Network on Ethnicity and Women Scientist

1
Network on Ethnicity and Women Scientist
Funded by EU FP6 Framework

• European Workshop on Gender and Diversity
• Brussels, 11th 12th October 2007

2
European synthesis report

• Black, migrants and ethnic minority women
  scientists in research and academic careers in
  seven European countries
• Brussels, 11th October 2007
• Nouria Ouali
• Coordinator of the NEWS project

3
Migrant women scientists

• First female university professors were migrant
  women
• Sofia V. Kovalevskaja was the first professor of
  mathematics at the University of Stockholm in
  1884
• Marya Salomea Sklodowska (Marie Curie) was the
  first professor of physics at the Sorbonne in
  Paris in 1906

4
Marie Curie

• Marie Curie was in France
• the first women to obtain a doctorate,
• the first female university professor,
• the first female Nobel Prize winner,
• the first woman to win it twice,
• the first woman to sit on the Academy of Science,
• the first women accepted at the Academy of
  Medicine in 1922,
• the first woman to enter the Pantheon in 1995

5
1. NEWS Project

• Launched in January 2006 the NEWS project aims
• -to produce a state of the art on the position of
  Black, migrant and ethnic minority (BME) women
  scientists in research and academic careers in
  seven EU countries
• - to set up a European network for this group

6
2. The NEWS partners

• Interdisciplinary research group Gender and
  Migration, Free University of Brussels (Belgium)
• Institute for Psychology RWH, Aachen University
  (Germany)
• Centre of European Refugees, Migration and
  Ethnic Studies, New Bulgarian University
  (Bulgaria)
• Department of Work and Industrial Relations,
  University of Bari (Italy)
• Centre of Expertise on Gender, Ethnicity and
  Multiculturality, Utrecht University (The
  Netherlands)
• Institute of Social Sciences, University of
  Minho (Portugal)
• Policy Studies Institute, University of
  Westminster (UK)

7
3. Main research questions

• To what extent do minority women scientists
  participate in the existing national research
  workforce and what potential do they represent
  for the future development of this workforce?
• Is gender and ethnic diversity considered a
  crucial element in increasing the national
  research workforce and improving the quality of
  European science?
• Are there specific policies or programmes
  designed and implemented to promote the
  participation in science of women scientists and
  those from ethnic minorities?

8
4. Methodology

• Collection of a range of data following a
  guideline
• Concepts and terminology
• National background
• Database and statistics
• Studies on minority women scientist careers
• Formal and informal recruitment procedures
• Good or bad practice in recruitment, promotion
  and recognition
• Existing women scientists networks
• Recommendation

9
5. Women targeted

• All sciences
• Public sector
• Black, migrants and ethnic minority women
  (including national minorities)

10
6. Concepts and terminology

• Migratory and colonial history, integration and
  naturalisation policy etc. produced
• heterogeneous population (nationality,
  generation, citizenship, legal status etc.)
• different criteria to categorize them
• Legal (nationality, status, residence permit)
• Race-ethnicity (Roma, Sinti, Berber, Kurd,
  Sorb,)
• Skin colour (Black, White)
• Economic status (Developed-non developed
  countries)
• Geographic origin (Asian, African, Western,
  non-Western)

11
6.1. Concepts and terminology

• Foreigners
• Refugees
• Allochtonen
• Ausländer
• Gastarbeiter
• Migrants
• Second, third generations
• Ethnic minorities
• Blacks
• Asians
• Turks
• Moroccans etc.

12
6.2. Concepts and terminology

• Make difficult comparisons
• Reflect the social construction of these
  categories and concepts
• The aim to establish hierarchy between human
  beings

13
7. New migration flows

• More feminized
• More qualified
• More students mobility
• OECD countries 75 are international students
• Increasing by more than 40 since 2000
• Over 50 in Southern Europe and the Netherlands

14
8.1. Level of education

• Tertiary education increased in all countries
• Men and women who have been settled for less
  than 10 years count proportionally more tertiary
  educated than native born and long-term migrants
  (gt10 years apart from the UK)
• Ethnic minorities (second and third generation,
  Roma) remain under-qualified compare to new
  migrants and natives-born

15
8.2. Level of education
16
9.1. Labour market position
17
9.2. Over qualification

