Women and Science, Statistics and Indicators

Today we would like to turn your attention to the following publication She Figures 2006 Women and Science Statistics and Indicators, which is the second publication of selected EU employment statistics disaggregated by sex and supplemented by certain other complementary data, which provide illuminating perspectives on the current employment situation of male and female scientists and researchers.

Let us highlight just a few points from the publication:

Women remain a minority among researchers in the EU (29% in 2003, a slight increase from 27% in 1999), but the number of women in research is increasing (plus 4%, compared to 2.4% for men). The growth rate in their participation
between 1998 and 2004 was lower than that of men. Therefore, if this trend continues, the differential between men and women in this occupational group will widen. Other differences are similarly announced:

• across the EU as a whole, only 29% of researchers are women;

• only 18% of researchers in business and enterprise sector are women, even though this is the largest R&D sector in most countries, and also the one that needs to provide two-thirds of the finance to meet the EU target of 3% of GDP devoted to R&D by 2010 (an increase that will in total require some700,000 additional researchers);
• in higher education, only 15% of those with the highest academic grade (grade A) are women;
• gender imbalance at the senior level is even greater in engineering and technology, where the proportion of women is just 5.8%;
• of the 17 Member States that have provided data, there are only two of them where the proportion of female members of scientific boards is over 40%; only one in the range 30-39%; and five in the range 20-29%, with all the rest below 20%.

Proportions of men and women in a typical academic career in science and engineering, students and academic staff, EU-25, 1999-2003

Women & Science, Statistic and Indicators

 

On European Commission web page http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/women/wssi/index_en.html one can find interesting post:

Women & Science

Statistics and Indicators

 

• Exactly how many women are there in European research?
• Are there more women than men?
• How are women distributed across European research?
• Is European research affected by a gender bias?
• Are women interested in different areas than men? Do they go on to work in the fields in which they have studied?
• Can they expect the same rewards and benefits from a scientific career as their male counterparts?
• Are there barriers to women’s productivity within the scientific system?
• Do women achieve and produce more than men?
• Why are women less likely than men to seek research funding?
• How are women scientists regarded by their peers, both male and female?

• Who defines the rules of the scientific game?

Although it is still not possible to answer all of these questions, the following pages contain information that can help us begin to understand the answers. You can download the latest indicators available on the subject of women and science for the 25 EU Member States and the 7 countries associated to the European Union’s 5th and 6th Framework Programmes. If you want to examine these data for your own analysis, you can also download the raw statistics.

Where do these data come from?

For many years, both women scientists and policy makers have been asking for data about women’s participation in the different scientific fields. The need to build indicators is acknowledged in the Commission’s Communication, in two Council’s Resolutions (20 May 1999 and 26 June 2001) and Council Conclusions (18 April 2005), as well as a Resolution of the European Parliament. In order to approach the lack of sex-disaggregated data on scientists, the Commission has developed a double-track strategy:

• The “top-down” approach
• The “bottom-up” approach

The Women and Science Unit in collaboration with the Statistical Correspondents of the Helsinki Group on Women and Science and Eurostat have been collecting data on women scientists for nearly 2 years. These pages contain consolidated statistical information from the cross-national perspective for all available years since 1990 on a variety of themes.

 

Women mathematicians in contemporary Russia

Natalia Lyulko, who is one of the regional coordinators of the EWM , prepared for today issue of our blog article “Women mathematicians in contemporary Russia” ,  presented at the EWM meeting in Cambridge.

Natalia lives in Novosibirsk. She has been working at the Sobolev Institute of Mathematics as a senior scientific researcher for twenty years, and gives lectures in “Functional Analysis” at Novosibirsk State University. Her research interest are in the field of hyperbolic problems on the plane. Her husband and her two sons (18 and 20 years old) are also mathematicians.

The position of women mathematicians in contemporary Russia

by Natalia Lyulko

Russia gave the world a number of famous women mathematicians. Among them is Sofia Kovalevski - a worldwide known Russian woman mathematician, Barry, Oleynic, Kochin etc. More recently, one of the most prominent women mathematicians was Olga Alexandrovna Ladigenski (1922-2004). She was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a president of St. Petersburg Mathematical Society, a professor of Mathematics and Mathematical Physics. She used to be a chair of mathematical department for 50 years, published over 250 research papers, and seven books on the theory of differential equations with partial derivatives and the stability theory of the problems of hydrodynamics. She also became famous for solving problems number 19 and 20, posted by Hilbert at the beginning of the 20^th century.

