Blueprint for the Future: Framing the Issues of Women in Science in a Global Context. Summary of a Workshop.

摘要

The scientific work of women is often viewed through a national or regional lens, but given the growing worldwide connectivity of most, if not all, scientific disciplines, there needs to be recognition of how different social, political, and economic mechanisms impact women's participation in the global scientific enterprise. Although these complex sociocultural factors often operate in different ways in various countries and regions, studies within and across nations consistently show inverse correlations between levels in the scientific and technical career hierarchy and the number of women in science: the higher the positions, the fewer the number of women. Understanding these complex patterns requires interdisciplinary and international approaches. In April 2011, an ad hoc committee overseen by the National Academies standing Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine (CWSEM) convened a workshop entitled, Blueprint for the Future: Framing the Issues of Women in Science in a Global Context in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the workshop was to identify strategies, core data, and important guidelines for implementing policies and procedures that will increase women's participation and advancement in the global science enterprise. The presentations and discussions at the workshop highlighted some of the research results and findings on women in selected science fields and helped to identify critical gaps in data and the research. The scope of the workshop was limited to women's participation in three scientific disciplines: chemistry, computer science, mathematics and statistics. Although three fields cannot represent the distinct and diverse nature of all science, the choice of three permitted the workshop participants to focus in greater depth on common areas. These fields were chosen because they have significantly different levels of female participation.