Analysis of equal gender opportunity in science and technology: The professional careers of women scientists and technologists

Abstract

Object: To analyze gender equality in the field of Science and Technology with the aim of determining the work trajectory of women scientists as well as the main difficulties that they have faced in their professional careers regarding promotion, pay and work-family balance. Moreover, the situation of women scientists in other countries is also analyzed. The results confirm the existence of gender inequality in the trajectory of women with professional careers devoted to Science and Technology. The final goal of this study is to determine the contribution of women who have pursued their professional careers in the field of Science at the highest level of training, as well as the proposals and actions aimed at young women scientists to enable them to achieve gender equality in their organizations.

Design/methodology/focus: After the theoretical approach, a quantitative and qualitative methodology has been designed with a representative sample of women scientists and technologists from the Association of Women Researchers and Technologists (AMIT).

Contributions and results: The few number of women engaged in the scientific field is made evident. It is also evident that the percentage of women scientists in Spain allows us to be optimistic about the development of scientific or technical careers when compared with the percentages in other countries. The results prove the existence of gender discrimination as well as the initiatives analyzed by women scientists that can be pursued, thereby adding new channels to be taken into account in this field.

Originality/added value: The article constitutes a further step towards knowledge about gender equality and provides new channels for consideration in this field to help young women in Science to develop working environments that allow full gender equality to be achieved.