Communications of the ACM
Six Ways to Keep Women in Science
Credit: Parissa Haghirian
While more women are getting Ph.D.s than ever before, and now outnumber their male colleagues in some scientific fields, the bad news is that women are still less likely to enter and remain in scientific careers. Beyond the doctoral level, the ratio of women to men starts to dip below one. In order to explain this trend, L'Oreal, in conjunction with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, surveyed 10,000 U.S. doctoral scientists about perceived barriers to a successful career and reasons why some people may leave science altogether. Their report found that while both men and women complained about the struggle to find jobs and obtain research funding, women were much more likely to cite more abstract barriers to success, such as the difficulty of balancing career and family obligations or access to good mentors. With that in mind, the article provides practical advice on how women can improve their career prospects.
Having a helpful mentor seems to make a bigger difference in career success for women than for men. Although it may still be hard to find female role models in fields like computer science and engineering, they exist if you look hard enough. When it comes to negotiating pay, women can learn from their male colleagues, who are typically better at asking for more. According to Title IX, women are guaranteed equal access in all educational activities supported by the federal government, including research. Every institution must have at least one employee monitoring compliance, and are receptive to the needs of women.
While women are guaranteed significant protection against bias, they're often hesitant to file a formal complaint if they feel they're being treated unfairly. Rather than waiting to receive a complaint, institutions should make rooting out gender discrimination part of the regular auditing process. They should test for unconscious bias, especially when it comes to the management of federal grants. Although a male scientist sometimes faces the same choice, the survey says that a woman scientist is more likely to have school-aged children and less likely to have a stay-at-home spouse or a spouse who isn't also a scientist.
From ScienceInsider
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