Why women scientists opt out
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
There are many women scientists in the world who are responsible for making discoveries and advances in a wide variety of areas -- biology, medicine, chemistry, astronomy, mathematics, and research. From the dawn of civilization women and men worked together to make the future brighter. Why aren't there more women in science in Bangladesh? Their under-representation in the sciences is being recognized round the world as an important issue. It is not that they are not studying science. The biological and chemical sciences are believed to have even higher levels of enrolment.
This may be due to gender discrimination sharply visible in our social and state level activities and attitude. Family issues play a big part in deterring well-trained women scientists from pursuing science as a career.
Scientific training is a long drawn process that involves working for years on a doctorate and then spending some more years in post-doctoral positions. A scientist would then be in his or her early thirties. With their biological clock ticking away, women scientists who wish to raise a family cannot postpone marriage until they have secure faculty positions.
But most of the burden of running a household and rearing children falling on women in Bangladeshi society, it becomes that much more difficult for women scientists to meet their professional commitments.
These additional duties they are routinely expected to shoulder at home are not, however, taken into account while assessing their scientific output. Women often respond by opting out of demanding research careers or accepting a break in their career while the children are small. Such family commitments, real and sometimes hypothetical, are used to justify biases in hiring and promotion and with respect to women's inclusion in important professional activities. Consequently, although officially stated policies may not discriminate against women, in practice the system treats them unfairly. Women scientists therefore speak of a "glass ceiling," unseen and yet all too real.
Due allowance for any breaks that women scientists take in their careers in order to start a family must become the accepted norm throughout the science sector. Universities and research institutions ought to establish policies and practices for recruitment and promotion that are absolutely fair to women. A family-friendly environment that provides child-care facilities, accommodation for couples close to or on campus, flexible working hours and sympathetic recognition of the problems facing dual career families help. No less important is a concerted effort to change mindsets and social attitudes so that women can pursue a research career and contribute to the development of science fully on a par with men.
Gopal Sengupta
Canada
gopalsengupta@aol.com
This may be due to gender discrimination sharply visible in our social and state level activities and attitude. Family issues play a big part in deterring well-trained women scientists from pursuing science as a career.
Scientific training is a long drawn process that involves working for years on a doctorate and then spending some more years in post-doctoral positions. A scientist would then be in his or her early thirties. With their biological clock ticking away, women scientists who wish to raise a family cannot postpone marriage until they have secure faculty positions.
But most of the burden of running a household and rearing children falling on women in Bangladeshi society, it becomes that much more difficult for women scientists to meet their professional commitments.
These additional duties they are routinely expected to shoulder at home are not, however, taken into account while assessing their scientific output. Women often respond by opting out of demanding research careers or accepting a break in their career while the children are small. Such family commitments, real and sometimes hypothetical, are used to justify biases in hiring and promotion and with respect to women's inclusion in important professional activities. Consequently, although officially stated policies may not discriminate against women, in practice the system treats them unfairly. Women scientists therefore speak of a "glass ceiling," unseen and yet all too real.
Due allowance for any breaks that women scientists take in their careers in order to start a family must become the accepted norm throughout the science sector. Universities and research institutions ought to establish policies and practices for recruitment and promotion that are absolutely fair to women. A family-friendly environment that provides child-care facilities, accommodation for couples close to or on campus, flexible working hours and sympathetic recognition of the problems facing dual career families help. No less important is a concerted effort to change mindsets and social attitudes so that women can pursue a research career and contribute to the development of science fully on a par with men.
Gopal Sengupta
Canada
gopalsengupta@aol.com