WUNRN
Women Scientists Face
Discrimination, Says Study
Natasha Gilbert
Thursday March 20, 2008
Women continue to struggle to reach
the top echelons of academia due to discrimination, according to new research
presented at the Royal Economic Society annual conference this week.
The study, Glass Ceilings - Thicker at the Top?, by Dr Sara Connolly and Dr Susan Long at the University of East Anglia found that women are less likely than men to be promoted to a professorial position at universities. It also found that women are less likely to be promoted out of postdoctoral posts at research institutes.
There is strong evidence to suggest that around of a third of the promotional gap between men and women is due to differential and disadvantaged treatment of women the study concludes.
Connolly said: "The female scientific workforce is generally younger and so less likely to have key responsibilities or have the same level of achievements. This certainly explains most of the promotion gap.
"But between a quarter and a third is unexplained, which leads us to conclude that there is strong evidence that women do experience different treatment and disadvantage in terms of career progression."
The study examined the careers of 4,200 scientists in universities and 2,200 working in research institutes. The data includes information about their employment history, work and domestic responsibilities and indicators of professional esteem, which can be used to ensure that the analysis compares like with like when comparing the relative chances of men and women being promoted.
In higher education, the study found a familiar pattern of steadily falling levels of female employment as seniority rises. Women represent 54% of postdocs, 41% of lecturers, 31% of senior lecturers and 16% of professors.
In research institutes, women represent 54% of postdocs, 24% of senior scientists, 20% of principal scientists and 19% of research directors.
The study says that women scientists in the UK face glass ceilings, but the point at which women hit the ceiling depends on where they work. The glass ceiling in universities is a barrier at the top, but in research institutes barriers are at lower levels, so women are less likely to be promoted out of postdoctoral posts.
Connolly said: "These results certainly raise the question of whether the UK is making best use of this highly skilled workforce and whether these publicly funded organisations are meeting the obligations set out in the 2007 gender equality duty."
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