the leaky pipeline

Shruti Gandhi

WISE India

2013 KWSE/APNN Young Woman Scientist

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Around the world, 10-15 years ago…


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Numbers of women in the

science, technology and

innovation fields are

ALARMINGLY LOW in the

world’s leading

economies, and are

actually on the decline in

many, including the

United States!

Women REMAIN

SEVERELY UNDER-

REPRESENTED in

engineering, physics

and computer science

— LESS THAN 30% IN

MOST COUNTRIES –

while the numbers of

women working in these

fields are also declining.

Women have LOWER

LEVELS OF ACCESS to

the productive

resources necessary to

support active

engagement in the

knowledge society and

related professions –

property (land);

finance; technology;

and education.

Gender Equality in the Knowledge Society: National Assessments in STIWomen in Global Science and Technology (WISAT) and Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD)


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The leaky pipeline model

Sue Berryman’s in the

report ‘Who will do

science? Minority and

Female attainment of

science and mathematics

degrees: Trends and

Causes (1983)’ first

introduced the concept of

the pipeline model.

“The pipeline model conceptualizes the scientific career as the sections of

a narrowing pipeline, while the entry of girls into the pipeline at the pre-primary and

primary stages is equivalent to that of boys, their number decreases while travelling

down the pipeline (HORIZONTAL SEGREGATION) because of their higher rate of

leakage from the pipeline despite their comparable and, in many cases, better

attainment than their male counterparts.”

It prompts questions about the quantity of women travelling down thepipeline (horizontal segregation) and the slow speed of their progressalong it (vertical segregation)

Neatly captures the political concerns about women’s entry rates and the emerging focus on their progression.

It prompts an analysis of where the points of greatest ‘leakage’ were, supporting the arguments that the point at which women were exiting scientific careers coincided with their greater family responsibilities.

In doing so the model acts as a means to focus policy intervention on certain stages of education and on organisational practices.


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The Pipeline in India

53%47%

Primary Stage (I- V)

% of boys' enrollment

% of girls' enrollment

55%

45%

Upper Primary Stage (VI-VIII)



58%

42%

Secondary Stage (IX-X)



80%

20%

Sr. Secondary Stage specializing in Science ( XI-

XII)



Source: National Assessment of the Participation of Women and Girls in the National STI System Based on the Gender Equality-

Knowledge Society Framework, INDIA REPORT, Sudha Nair


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The Pipeline in India

92%

8%

University Education in Engineering and

Technology (2010-11)



84%

16%

Employment in R&D

% of men employed

% of women employed

(UNESCO Institute for

Statistics – Women in

Science Aug 2010).

85%

15%

Employees Performing Research

% of men researchers

% of women researchers

Source: National Assessment of the Participation of Women and Girls in the National STI System Based on the Gender Equality-

Knowledge Society Framework, INDIA REPORT, Sudha Nair


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Women scientists constitute less than 15% of the scientific pool in the

country—the Indian Academy of Sciences has 57 women and 928 male

fellows, and the ratio is no better in the other two academies—Indian

National Science Academy (Insa) and National Academy of Sciences

(NAS)-Ram Ramaswamy, co-editor, Lilawati’s Daughters

Professor at the School of Physical Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University

The Conclusion!

“If you ask a man/woman on the street to name women scientists, I don’t

think they would go beyond Marie Curie, Rosalind Franklin and the like;

great scientists as they are, it is not possible for a young mind to identify

with them.”-Rohini Godbole,

co-editor and high energy physicist at the Indian Institute of Science, or IISc,

The emphasis on educational

decisions as family decisions, guided by

collective family concerns rather than individual decisions based on individual desires and goals;


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“Whether it’s a woman scientist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research or a worker at a construction site, they both need childcare facilities to be able to pursue a

career.”

“Issues are far too serious and the mindsets far too rigid to bring about instantaneous change. Women don’t even talk publicly, or in formal settings,

about the harassment or hurdles they face in the workplace”

Science works by isolating variables, but scientific enterprise cannot be truly productive—intellectually and financially rewarding—if women

are isolated within it.


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WELCOMING RE-ENTRIES

SUPPORTIVE ORGANISATIONAL

STRUCTURE

•Flextime

•Telecommuti

ng

•Scaling Back

•Part time

work

•Reduced

Hours

FLEXIBITY

•Maternity

Leave

•Gradual

Reentry

•Child

Support

•Eldercare

support

with women

who have left

in order to

rehire them in

the future.

CARE GIVING

MAINTAINING TIES

CHANGING MINDSETS

INCREASINGWOMEN IN DECISION

MAKING


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Women’s presence in science is advantageous for the society at large.

In addition to women bringing in a gentler, and more humane

perspective to scientific research necessary for sustainable development,

loss of womanpower from science is a major loss of trained resource,

which can be difficult to compensate even in financial terms –a point

that the society and the polity should remember.


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In the end…


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the leaky pipeline

Technology

statistics women

participation of women

narrowing pipeline

national data

global science

computer science

overall women account

national assessments