Ambition without future

1
Ambition without future

• Obstacles and incentives in the scientific
  careers of men and women in Micro-Optics
• Elke Van den Brandt
• Network of Excellence on Micro-Optics
• Vrije Universiteit Brussel

2
Scope

• Women remain under represented in scientific
  research
• Micro-Optics as case study
• New technology
• International composition
• International dimension
• Influence of national/local culture
• Influence of work place

3
Methods

• Data HR-databases networks
• 2 surveys
• Online, 8 Themes
• First 245 respondents (67)
• Second 1357 respondents

4
Overview presentation

• Current position
• Career development
• Ambition
• Perceived discrimination
• Working day
• Job satisfaction and work values
• Family situation

5
1. Current Position

• Career development
• Ambition
• Perceived discrimination
• Working day
• Job satisfaction and work values
• Family situation
• To conclude

6
Horizontal segregation
General scientific areas
Optics
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Horizontal segregation (II)
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Horizontal segregation (III)

• Men work more for small organizations than women
• (Mean rank men 440,77 women 476,40 plt.05)
• Women are concentrated in departments with a
  higher female participation
• (Mean men 20,2 women 25,5 plt.001)
• More women work under a female boss/supervisor
• (Men 5 women 10 plt.001)
• More men do not have a boss/supervisor
• (Men 10 women 4 plt.001)

9
Vertical segregationThe Glass Ceiling
Engineering, technology and natural sciences

Optics
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Contractual segregation

• Differences in contract and policy positions
• Full time/Part time
• 93 of the women, 96 of the men (! p.073)
• Contract of Unlimited duration
• 57 of the women, 72 of the men (excluding the
  PhD-students) (plt.001)
• 46 of the women, 65 of the men (including the
  PhD-students) (plt.001)
• Wage (sticky floor)
• Data not applicable
• Policy positions
• 23 of the women, 46 of the men hold policy
  positions (formal positions) (plt.001)
• 41 of the women, 59 of the men have supervision
  power (over work of others) (plt.01)
• 21 of the women, 39 of the men have decision
  power (over salary/promotion of others) (plt.001)

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2. Career Development

• Current Position
• Ambition
• Perceived discrimination
• Working day
• Job satisfaction and work values
• Family situation
• To Conclude

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Career Development

• Promotion time
• Lower levels No significant differences
• Higher levels women move on slower
• Interruptions in the career
• 35 of women, 22 of men (plt.001)
• Women (mean 14 months) pregnancy leave
• Men (mean18 months) military service,
  unemployment
• Gap is larger in eastern and southern Europe than
  in northern and western Europe and in the
  US/Canada.
• Time spend abroad
• Long term
• Men and women have spend a comparable time abroad
• BUT women travel for shorter periods (more but
  shorter visits)
• BUT women traveled more during their studies/at
  a younger age
• Short term no differences

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3. Ambition

• Current position
• Career development
• Perceived discrimination
• Working day
• Job satisfaction and work values
• Family situation
• To conclude

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Ambition (I)

• Where would you like to be working in 5 years
• 79 of women prefers a higher position, 62 of
  men (plt.001)
• 49 of women only wants a higher position, 33 of
  men (plt.001)
• Pattern remains when excluding high positions or
  PhD-students
• Pattern is more explicit in higher education than
  in business enterprise/industry.
• Possible explanations
• Pre-selection
• Current position

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Ambition (II)

• Perceived chances for getting job of first
  choice
• When first choice implies promotion men rate
  their chances higher (plt.01)
• When no promotion is implied no significant
  differences
• Self-confidence or perceived discrimination?
• Men esteem their research and teaching skills
  higher (respect. p lt.01 and plt.001)
• Women are more skeptic about the fairness of
  selection and promotion procedures (cfr. infra)

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Ambition (III)

• Turnover
• Intent to turnover is higher for women (mean 8.4)
  than for men (mean 7.7) (plt.000)
• For both sexes, the score is lower in eastern and
  southern Europe than in northern and western
  Europe and in the US/Canada.
• No significant differences for different kinds of
  organizations/sectors

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4. Perceived Discrimination

• Current position
• Career development
• Ambition
• Working day
• Job satisfaction and work values
• Family situation
• To conclude

18
Perceived discrimination (I)
Did you encounter any discrimination in the
workplace during your career?

• 28 of women perceived discrimination, 13 of men
• Lack of appreciation and recognition
• Promotion opportunities
• Salary
• Note sex and age

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Perceived discrimination (II)
Do you think these criteria for selection and
promotion are fair?

