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List of figures and tables
Figures
Figure 2.1: Percentage of bachelor’s degrees awarded to women ....................................... 8
Figure 2.2: Percentage of students in higher education that are female by field .............. 9
of study 1994-95 in the EU Member States
Figure 2.3: Women professors over time: Percentage of professors who are ............... 12
women in different Member States (1980-98)
Figure 2.4: Women and men in science in six Member States (1997) ............................. 13
Figure 2.5: Women and men in science in Germany:  The scissors diagram .................. 13
Figure 2.6: Percentages of women in science, engineering and technology in ............... 14
UK universities by field and level (1996-97)
Figure 2.7: Fellows of the Royal Society of London, % women (1945-99) ..................... 17
Figure 3.1: Persons invited to the post of professor in Finland (1991-95) ..................... 24
Figure 4.1: Mean competence scores given to male and female applicants .................... 34
by the Swedish MRC
Figure 4.2: Individual grants awarded to women by the DFG in Germany: ................... 39
By year and discipline
Figure 4.3: Wellcome Trust: Numbers of rejected and awarded project grant .............. 40
applications by age and sex (1996)
Figure 5.1: Changes in RTD Priorities between the different Framework ..................... 48
Programmes
Figure 5.2: Percentage of women in A grades in the Directorate Generals of the ...... 49
European Commission
Figure 5.3: Percentage of women in Grades A1- A8 in the European Commission: ... 50
The Research Directorate-General compared with all Directorates (1999)
Tables
Table 2.1: Women professors:  Percentage of faculty that are women ............................ 10
(Different ranks, all disciplines)
Table 4.1:  Analysis of applications to the Dutch research bodies by gender, ................ 35
1993 and 1994
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Table 4.2: European Molecular Biology Association (EMBO) Fellowships by ................ 36
gender (1997-98)
Table 4.3: TMR Marie Curie Fellowships Programme .......................................................... 37
(Fourth Framework), applicants by panel and gender
Table 4.4: IHP Programme Marie Curie individual fellowship (Fifth ................................. 37
Framework) applicants by panel and gender
Table 5.1: Composition of ESTA in 1994 ................................................................................. 51
Table 5.2: Women Members of the European Science Foundation (1997-98) .............. 54
Table 5.3: Women’s involvement in the European Science Foundation ........................... 54
Activities (1997-98)
Table 8.1: Number of men who would have to vacate their positions to achieve ....... 76
an equal sex distribution of professors in France (1998)
Appendices tables
Table III.1: Percentage of women in the professoriat and among academic ................. 135
staff in universities in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden
Table III.2: Percentage of women among academic staff in universities and ................. 136
research institutes, by discipline and level
Table IV.1: Women managers in German companies .......................................................... 139
Table V.1: Women in the world’s academies of science ...................................................... 141
Table VII.1: Research grants, by research council and sex, applications and ................. 147
success rates
List of figures and tables
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Executive summary
1
The General Directorate of Research commissioned this report on gender
aspects of research policy in the EU. It was prompted by concerns expressed
in the Commission, the European Parliament, the Council and the Member
States.  It has been prepared by a European Technology Assessment Network
(ETAN), chaired by Mary Osborn. Its authors are senior scientists from
different disciplines from ten Member States, from universities, research
institutes, business and politics. The report reviews the position of women in
science and technology. It concludes that the under-representation of
women threatens the goals of science in achieving excellence, as well as
being wasteful and unjust. The report makes recommendations to a wide
range of bodies, including the Commission, the European Parliament, the
Member States and organisations that educate, fund and employ scientists.
2
Following the UN Beijing Conference on women in 1995, the importance
of ‘mainstreaming’, or integrating gender equality, has been highlighted in
the EU. The report discusses how a mainstreaming policy could be
implemented in science.
3
A statistical review of the position of women in higher education, research
institutes, in industry and among members of senior scientific committees is
presented at both the EU and the Member State level. Women form 7% or
less of full professors in 6 Member States. Despite country variations in
systems and structures, the proportion of women in senior scientific
positions is consistently extremely small. In many Member States less than
5% of the members of learned academies are female.
4
Women constitute half the undergraduate population. However, there is a
continuous drop in the numbers of women at each level of the academic
ladder and many highly trained women are lost to science. Institutions that
employ scientists tend to be behind the times in addressing the life/work
balance and need to modernise.
5
Old-fashioned practices characterise employment and promotion procedures
in some of our academic institutions. Reliance on patronage, the ‘old boys
network’ and personal invitations to fill posts cuts across fair and effective
employment procedures. More sophisticated means of assessing merit are
recommended.
6
The peer review system is revered for its objectivity and fairness but does not
always work as it should. Both sexism and nepotism have been documented
as interfering with the peer review process.
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