(Press-News.org) Scientists at the University of Sheffield have found that high quality science by female academics is underrepresented in comparison to that of their male counterparts.
The researchers analysed the genders of invited speakers at the most prestigious gatherings of evolutionary biologists in Europe - six biannual congresses of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) and found that male speakers outnumbered women.
Even in comparison to the numbers of women and men among world class scientists – from the world top ranked institutions for life sciences, and authors in the top-tier journals Nature and Science - women were still underrepresented among invited speakers.
The researchers also found that women were underrepresented at the 2011 congress because men accepted invitations more often than women.
Dr Hannah Dugdale from the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, explained: "It's important that we understand why this is happening and what we can do to address it – high quality science by women has low exposure at international level and this is constraining evolutionary biology from reaching its full potential. We're currently investigating the reasons behind this lower acceptance rate – it could relate to childcare requirements, lower perception of scientific ability, being uncomfortable with self-promotion – there are many potential contributing factors."
Dr Julia Schroeder, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Ornitholgoy in Germany said: "The most demanding phase of a career in Biology, when it is important to communicate one's findings, and to build networks with other scientists, coincides with the age at which women's fertility starts to decline, meaning it is their last chance to have a family - unlike men. Thus, women scientists of this career phase may be pregnant, or have children. Stay-at-home-dads are rare, therefore, these women are less flexible about travelling for work, and may be more likely to decline invitations to speak. We have yet to investigate whether this is indeed the cause, but it is a likely factor that starts the downward spiral: lower exposure and fewer networking opportunities are costly to the career. Fewer women in top positions mean fewer female role models for students who aspire to be scientists."
Kirsty Grainger, Head of Skills and Careers at the Natural Environment Research Council said: "Taking action to foster a culture that supports equality and diversity within research and that encourages better representation and support for women at all stages of their career is extremely important. We need to ensure that we attract and retain the brightest and best researchers, regardless of their background, into the UK research base. Understanding and addressing disincentives and indirect obstacles to recruitment, retention and progression in research careers is an essential part of this".
###
Additional information
The research has been published by the Journal of Evolutionary Biology and the full paper can be downloaded here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jeb.12198/abstract
Research reveals low exposure of excellent work by female scientists
2013-06-21
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
A bit of good luck: A new species of burying beetle from the Solomon Islands Archipelago
2013-06-21
Scientists discovered a new species of burying beetle, Nicrophorus efferens. Burying beetles are well known to most naturalists because of their large size, striking black and red colors, and interesting reproductive behaviors - they bury small vertebrate carcasses which their offspring eat in an underground crypt, guarded by both parents. The study was published in the open access journal Zookeys.
This new species, known from only 6 specimens collected in 1968, sat unrecognized as an undescribed species for over 40 years. "It was a bit of good luck that led to our realization ...
Man's best friend
2013-06-21
Domestic dogs have been closely associated with humans for about 15,000 years. The animals are so well adapted to living with human beings that in many cases the owner replaces conspecifics and assumes the role of the dog's main social partner. The relationship between pet owners and dogs turns out to be highly similar to the deep connection between young children and their parents.
The importance of the owner to the dog
One aspect of the bond between humans and dogs is the so-called "secure base effect". This effect is also found in parent-child bonding: human infants ...
Potentially life-saving cooling treatment rarely used for in-hospital cardiac arrests
2013-06-21
PHILADELPHIA-- The brain-preserving cooling treatment known as therapeutic hypothermia is rarely being used in patients who suffer cardiac arrest while in the hospital, despite its proven potential to improve survival and neurological function, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report in the June issue of Critical Care Medicine. The authors suggest that scarce data about in-hospital cardiac arrest patients and guidelines that only call for health care providers to consider use of therapeutic hypothermia, rather than explicitly ...
When green algae run out of air
2013-06-21
When green algae "can't breathe", they get rid of excess energy through the production of hydrogen. Biologists at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum have found out how the cells notice the absence of oxygen. For this, they need the messenger molecule nitric oxide and the protein haemoglobin, which is commonly known from red blood cells of humans. With colleagues at the UC Los Angeles, the Bochum team reported in the journal "PNAS".
Haemoglobin – an old protein in a new look
In the human body, haemoglobin transports oxygen from the lungs to the organs and brings carbon dioxide, ...
Beyond silicon: Transistors without semiconductors
2013-06-21
For decades, electronic devices have been getting smaller, and smaller, and smaller. It's now possible—even routine—to place millions of transistors on a single silicon chip.
But transistors based on semiconductors can only get so small. "At the rate the current technology is progressing, in 10 or 20 years, they won't be able to get any smaller," said physicist Yoke Khin Yap of Michigan Technological University. "Also, semiconductors have another disadvantage: they waste a lot of energy in the form of heat."
Scientists have experimented with different materials and ...
Ames Laboratory scientists solve riddle of strangely behaving magnetic material
2013-06-21
Materials scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory have found an accurate way to explain the magnetic properties of a compound that has mystified the scientific community for decades.
The compound of lanthanum, cobalt and oxygen (LaCoO3) has been a puzzle for over 50 years, due to its strange behavior. While most materials tend to lose magnetism at higher temperatures, pure LaCoO3 is a non-magnetic semiconductor at low temperatures, but as the temperature is raised, it becomes magnetic. With the addition of strontium on the La sites the magnetic ...
Alzheimer's disease protein controls movement in mice
2013-06-21
HEIDELBERG, 21 June 2013 – Researchers in Berlin and Munich, Germany and Oxford, United Kingdom, have revealed that a protein well known for its role in Alzheimer's disease controls spindle development in muscle and leads to impaired movement in mice when the protein is absent or treated with inhibitors. The results, which are published in The EMBO Journal, suggest that drugs under development to target the beta-secretase-1 protein, which may be potential treatments for Alzheimer's disease, might produce unwanted side effects related to defective movement.
Alzheimer's ...
Iron dosing regimens affect dialysis patients' infection risk
2013-06-21
Washington, DC (June 20, 2013) — While intravenous iron is critical for maintaining the health of many dialysis patients, administering large doses over a short period of time increases patients' risk of developing serious infections, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). Smaller doses given for a longer period of time appears to be much safer.
Dialysis patients often develop anemia, or low levels of red blood cells, and must receive intravenous treatments of iron to correct the condition. Unfortunately, ...
BigBrain: An ultra-high resolution 3-D roadmap of the human brain
2013-06-21
A landmark three-dimensional (3-D) digital reconstruction of a complete human brain, called the BigBrain, now for the first time shows the brain anatomy in microscopic detail—at a spatial resolution of 20 microns, smaller than the size of one fine strand of hair—exceeding that of existing reference brains presently in the public domain. The new tool is made freely available to the broader scientific community to advance the field of neuroscience.
Researchers from Germany and Canada, who collaborated on the ultra-high resolution brain model, present their work in the ...
Cities are a new kind of complex system: Part social reactor, part network
2013-06-21
Cities have long been likened to organisms, ant colonies, and river networks. But these and other analogies fail to capture the essence of how cities really function.
New research by Santa Fe Institute Professor Luis Bettencourt suggests a city is something new in nature – a sort of social reactor that is part star and part network, he says.
"It's an entirely new kind of complex system that we humans have created," he says. "We have intuitively invented the best way to create vast social networks embedded in space and time, and keep them growing and evolving without ...