational literature we find two
ences with being sexually assaulted; she had things that contribute to workplace harassment.
flashbacks and trauma that inhibited her abil- First, male domination: not just more men than
ity to finish her degree. When she told her women, but more men in leadership, or some-
advisor, she was believed, but her advisor dis- thing that’s typically considered to be a ‘male’
couraged her from pursuing action in case job. Next, organisational tolerance which signals
they lost collaborator data. sexual harassment is permitted. People don’t
bother reporting as they think nothing will hap-
I was invited to give a talk on it at the Amer- pen or they’ll be retaliated against.
ican Association for Physical Anthropology
meeting, but my abstract was rejected. I was Science has both these features. Even in dis-
told it wasn’t acceptable because there was ciplines where women outnumber men, the
nothing empirical in it. I started reaching out expectations are structured for men. We’re ex-
to colleagues to collect data, and that’s how pected to work around the clock, as though
the SAFE survey (Survey of Academic Field we don’t have bodies, as though we don’t have
Experiences) was started. children or elders to care for, or meals to make..
What have you found so far?
In the field, unwanted sexual advances seem
to occur more. Whereas in astronomy and
undergraduate physics, what we’ve seen is
more selective incivilities, put-downs and
come-ons. Positive antidotes: solving
For the field survey, we found that women in the gender equation
junior positions reported more harassment,
but our paper on astronomy and planetary
science did not find rank effects. It didn’t mat- If the cultures of society, science and academia
ter what your rank was, even women in facul- and their interactions are what’s pushing
ty-level and senior positions reported harass- women away from academic science careers,
ment. And they faced it more from their peers that suggests interventions need to address
than people further up the hierarchy fieldwork multiple aspects of scientific or academic cul-
can be very hierarchical and linear. There may ture at the same time to improve gender par-
be a sexualisation of fieldwork: ‘what happens ity in science. None of the following interven-
in the field, stays in the field’. [In anthropology] tions works in isolation. But taken together,
there’s an ‘Indiana Jones’ archetype of the ad- they have the potential to move the needle to
venturer who goes in and steals things from some degree. Experts cautioned, though, that
other cultures without sleeping or eating. interventions and initiatives to increase gen-
der equality in the sciences must be routinely
What aspects of science or academic culture assessed to monitor their implementation and
present obstacles to addressing harassment? effectiveness.
19source: L’Oreal Foundation 2018 20
Positive antidotes: solving the gender equation
Visibility, advocacy en in science also help us envision some-
thing better, like more equitable policies
and women’s networks and institutions.
What other effective solutions have you
Why it works: Grassroots and networking or- implemented?
ganisations for women in science may help
combat the too all-consuming and soli- Dr Jane Zelikova, co-founder and Na-
tary nature of research and the stereotype tional Leadership Team: In January 2018,
threats, including impostor syndrome. In 500 Women Scientists launched the Re-
addition, as more women gain visibility by quest a Woman Scientist web platform
speaking on conference panels, to media and to enable conference organisers, jour-
to classrooms, that combats gender bias in nalists and other members of the public
hiring within and outside of the academy, to search for women scientists by geog-
by dispelling misconceptions about women’s raphy and area of expertise. Before the
abilities compared to men’s, belying the myth site launched, 500 women volunteered
that there aren’t enough excellent women to be listed; today, there are more than
candidates for open positions and diversify- 5,000 women scientists from close to
ing perceptions of what scientists look like. 100 countries who have signed up. Peo-
ple are already using it to find speakers
IN FOCUS: 500 for panels and conferences, sources for
media articles and speakers for class-
WOMEN SCIENTISTS room outreach. 500 Women Scientists
also offers or plans to offer media train-
ing, training in op-ed writing, and training
The US grassroots network 500 Women in how to give public talks to the women
Scientists was formed in 2016 as a plat- who have volunteered to be on the site.
form for women scientists to connect
and use their skills for public good, as How do you reconcile that need for vis-
well as to promote diverse leadership ibility with the fact that women in sci-
in science. Today, it has more than 200 ence already carry the burden of service
‘pods’ or chapters around the world. We labour and representation?
spoke with several members of their Na-
tional Leadership Team. Dr Zelikova: The benefit of speaking
about your science or your expertise in a
What do you gain from being part of a public venue is greater visibility for your-
network of women scientists? self and your research and potentially the
students in your lab. Today, we see the
Dr Maryam Zaringhalam, 500 Women same people speaking on science top-
Scientists National Leadership Team: It ics in multiple venues, which reinforces
helps combat isolation or low confidence. their credibility and expertise. We need
As you grow a network, you feel less like to spread that expertise and credibility to
it’s you that’s weak and more like it’s the more people than just a few men.
system that’s broken. Networks of wom-
21Positive antidotes: solving the gender equation
Women-in-science groups such as 500 Women trends; the predominance of women in the Ma-
Scientists in the United States provide network- laysian electronics industry (a precursor to the
ing opportunities and advocate for representa- IT industry) and a national push for a ‘pan-Ma-
tion. Outside the US, the non-profit Singapore laysian’ culture. The Malaysian government has
Women in Science organisation and other Singa- quotas for educational support for its three main
pore groups for women scientists, technologists ethnic groups, Malay, Indian and Chinese, and
and clinician-scientists include women from the take-up rate of IT education by Malay men is
undergraduate level to executive leadership and low, leaving more room for women.
