---
title: "Women in science"
chunk: 18/25
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_science"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:51:28.816114+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

==== European Union ====
Women make up 33% of researchers overall in the European Union (EU), slightly more than their representation in science (32%). Women constitute 40% of researchers in higher education, 40% in government and 19% in the private sector, with the number of female researchers increasing faster than that of male researchers. The proportion of female researchers has been increasing over the last decade, at a faster rate than men (5.1% annually over 2002–2009 compared with 3.3% for men), which is also true for their participation among scientists and engineers (up 5.4% annually between 2002 and 2010, compared with 3.1% for men).
Despite these gains, women's academic careers in Europe remain characterized by strong vertical and horizontal segregation. In 2010, although female students (55%) and graduates (59%) outnumbered male students, men outnumbered women at the PhD and graduate levels (albeit by a small margin). Further along in the research career, women represented 44% of grade C academic staff, 37% of grade B academic staff and 20% of grade A academic staff.11 These trends are intensified in science, with women making up 31% of the student population at the tertiary level to 38% of PhD students and 35% of PhD graduates. At the faculty level, they make up 32% of academic grade C personnel, 23% of grade B and 11% of grade A. The proportion of women among full professors is lowest in engineering and technology, at 7.9%. With respect to representation in science decision-making, in 2010 15.5% of higher education institutions were headed by women and 10% of universities had a female rector.
Membership on science boards remained predominantly male as well, with women making up 36% of board members. The EU has engaged in a major effort to integrate female researchers and gender research into its research and innovation strategy since the mid-2000s. Increases in women's representation in all of the scientific fields overall indicates that this effort has met with some success; however, the continued lack of representation of women at the top level of faculties, management and science decision making indicate that more work needs to be done. The EU is addressing this through a gender equality strategy and crosscutting mandate in Horizon 2020, its research and innovation funding programme for 2014–2020.

==== Australia, New Zealand and USA ====
In 2013, women made up the majority of PhD graduates in fields related to health in Australia (63%), New Zealand (58%) and the United States of America (73%). The same can be said of agriculture, in New Zealand's case (73%). Women have also achieved parity in agriculture in Australia (50%) and the United States (44%). Just one in five women graduate in engineering in the latter two countries, a situation that has not changed over the past decade. In New Zealand, women jumped from constituting 39% to 70% of agricultural graduates (all levels) between 2000 and 2012 but ceded ground in science (43–39%), engineering (33–27%) and health (80–78%). As for Canada, it has not reported sex-disaggregated data for women graduates in science and engineering in recent years. Moreover, none of the four countries mentioned here have reported recent data on the share of female researchers.

==== South Asia ====
South Asia is the region where women make up the smallest proportion of researchers: 17%. This is 13 percentage points below sub-Saharan Africa. Of those countries in South Asia reporting data for 2009–2013, Nepal has the lowest representation of all (in head counts), at 8% (2010), a substantial drop from 15% in 2002. In 2013, only 14% of researchers (in full-time equivalents) were women in the region's most populous country, India, down slightly from 15% in 2009. The percentage of female researchers is highest in Sri Lanka (39%), followed by Pakistan: 24% in 2009, 31% in 2013. There are no recent data available for Afghanistan or Bangladesh.

Women are most present in the private non-profit sector – they make up 60% of employees in Sri Lanka – followed by the academic sector: 30% of Pakistani and 42% of Sri Lankan female researchers. Women tend to be less present in the government sector and least likely to be employed in the business sector, accounting for 23% of employees in Sri Lanka, 11% in India and just 5% in Nepal. Women have achieved parity in science in both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh but are less likely to undertake research in engineering. They represent 17% of the research pool in Bangladesh and 29% in Sri Lanka. Many Sri Lankan women have followed the global trend of opting for a career in agricultural sciences (54%) and they have also achieved parity in health and welfare. In Bangladesh, just over 30% choose agricultural sciences and health, which goes against the global trend. Although Bangladesh still has progress to make, the share of women in each scientific field has increased steadily over the past decade.