Slide 1

www.festa-europa.euFP7-SCIENCE-IN-SOCIETY-2011-1,

Project No. 287526.

Challenging the Leaky Pipeline in Science, Engineering and Technology

Dr. Ita Richardson

Slide 2

Importance of having Women in SET European and National Agenda

“We need to address these issues, not only for the sake of fairness and equality, but for the sake of science and research itself – we need to build our research capacity in Europe.”

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science.

2

Slide 3

• Diversity• Economic Growth• Social Justice• Provision of Role Models • Provision of Choice

Importance of having Women in SET

Photographs: Eoin Stephenson, UL

3

Slide 4

DiversityDiversity promotes creativity and innovation

Do we want to continue living in a world built by men for men?

4

Slide 5

Economic GrowthDependent on having an educated workforce

Can we afford to eliminate 50% of the population from SET?

5

Slide 6

Importance of having Women in SET

“The Grand Challenges facing Europe (including climate change and demography) require the full participation of women in its science and technology system…”European Commission, 2012

6

Slide 7

Challenges for Women in SETLise Meitner, Nuclear Physicist, Germany, c. 1900:

Professor Emil Fischer “did not allow women in his building”. Meitner worked there, “Provided she stay in a converted carpenter’s shop in the basement and never enter any part of the building used by men”

Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, 1998

7

Slide 8

Challenges for Women in SET“I very much wish to be considered together with Madame Curie with respect to our research on radioactive bodies.”

Pierre Curie, 1903, when he heard of his Nobel Prize for Physics nomination with Henri Becquerel, but without his wife, Marie Curie, Physicist and Chemist, Poland and France

8

Slide 9

Barbara McClintoch, Geneticist, USA, 1936: Mistaking Barbara for someone who had recently announced her engagement, her Dean “threatened her, ‘If you get married, you’ll be fired’”

Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, 1998

Challenges for Women in SET

9

Slide 10

Someone else was made first author on a paper “because he was a young man and had a family to support.”

Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, early 1970s, Germany.

Challenges for Women in SET

10

Slide 11

Astronomy classes in the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, same percentage of women in 1982 and 892. “Womenfolk play the larger part in the decision. It has been my experience that it is other women who ask (too frequently) whether one really enjoys doing physics.”

Jocelyn Bell Burnell, 1982, Belfast.

Challenges for Women in SET

11

Slide 12

• No institutional barriers to one’s career development at university level.

• Women spent more time generally during the week and weekends on domestic chores than male counterparts.

• Women in the University appeared to take on more work than their male colleagues. Examples given included the development of new courses and student support.

Wilson & Richardson, 2008

Challenges continue: Gender Audit @ UL

12

Slide 13

ResearchGender Audit Results % Female % Male

Keynote /plenary/invited speaker external conference/workshop 36 63

Editor of scientific/technical journal or book 17 28

Member of the Editorial Board of an Academic Journal 15 32

Reviewer for International Journal 44 78

Assessor for grant giving bodies 22 55Appointment to National/international bodies 24 42

Slide 1414

Slide 1515

Current Situation

Slide 16

• Women more negatively affected by men regarding ‘string of post-doc positions’

• Concerns about competitiveness are fuelled by a relative lack of self-confidence

• Nature of available role models• Perceived by female PhD candidates as aggressive and

competitive (male characteristics)• Often childless

• Women are told that their gender ‘will work against them’

UK Resource Centre for Women / Royal Society of Chemistry, 2012

Why women leave academia

16

Slide 17

• Retain and fully employ the competencies and capacities of the whole research force, regardless of gender

• Women do not lack researchers’ essential characteristics

• Academic environment is lacking essential characteristics to foster women’s research potential

• UL Principal Investigator – Prof. Pat O’Connor17

Slide 18

FESTA: Building on Previous Initiatives

Role Models for School Girls

Research in Gender Studies and Sociology

External and Internal Funding:

Atlantic Philanthropies, Science Foundation

Ireland, UL Human Resources

Introductory Courses for

Women in SET

Equality Opportunities

Manager

Gender Audit @UL (Science

Foundation Ireland)

18

Slide 19

• Led by University of Uppsala, Sweden• University of Limerick - Faculty of Science &

Engineering• Universities in Denmark, Turkey, Germany, Italy,

Bulgaria• March 1st 2012 to 28th February 2017

19

Slide 20

Implement and Measure

Recommendations

Analyse Published Research

Analyse UL and other

Universities

20

Develop Recommendations

from outcomes

• Qualitative Research Methods: Interviews and Focus Groups

• Research Questions:• Can we raise awareness regarding career paths? • How are formal and informal decisions made?• How is excellence defined?• What power-plays exist in PhD supervision? (UL not researching)• Can we understand resistance? (UL not researching)

Slide 21

Implement and Measure

Recommendations

Analyse Published Research

Analyse UL and other

Universities

21

Develop Recommendations

from outcomes

• Implementing changes in the working environment of academic researchers

• Encouraging SET female researchers to make a career in academia

• Remove some of the hurdles which makes this difficult for them

Slide 22

Implement and Measure

Recommendations

Analyse Published Research

Analyse UL and other

Universities

22

Develop Recommendations

from outcomes

• Human Resource involvement • Implementation in Faculty of

Science and Engineering• Results from other Universities

implemented in UL• Results from UL implemented in

other Universities

Slide 23

We as a University have to change!It is not women who are lacking essential characteristics for being good researchers, but it is the academic environment that is lacking essential characteristics for fostering the research potential of women

Management Faculty

and Women themselves

23

Slide 2424

Current SituationFuture

50/50

Thank you!

Slide 25

Acknowledgements

University of Limerick team members: Prof. Pat O’Connor, Principal Investigator, FESTA, Dr. Ita Richardson, Principal Investigator , Lero, Tommy Foy, Director of Human Resources, Marie Connolly, HR Shared Transition Services Manager, Alison O’Regan , Learning, Development and Equal Opportunities Officer, Caroline Neylon, HR Officer, Research, Clare O’Hagan, Research Fellow, FESTA

FESTA has received funding from the European Union, Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013, under grant agreement No. 287526

Colleagues in Lero – the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre and the second year B.Sc. In Digital Media and Design students

25

Slide 26

European Commission, Structural change in research institutions, Enhancing excellence, gender equality and efficiency in research and innovation, 2012.

Wilson, D., and I. Richardson, SFI Development Grant Report, 2008.

UK Resource Centre for Women / Royal Society of Chemistry, The Chemistry PhD: the impact on women’s retention, 2012.

Bertsch McGrayne, S., Nobel Prize Women in Science, 1998.

References

26