One can go on and on with famous women mathematicians, but I would like to highlight the position of women mathematicians in contemporary Russia. Nowadays, more than 90% of all mathematics teachers in schools, and about 70% of the teachers in higher learning institutions and colleges are women. Unfortunately, the proportion of women pursuing research careers in mathematics is very small.

I work as a senior scientific researcher at the Sobolev Institute of Mathematics in Novosibirsk Akademgorodok. It was founded 50 years ago by the decree of the Soviet government as a centre of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science. Right now, it has more than 60 research institutions pursuing studies in different areas: Physics, Geology etc. Institute staff number about 280 employees, only 14% of which are women (there are two scientific degrees in Russia: one that corresponds to PhD and another one that is called a Doctor of Science – which does not correspond to English equivalent). During the last five-year period, the number of dissertations defended by women has doubled, compared to the number in the five-year period prior to that one. Now there are 28 women with PhD degrees working at our research Institute; only two of them hold a PhD of a higher level. One of them was awarded this degree last year.

The researchers about to work for the institutes obtain their education at the Novosibirsk State University. The department of Pure Mathematics has about 1,500 students, 25-30% of whom are women. About 40% of all students in the doctoral program are women; twenty years ago, only 25% of the doctoral students were women. Among the authors of dissertations defended at the University for the last five years there were 48% of women, while there were 18% of women in the Soviet Union during the same period. However, there were only two women in the last 16 years who were awarded a higher PhD, which makes a total of 11%.

One can see that there are very few women mathematicians in our Siberian region, but the number of women mathematicians awarded the PhD degrees at their younger age has doubled recently - compared to the time before the demise of the Soviet Union. The demise, during the 90s, had for its consequence a severe cut in funding of science and education. Naturally, scientific careers became less attractive. Many people adapted to these changes, set off for business entrepreneurship or politics, and went abroad. Women, however, continued responding to a higher call for teaching and researching.

We all know that if a meaningful creative work is to continue, the exchange of ideas and approaches to the solution of new problems is vital. Therefore, back in the 90s of the last century, when the crisis hit science and education, Russian branch of the European Association of “Women Mathematicians” came up with an initiative to establish an organization uniting women in science and education. The goal of the organization was to continue the tradition of Russian science and fundamental education. This organization became known as the Association of «Women in Science and Education». The first conference was held in 1994, and Professor Risnichenko, a Doctor of Mathematical and Physical sciences at Moscow University, was elected as its president. Presently, it is a very active organization; it holds annual conferences “Women-mathematicians”, “Mathematics, Computer, Education”, “and Non-linear World”. The published papers presented during these conferences comprise more than eighty volumes.

Professional branch of this organization is the Association of “Women Mathematicians.” Inna Emelyanova, a professor at Nijniy Novgorod University, has been a leader of the Association since 1993. Until 2004, the Association held annual conferences in Volgograd, Cheboksary, Voronej and Novorosiysk. Now these conferences are held every three years, gathering between 100-150 participants. Women delegates usually present their results of research in theoretical or applied mathematics, exchange professional information and problems, and share the pedagogical experience in doctoral programs. Mathematics, Information Technology, and Education are traditional topics of these conferences. These conferences are a good schooling opportunity for young women who undertake challenging careers in education and research. Publication of papers and theses usually follows the conferences.

In conclusion, I would like to mention the All-Siberian Congress of Women Mathematicians that is held biannually, in January, in Krasnoyarsk. Delegates come from Siberia, Ural, and Far East. The first such conference was sponsored by the “Women in Science and Education”, and was devoted it to the celebration of 150^th birthday of Sofia Kovalevsky. Despite the severe weather in Krasnoyarsk (occasionally it gets down to -40 degrees Celsius), it is becoming more and more popular among women mathematicians. In addition, it is becoming popular among professional mathematicians as well. Among the delegates of the 4^th Conference held in 2006, there were many foreign participants. The total number of the delegates reached 160, and they came from 42 towns and cities. One of the delegates, Lyudmila Demidova Lopuhina, came from Sweden. Her presentation was devoted to the Stockholm period in life of Sofia Kovalevsky. The next conference of All-Siberian Congress of women mathematicians will be held from January 15^th to January 18^th, 2008 in Krasnoyarsk. For more information please visit our website http://www.kongress.a109.ru

Statistics on Women in Mathematics

We would like to collect statistical data on European Women in Mathematics. If you have some, your are welcome to publish them on our blog, in the form of comments, on page “Statistical Data“.