• 56 of women beliefs in fairness of selection and
  promotion procedures, 75 of men
• Subjectivity
• Lack of transparence

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Perceived discrimination (III)

• Some remarkable differences
• Women perceive less discrimination in departments
  with a high participation of women
• Women perceive less discrimination when the
  supervisor/boss is female.
• Men perceive more discrimination when supervised
  by a women
• Women perceive slightly more discrimination in
  larger organizations
• Women perceive slightly more discrimination in
  the business enterprise/industry than in higher
  education
• No significant regional differences were found.
  Only for women in the US/Canada a very high
  percentage perceived discrimination (53)

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5. Working Day

• Current position
• Career development
• Ambition
• Perceived discrimination
• Job satisfaction and work values
• Family situation
• To conclude

22
Working Day (I)

• Working hours men work more hours/week than
  women (50h versus 46h) (plt.000)
• This extra time is not spend on research

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Working Day

• Working style
• Men work more in group
• More women would like to work more in group
• NOTE pattern remains when actual working style
  is taken into account
• Remarkable results
• Correlated with the general satisfaction people
  working in group are more satisfied.
• Also correlated with the satisfaction on
  appreciation from others, contact with colleagues
  and collaboration with colleagues.
• Correlated with the intention to turnover people
  working alone have a higher intent to turnover

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6. Satisfaction

• Current position
• Career development
• Ambition
• Perceived discrimination
• Working day
• Family situation
• To conclude

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Satisfaction

• Satisfaction (list of 20 items)

Ranking top 5 Men Women
Flexible working times 1 1
Intellectual challenges 2 3
Autonomy 3 2
Work content 4 5
Collaboration with colleagues 5 4
Ranking bottom 5 Men Women
Salary 1 1
Management of the organization 2 3
Promotion opportunities 3 2
Work load 4 4
Job security 10 ! 5
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Satisfaction (II)

• Men are more satisfied on 16 of the 20 items
• Significant differences for
• Salary
• Access to adequate facilities, equipment,
• Promotion opportunities
• Job security
• Being useful to society
• Self realization
• Satisfaction on these items is correlated to
• the general satisfaction,
• the willingness to choose for the same career,
• the ambition of a job outside the current
  organization.
• the intent to turnover
• These correlations are stronger for women!

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Satisfaction (III)

• Discouraging factors reason to change job

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7. Family Situation

• Current position
• Career development
• Ambition
• Perceived discrimination
• Working day
• Job satisfaction and work values
• To conclude

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Family situation (I)
Family situation Men Women
Single 14 17
Couple without children 32 31
Couple with children 44 32
Other 10 20
Task division within household only including respondents living with partner Men Women
You do most of household 3 68
Partner does most of household 73 6
Household is done equally by you and partner 17 15
Others do most of household 7 11
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Family situation (II)
Problems combining work and household activities Men Women
1 Never or less than 1/year 30 26
2 Several times/year 35 31
3 Several times/month 22 24
4 Several times/week 9 11
5 Every day 4 8

• This pattern appears in all countries/regions.
• No differences?
• People with high household responsibilities work
  fewer hours per week.

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8. To Conclude

1. Current position
2. Career development
3. Ambition
4. Perceived discrimination
5. Working day
6. Job satisfaction and work values
7. Family situation

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Preliminary Conclusions

• Women are underrepresented (horizontal, vertical
  and contractual segregation)
• Women do want to move on (ambition), but feel
  less satisfied and perceive more discrimination.
• Especially the lack of job security and promotion
  opportunities are obstacles for women.
• Combining work/family is not perceived as an
  important obstacle, but influences the number of
  working hours.
• Only few differences could be found between
  regions and between different kinds of
  organizations

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Contact

• Elke Van den Brandt
• evdbrand_at_vub.ac.be
• 0032 485 61 63 15