• In all OECD countries, immigrants are more
  over-qualified than natives
• Female recent migrants are most likely to be over
  qualified than
• foreign-born men in Belgium, Germany and Italy
• Natives women in the six countries

18
10. Women tertiary students

• 55 of tertiary students in 2003 in the EU-25
  were women (Eurostat 2006)
• More women than men studied humanities and arts
  in the six countries
• In Italy and Portugal almost 50 of sciences,
  math and computing were women

19
11. Women PhD graduates

• In 2003 43 of PhDs in the EU-25 were women (5
  compare to 1999)
• The countries where the share of women PhD is the
  highest are
• Portugal 56 58 in Math and computing
• Bulgaria 52 54 in Math and computing
• Italy 51 53 in Math and computing

20
12. Female Researchers

• The lowest proportion of female researchers in
  EU-25 is in engineering and technology in HES
  (21) and GOV (22) sectors
• Portugal respectively 29 and 37
• The highest proportion of women researchers in
  EU-25 is in GOV sector
• Humanities 50 (66 in Bulgaria)
• Medical Sciences 50 (59 in Portugal)

21
13. Academic Staff

• Female staff according to the grade
• Greater presence of women at the lowest grade in
  the EU-25 (Grade D no requiring PhD) 43
  (Portugal 50)
• Lower proportion at the grade A 15 (Bulgaria
  18 and Portugal 21)
• Women are under-represented
• in Engineering and Technology particularly in NL
  and Germany
• In natural sciences (except in Portugal and
  Italy)

22
14. Minority women scientists

• No visibility of female migrants in skilled
  migration
• Female dominant figure unskilled domestic worker
• No studies and rare publication on this group
• No statistics or weakness data

23
15. Statistics

• Most of countries have no statistics on ethnicity
  apart from the UK, the NL and Bulgaria (ethnic
  group and mother tongue)
• No possible European comparison
• OECD statistics on natives and foreign born

24
15. Ethnic categories
25
16. Minority students

• More BME students achieved tertiary education
  than before
• In the UK, BME are less represented at PhD level
  than in Master level except for Chinese and Black
  Africans and more oriented SET and Medicine
  (Masters)
• In Bulgaria, Turkish minority pursued more often
  a university degree than Roma
• In Italy, foreign women graduated perform better
  than Italian women in scientific faculties and
  lesser in Humanities

26
17. Minority women researchers

• There are ample studies to show that, although
  access to university has widened to include
  previously excluded groups, the university
  environment is less supportive for women and
  ethnic minorities than for white men (Rowe, 1977
  Blakemore et al. 1997). (White) women are more
  likely to occupy temporary or part time positions
  and they are clustered in the lowest faculty
  ranks. The representation of ethnic minorities
  among faculty is close to zero, but statistics
  revealing exact numbers are scanty. This holds
  true not only for the Netherlands but for Europe
  in general. (Philomena Essed, 1999)

27
Studies in the Netherlands

• 1986 Abell Menara
• Position of ethnic minorities (male and females)
  employed by the university of Amsterdam
• 1999 Bosc, Hoving Wekker
• Situation of female academics and minority groups
  within Dutch universities
• 2002 Kleurrijk Talent
• Situation of ethnic minorities staff in 5
  universities
• 2002 National scientific research
• Investigation on the possible reason for the
  under-representation of BME academics in Dutch
  universities

28
18. Disadvantaged positions

• These studies led to the same conclusions
• low influx of BME students and female PhDs
• BME under-represented in the university staff
• 1.6 in Amsterdam (14 population)
• BME under-represented in the academic staff (Full
  professor, Associate and Assistant professor)
• BME women in academia represent less then 1 of
  the Dutch female staff

29
18. Disadvantaged positions

• Professorship appointment of BME are recent
  creation of special and exterior chairs
• Permanent position are more often hold by
  natives Dutch
• Over-represented in technical and administrative
  positions

30
19. Academic grade structure by ethnicity in UK
31
20. Contract term in Germany
32
21. Contract term in Belgium
33
22. Gender impact in Italy

• In Italy, the disadvantageous positions of
  Italians women and foreign women are quite
  similar.
• 44 of female foreign academics in Italian
  universities came from EU countries
• 21 from America
• 9 from Africa

34
23. Gender impact Italy
35
24. Chances of promotion

• Chances for women and BME scientists of being
  promoted full professor are lower than for men
• In Belgium a men has
• 4 times more chance in Medicine
• 2 times more chance in Science
• 1.6 times more chance in Social Sciences