enable them to mix in informal settings, said Dr
Vandana Ramachandran, a committee member Several experts also validated the impact of the
at Singapore Women in Science and head of ad- L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science pro-
ministration at Singapore’s Institute of Medical gramme for representation. For instance, Dr
Biology (the Institute of Medical Biology is part Machaca, who sits on the committee that se-
of the country’s Agency for Science, Technology lects the laureates, said the awardees have tre-
and Research, or A*Star, which carries out in- mendous potential to shift public perceptions of
dustry-oriented research). women’s career paths in science, and to serve as
role models in their communities.
Besides informal or grassroots groups, institu-
tions themselves can take steps to increase wom- However, women in STEM shouldn’t have to be
en’s representation. The Institute of Medical Bi- outstanding at everything they do; no one ex-
ology’s (IMB’s) goal for instance is proportional pects the same of men, argues Stanford Univer-
representation at the conferences it organises and sity student Amy Nguyen in an essay. That’s why
at the larger conferences it chairs. Why? Across sheer numbers and at least proportional repre-
higher education and private and public research sentation are key to shifting unconscious bias
institutes in Singapore, roughly 36% of research- in science and academia. The more women are
ers with PhDs overall are women. However, visible in science, the more acceptance there will
women’s numbers fall at later pipeline stages, be of varying levels of accomplishment, Nguyen
such as principal investigator, full professor and writes:
other leadership levels. That poor representation
may dent the confidence of early-career women
scientists and worsen impostor syndrome, said
Dr Ramachandran. IMB and other institutions
can take concrete steps to change that.In some
“ More than women who are at the top of
their fields, I need women who suck at pro-
countries, national programmes and historical gramming. I need women who are okay at
trends have interacted with culture to achieve
unexpectedly gender-equal results, finds the UN- their jobs. I need women who sometimes
ESCO Science Report 201553. Middle-income have to ask questions and admit weak-
Malaysia has close to gender parity in science -
49% of its researchers are women, by UNESCO ness…the way we keep promoting only
statistics. In Malaysia, the information technol- the exceptional isn’t going to create more
ogy sector especially employs a large number of
women as university professors and in the pri- acceptance for women in tech as a whole.
vate sector. This is a product of two historical It’s going to reject all the women who don’t
“
meet those impossible standards.” 54
22Positive antidotes: solving the gender equation
Hiring and retention ported by the institution and covers various
types of diversity across all departments.
Under the STRIDE portion, which focuses
on faculty recruitment, scholars on campus
Why it works: Policies to address bias in are trained to provide their colleagues with
hiring and retention, such as the University compelling evidence on how bias can op-
of Michigan’s ADVANCE programme, help erate within hiring-committee deliberation,
break the self-perpetuating gender dispari- and practical steps to limit its impact. For
ties in science hiring, in which the labs of elite instance, practical steps include discussing
scientists, mostly male, employ more junior and defining candidate evaluation criteria in
men than women. The University of Michi- advance, and avoiding global evaluations
gan provides hiring faculty with information and summary rankings which can be co-
about gender bias in hiring, including un- loured by bias.
conscious bias and how to combat its prev-
alence, which may also shift faculty beliefs Within two years of the programme’s
about gendered academic norms. Working launch, the rate of women hires had more
in concert, policies that support caregivers than doubled from 15% of all STEM hires
and other family needs signal that employers across campus to 32%, a rate that has been
don’t expect work to be too all-consuming sustained since. STRIDE does not appear
and solitary, while clear policies to address to have had an effect on tenure rates or
sexual harassment and other grievances time to tenure, as there was no apparent
signal that an employer is prepared to act on evidence for disparate tenure rates at the
reports and complaints. programme’s start. There are more women
students in departments with more women
faculty. However, STEM hiring has plateaued
at roughly one-third of new hires, for rea-
sons that are unclear.
IN FOCUS: THE
Today, more than half the faculty on cam-
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN pus have attended a STRIDE workshop
and they must refresh their training every
ADVANCE PROGRAM three years. Faculty also report that they
apply STRIDE workshop skills to other prac-
tices, such as annual salary reviews and ten-
ure reviews. We spoke to Professor Abigail
In 2001, the US National Science Foundation Stewart, the Sandra Schwartz Tangri Distin-
(NSF) began giving out grants to institutions guished University Professor of Psychology
and organisations to help recruit, retain and and Women’s Studies and former director
advance women in STEM in a programme of the University of Michigan ADVANCE/
called ADVANCE. The University of Michi- STRIDE programme (from 2001-2016).
gan’s programme grew out of an initial NSF
ADVANCE grant and at the time focused on Note: this Q&A has been edited for length
hiring in STEM. Today, it is permanently sup- and clarity
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