Gender Equality in Science: Inclusion and Participation of Women in Global Science Organizations

The report is the product of an important collaboration among GenderInSITE (Gender in Science, Innovation, Technology and Engineering), the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) and the International Science Council (ISC).

It reports on the results of surveys conducted amongst science academies that are members of the IAP and ISC, as well as amongst international disciplinary unions and associations that are members of the ISC.

Together, the IAP and ISC represent over 250 unique organizations that are spread across the globe and that cover science in its broadest sense, being inclusive of engineering, medical and social sciences. This is a powerful nascent coalition for gender equity in science that has the potential to expand to include other similar global science networks.

The survey results allow for comparisons with a previous study undertaken in 2015 and provide important baseline information for much-needed gender transformation in global science.

• Read the press release
• See the full list of institutions from the survey

Key findings

• Representation: The average share of women’s representation in senior academies is 16% — while the average share in young academies is 42%
• Senior leadership: The average share of women serving on governing bodies is 29% for academies and 36% for disciplinary unions and associations. Generally, social science organizations are ranked higher for the share of women in leadership positions.
• Support: 22% of academies and 42% of unions and associations have a document that addresses sexual harassment in the workplace. Some academies also provide additional relevant structures dealing with issues of sexual harassment.
• Disciplines: The share of women academy members ranges from as high as 28% (biological sciences) and 27% (social sciences, humanities and arts) to as low as 10% (engineering sciences) and 8% (mathematical sciences).
• Participation: 36% of the academies have documents that explicitly mention the need for increased participation by women in their activities. 45% of international disciplinary organizations have a gender strategy document. 46% of academies have programs or initiatives focusing on women in science.
• UN Sustainable Development Goals: Academies’ alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 (gender equality) is relatively low – only 46% agreed or strongly agreed. An additional 20% state that SDG5 does not apply to their institution.