Trained Scientific Women Power: How Much are we Losing and Why?

Career Breaks*:
A comparison was made between women and men
scientists to identify whether breaks were a factor
responsible for the large number of women leaving
scientific careers. A significantly higher number of
women compared to men have reported breaks. With
respect to reasons for breaks, more than one reason
was given for the breaks by each respondent. There
has been a clear variations in the reasons reported
for breaks in career by WIR and MIR (Refer Appendix
III, table 45 for details). A majority of responses by
WIR have indicated care for children and/or
elders as reasons for taking breaks. On the other
hand, for MIR reasons such as health reasons, for
further studies or temporary nature of jobs have been
reported.
For WIR, child and elder care and other family
factors such as marriage or father’s / spouse’s
transfer have accounted for 56.6 per cent of the
responses as reasons for the break.
In contrast, a majority of the responses received
from MIR (6, 85.7 per cent) have indicated other
reasons such as completing PhD, further study,
health reasons, voluntary retirement, etc.
The difference between WIR and MIR
with respect to reasons for taking breaks,
is significant at the 0.01 level. Thus, while
for men the choice of breaks has been
largely voluntary and personal s, for
women the breaks have been taken to
fulfill family needs and responsibilities.
Two hundred and ten men (92.9 per cent) have
reported publishing joint / multi-author research
papers in refereed journals. 38.1 per cent of
men report publishing individual papers in
refereed journals. More than half (56.6 per cent)
of MIR report publishing joint/ multi-author
conference articles / proceedings or abstracts
(128, 56.6 per cent). A close look at the table
reveals that men have more multi-author publications
when compared to individual publications than
women. It can also be see that MIR also have
substantial number of multi-author publications in
conference abstracts/proceedings that will possibly
give them greater visibility. The ability to travel to
attend these conferences, given the fact that family
responsibilities are taken care of by the women, and
having greater skills at networking may have helped
them in undertaking multi-author work. This has
worked as a advantage for men in comparison to
women. The modus operandi of getting involved in
joint work stems from meeting people, and
conferences are a useful vehicle in this endeavour.
While the difference in the rate of individual and
joint publications is noted above, it is important to
analyze this data in relation to the disciplines in which
the papers have been published, since there is a
difference in the pattern of individual and joint
publications across various disciplines. An analysis
of the educational backgrounds of the surveyed
respondents did not show large variations between
women and men, except with respect to engineering
and technology. Therefore, perhaps the differences
noted in publications may still be valid.
RESEARCH AND NETWORKING
Papers and Patents 11
A majority of women scientists (549, 96.7 per cent)
and all men scientists (226) have reported having
publications or patents.
Four hundred and eighty-one WIR, i.e., 84.7
per cent have reported publishing joint/multiauthor
research papers in refereed journals.
44.5 per cent of WIR reported publishing
individual research papers in refereed
journals. A comparison of the WIR in terms of
individual publications and joint / multi-author
publications show that a higher number of women
compared to men reported individual publications.
(Refer Appendix III, table 46 for details)
47