36
25. Early stages of careers

• In the UK a study showed that it is in the early
  stages of careers that foundation of success and
  social mobility are constructed
• Self-confidence
• Informal networks
• Judgement of capabilities by senior
• related patronage
• racial and gender stereotypes

37
26. Institutional practices

• Formal legal rules
• prerequisite conditions (nationality, Doctorate,
  age, language, work permit)
• public competition (Italy, Bulgaria, Portugal)
• application in selection committee (Belgium,
  Netherlands, Germany, UK)
• peer review (publications, conferences, teaching
  charges and qualities, team management ability,
  academic responsibilities, academic seniority,
  stays abroad, networks, presence in the medias
  etc.)

38
27. Institutional practices

• Informal
• Gender
• Age
• Race, ethnicity
• Stereotypes
• Social network
• Philosophical/political or religious beliefs
• The absence of monitoring and evaluation in the
  countries (except UK) of recruitment, promotion,
  appointment procedures allowed to informal
  decisions

39
28. Race Equality in Education

• The race equality duty requires educational
  institutions to
• Prepare a written statement of their policy for
  promoting race equality
• Maintain a copy of the statement
• Assess the impact of their policies, including
  their race equality policy, on students and staff
  of different racial groups including, in
  particular, the impact on attainment levels of
  such pupils
• Monitor, by reference to those racial groups, the
  admission and progress of students and the
  recruitment and career progress of staff
• Have in place arrangements for fulfilling, as
  soon as is reasonably practicable, their duties.
• Include in their written statement an indication
  of their arrangements for publishing that
  statement and the results of their assessment and
  monitoring
• Take such steps as are reasonably practicable to
  publish annually the results of their monitoring
  under this article

40
29. Policies for students

• The Netherlands
• MOSAIEK graduates into research
• ECHO award talented students
• Bulgaria
• Framework programme for Equal Integration of Roma

41
30. Policies for recruitment and promotion

• The UK
• Actions to increase and improve participation
  women in science, engineering and technology
  (SET) Athena project
• 2006 conference on Gender and Ethnic minority
  issues in science and Technology in New Castle
• The Netherlands
• ASPASIA improving the situation of female
  academics

42
31. Recommendations

• Need to change culture and attitude
• Tackling gender and race stereotypes
• Statistics
• Research
• Educational policies
• how supporting and increasing PhD female students

43
31. Recommendations

• Employment policies
• transparency in procedures, Equality and
  Diversity management
• Networking
• Universities role in producing
• knowledge on relevant issues on gender and
  ethnicity
• Multiculturality
• Tackling racism as a problem for institutions not
  just for ethnic minorities staff and students

44
7. Recommendations

• Dissemination strategy
• Institutional strategy
• Needs of women scientists

45
7.1. Dissemination strategy

• For increasing public awareness and institutional
  support the NEWS results must be widely
  disseminated
• -What products in what presentation?
• -What audience and institutions must be
  targeted?
• -How to contact public and institution?
• -Who must be contacted?

46
7.2. Institutional strategy

• -How to ensure that HES and research
  institutions take into account gender and ethnic
  diversity in student grants, recruitment,
  promotion and recognition procedures?
• -How minority women can participate in Equal
  opportunity commission to ensure that gender and
  ethnic diversity is taken into account?
• -How to provide support to help women scientists
  to get a better position at HE and RD
  organizations?
• -What could networks and professional
  organisations make to give support to minority
  women scientists?

47
7.3. Needs of minority women scientists

• -What need minority women scientists to improve
  their position in HES and research?
• -How empower these women scientists through
  networking?
• -What they could expect from the networks?
• -What they should give to be more integrated in
  scientific community?

48
European University Association
Diversity in terms of e.g. talents, interests,
previous qualifications, experience and social
backgrounds was identified as a crucial factor
for fostering creativity on a number of levels
composition of research teams, among students and
staff, teaching and learning methods, joint
projects with external partners etc. Both
research and teaching teams may profit from a
diversity of disciplinary foci among its
members. EUA (2007) Creativity in Higher
Education, Report on the EUA creativity project
2006-2007.
49
NEWS project
Thank you for your attention http//newscientis
t.ulb.ac.be/index_en.htm