Women are generally less inclined towards scientific careers. This trend is highlighted by a Unesco report which raises the necessary question about the origin of this difference according to gender. If there is still an element of sexism, for the sociologist Marianne Blanchard (INSPE de Toulouse / Certop), the causes are old and require a turning point in the way of approaching these disciplines from the youngest age. Explanations.
Marianne Blanchard, sociologist at INSPE Toulouse / Certop, associate of economics and social sciences and lecturer in sociology at ESPE Midi-Pyrénées. Author of “Sociology of the school”. © DR
From the youngest years, in France, society categorizes knowledge according to gender. Is this one of the explanations for the under-representation of women in science?
The differentiation in the courses is observed from the second class, with the so-called exploration lessons. Those with a scientific coloring bring together many more boys. But it takes place long before, from elementary school. It seems “natural” for boys to take an interest in science. The girls, they are rather pushed towards what concerns language, communication, care… Things have changed a little in recent years with for example around 47% of girls in the S baccalaureate before its reform. But the gender phenomenon is strongly found in higher education, where all scientific and technological training (whether at university, BTS or grandes écoles) is predominantly male. In engineering schools, for example, girls represent only 29% of the workforce on average. The evolutions are very very slow.
The identity of a not very glamorous girl scientist as a teenager
Why are the sciences perceived as “more masculine”?
First, there is the strength of stereotypes. Science would require qualities of abstraction, rationality, invention … Qualities wrongly considered to be more ” male ”. There are alsot the image of the scientist who, in the popular imagination, is very masculine, with in particular that of the brilliant and a little crazy scientist, who does not seduce the girls. British sociologists have shown that in adolescence, gender identity is very important. We overplay the genre and the identity of a girl scientist does not appear very glamorous and can act as a foil. There is a paradox which means that despite the programs and speeches implemented to encourage girls to go into science, such as the actions carried out by associations such as Women and science, one has the impression that progress does not follow the evolution of mentalities. However, in some countries like Benin or Algeria for example, women stand out in scientific fields. This shows that it is not an innate or biological difference!
Women scientists are still under-represented & struggle to gain recognition for their achievements.
Today join the@UNESCO & @UNWomen and end the gender stereotypes that keep girls away from science careers! pic.twitter.com/3aN1Klmbra
– UNESCO en français (@UNESCO_fr) February 11, 2021
Is the teaching of subjects in question?
In the textbooks, little is said about women scientists. The problems more often involve boys … We must therefore think about the content but also the methods. The way science is taught may simply not speak to a lot of young girls, may not necessarily respond to their socialization. Girls are often brought up with the idea that they should take care of others. This has repercussions on professional ambition. In studies, women say they want a “useful” job while men look for a job where they earn a lot of money. The courses should insist on the “useful”, practical aspect of mathematics for example. In scientific circles, there is also a very competitive, very individual side that is put forward while there is also a whole team work to be valued. But it is not for the school to bridge all the educational differences. Within families, construction games for example, often offered to boys, promote a different relationship to space.
How were these stereotypes formed historically?
Science is what gives access to positions of knowledge and power in our societies. In the school system alone, we can see the place acquired by primary school mathematics in the selection systems of the grandes écoles. Beyond the necessary qualities, many historians have shown that women have been excluded from scientific positions. For example, before the rationalization of medicine, there were many women who were called “healers”. Women were then excluded so that this power backed by scientific knowledge would be reserved for men.
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In certain scientific fields, women are still largely under-represented. © Ouest-France
For women who pursue a career in these courses, is the course more complicated?
Today, you often have to go through a long period of precariousness before getting a stable job in research. Obtaining a first position requires a lot of mobility, sometimes obliging you to do post-doctorates abroad after your thesis. However, this often corresponds to the thirties, the age when we think about having children and where we can wonder about the pursuit of a career. There are important issues of reconciling professional and family life, which still depend essentially on women. Once the position has been obtained, if we look at the careers of women scientists, we also observe “glass ceiling” effects, which prevent them from accessing the most coveted positions or those of management.
Are there also phenomena of discrimination?
They certainly still exist but remain difficult to measure because the discrimination is not necessarily as explicit as in the 1970s when women could hear that they did not have “their place here”. However, it will be easier to cut them off or ask them to present more evidence of what she is saying… These are climates that favor censorship and the feeling of not being in her place.
We have even seen a step backwards in certain areas such as IT …
Researcher Isabelle Collet has shown that computer science, once very feminized, has been “invaded” by men. In the early days of IT, this job was considered a secretary’s job. So the women were very present. When the tool became a vector of knowledge and power in society, it became masculine.
Are promising sciences particularly gendered, as presented by the Unesco study on the under-representation of women among researchers?
What is fascinating is that it is not conscious. We don’t tell girls “Don’t go there”. There is a whole imagination that excludes by confining women to step aside. The idea conveyed is that men are in creation and women more oriented towards the transmission of knowledge. This explains why women are in the majority in all types of education, including science.
Since Marie Curie, however, we have known and recognized researchers.
For a country, having ambition also means making careers desirable for both men and women, who have a lot to contribute. Marie Curie’s model does not necessarily work in favor of this objective in the sense that, with her two Nobel Prizes, she is an unattainable, even discouraging model. And a little dated.
In biodiversity, 10% of authors since 1945
Gender and geography inequalities are particularly marked among biodiversity researchers, with an overwhelming domination of Western men, noted a study published in March 2021 in Conservation Letters. Scientists searched the publications in the thirteen largest journals in their field, between 1945 and 2019. Of the 1,051 authors who had published the most extensively there, 90% are men, 75% of whom are affiliated with institutions of the ‘a handful of predominantly English-speaking countries: the United States, United Kingdom and Australia in the lead. Next come Canada, Germany and France.
Gender inequalities discriminate against women because it is a vicious circle: the less you publish, the less you develop in your career … and the less you publish
, develops Laurent Godet, CNRS researcher in biogeography at the University of Nantes, co-author of the study. North-South inequalities can be explained by a huge budgetary imbalance in terms of investment in research
. The study suggests introducing more diversity in the recruitment of researchers and by introducing positive discrimination in publication systems.
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