Underrepresentation of women in the senior levels of Brazilian science
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...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PeerJ Inc.
2017-12-01
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| Series: | PeerJ |
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| Online Access: | https://peerj.com/articles/4000.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797419430293012480 |
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| author | Jaroslava V. Valentova Emma Otta Maria Luisa Silva Alan G. McElligott |
| author_facet | Jaroslava V. Valentova Emma Otta Maria Luisa Silva Alan G. McElligott |
| author_sort | Jaroslava V. Valentova |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:47:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5d6f63cb4d214c88adc46f28ec964e81 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2167-8359 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:47:12Z |
| publishDate | 2017-12-01 |
| publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PeerJ |
| spelling | doaj.art-5d6f63cb4d214c88adc46f28ec964e812023-12-03T10:33:49ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592017-12-015e400010.7717/peerj.4000Underrepresentation of women in the senior levels of Brazilian scienceJaroslava V. Valentova0Emma Otta1Maria Luisa Silva2Alan G. McElligott3Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, BrazilDepartment of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, BrazilInstituto de Ciências Biológicas, Laboratório de Ornitologia e Bioacústica, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, BrazilQueen Mary University of London, Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, London, United KingdomDespite 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.https://peerj.com/articles/4000.pdfWomen in scienceGender equalityGender balanceBrazilian scientistsSTEMBrazilian science |
| spellingShingle | Jaroslava V. Valentova Emma Otta Maria Luisa Silva Alan G. McElligott Underrepresentation of women in the senior levels of Brazilian science PeerJ Women in science Gender equality Gender balance Brazilian scientists STEM Brazilian science |
| title | Underrepresentation of women in the senior levels of Brazilian science |
| title_full | Underrepresentation of women in the senior levels of Brazilian science |
| title_fullStr | Underrepresentation of women in the senior levels of Brazilian science |
| title_full_unstemmed | Underrepresentation of women in the senior levels of Brazilian science |
| title_short | Underrepresentation of women in the senior levels of Brazilian science |
| title_sort | underrepresentation of women in the senior levels of brazilian science |
| topic | Women in science Gender equality Gender balance Brazilian scientists STEM Brazilian science |
| url | https://peerj.com/articles/4000.pdf |
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