On average in the EU-27, women represent

  • 40 % of all researchers in the Higher  Education Sector
  • 40 % in the Government Sector but merely
  • 19 % in the Business Enterprise Sector

Simpsons - Math Textbook

Finally here it is, the latest  publication on the situation of women in science and research in Europe. The She Figures data collection is undertaken every three years since 2003. Since I came to the UK I was really surprised to see that there is a big gender gap in science and research. I never knew the real  numbers, but in Portugal I always worked with women in science, I always had women supervising alongside men and most of my professors were women. So it was a bit strange to come across this male academic environment that reigns in the UK.

Now, I have the numbers to prove it, so between 2002 and 2009 Portugal was on the top 5 list of countries with the biggest  proportion of  female researchers in all sectors: there were 46% of us against the 38% in the UK. When we look closer, we quickly realize that the proportion of female researchers in the government sector in Portugal is 60% against the 35% in the UK, which is even lower than the EU-27 average of 40%.  The compound annual growth rate for researchers in Portugal, by sex was 15.5% for women and 13.9% for  men. But in the UK it was only 3% for women and 0.5% for men.

But most striking is that for the same period the Compound annual growth rate for researchers in the Business Enterprise Sector (BES), by sex was 19.8% for females in Portugal  against  -2.5%. in the UK. This really made me feel proud, but maybe not for too long, unfortunately, this year there was a great disinvestment in science in Portugal… apparently the crises is to be blamed. I wonder how these numbers are going to change in the next 3 years, and how this is going to affect Europe as a whole. To be a researcher these days is to be a migrant worker, moving from country to country. If we look deeper and try to understand how science is funded we start to realize that researchers are more and more a mix between a writer, a beggar, a business manager and from time to time some of us actually do science. 

She figures is available to download here