The Status of Women Leadership in The Status of Women Leadership in Science, Technology and InnovationScience, Technology and Innovation

Gretchen KalonjiAssistant Director-General for Natural Sciences Sector

UNESCO

High Level International Roundtable on Women Leadership Roles in STI – Getting ThereKuala Lumpur

4 September 2012

Overview

• Perspectives on womens’ leadership roles in science and engineering

• The changing landscape of science: does it offer us new opportunities to strengthen the participation and leadership roles of women and other groups historically under-represented?

• What are UNESCO’s programs and roles – opportunities for collaboration

• Ideas for the future?

Gender Issues in Science, Technology and Engineering

Gender Issues in STE (Summary)• Women represent slightly more than one-quarter of researchers

(29%)• There is regional disparities for example 46% in Latin America and

the Caribbean compared to 15% in Asia• There are huge disparities by scientific discipline, and by sector of

society.• Only about 15% of countries have achieved gender parity, and only

a handful of others have more female researchers than male.• In Africa, it was estimated that about 33% of researchers were

women. In Guinea, the female share was as low as 5.8% (data for the year 2000), while the highest share was found in Lesotho at 55.7% (in 2004).

Changing landscape of science

• Changes in the morphology of international participation and leadership

• Dramatically increasing urgency of challenges facing the planet

• Changes in the nature of the practice of science and engineering

Changing landscape of science: Insights from the UNESCO Science Report 2010

The New Geography of Science Technology and Innovation:the emergence of new players

South – South Networks (a) Collaborations involving end-stage commercialization. (b) Collaborations involving R&D

From: Nature Biotechnology (2010)

Increasing urgency of challenges facing our planet

• Climate change, biodiversity loss, health of the oceans, changes to the hydrological cycle, materials limitations, etc.

• Cost-effective access to health care, food, energy, clean water, high quality education, etc,, esp given rapidly increasing populations

• World economic crisis

Changing nature of the practice of science• Increased blurring between disciplinary boundaries, between “science”

and “engineering”

• Far greater focus on policy dimensions of all our work

• The “Fourth Paradigm”: data-intensive science

• Emergence of possibilities for “citizen science”

All of these trends offer opportunities to expand the base of participation, attracting a new pool, including more women to the STE enterprise.

Key strategic question: How to make the coupling between new trends in science and broadening participation in our fields?

Gender Equality is one of UNESCO’s two global priorities

Gender equality is:• a fundamental human right, • a commonly shared value and • a necessary condition for the achievement of the internationally

agreed development objectives, including all Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

• essential to the progress of science and technology worldwide!

Integrated in to all of UNESCO activities in science and engineering

UNESCO’s Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP) 2008-2013

• is a road map to UNESCO’s ideals and commitment to the pursuit of gender equality into practice;

• describes the actions UNESCO is taking between 2008 and 2013 through its programme sectors in education, the sciences, culture and communication and information;

• ensure that UNESCO programmes and initiatives contribute fully and actively to the pursuit of women’s empowerment and gender equality efforts.

UNESCO’s Vision for Gender Equality in Science and Technology (GEST)

• To facilitate the integration of gender perspectives, vision, knowledge and skills in the design, implementation and evaluation of STI policy;

• To empower women as agents of change and not just beneficiaries of STI.

• To transform status of women through connection to S&T by:1. Improving women’s education in S&T2. Fair treatment of women and men, so all people

develop their innovation capacities & contribute to their society;

3. Developing societies which value women and men equally, their creativity, aspiration & freedom to make choices.

Why we need GEST?1. Poverty alleviation. The gender gap in social and economic

development is getting worse? (social & economic justice)2. An important area for women’s rights is the right to benefit

from and contribute to S&T development (women rights)3. Women have different needs, interest and perspectives on

S&T. (empowerment)4. Securing women’s knowledge is essential for survival and

sustainability (sustainability)5. Women’s voices must be heard in S&T decision-making.

(participation)6. Without S&T empowerment women risk losing out in

process of the globalization. (connectivity)

Key question: Does our enhanced presence transform our institutions for the better?? What can we learn from our experience to date?

Leadership capacity of women in STI has been inadequately tapped in most development plans

Our Concept of STI and DevelopmentCulture of Science

Based in the countries’ potential to solve global

issues;

Local knowledge and innovation capacities;

Based on the local realities and addressing

the common good;

InclusivePeople’s centered

ETHICS EMPOWERMENT

What is Gender mainstreaming for S&T?• Recognizing that S&T involve diverse processes that are

open to the influence of gender

• Being aware that S&T organizations have a key role to play in creating gender equitable societies

• Developing mechanisms to ensure that S&T is responsive to women as well all members’ of societies needs, perspectives and concerns

Mainstreaming a gender perspective in all S&T processes & activities:

• Policy making• Research and development priority setting• Curricular innovation• Budget allocation• Programme planning• Working practices in S&T organizations• Human resources management• Science communication• System to link scientists to the needs of the public• Community need analysis• Community based S&T project development• S&T project management & implementation• Evaluation & identification of benchmark indicators

Need an integrated action plan towards GEST

Target Group Action• Women and girls • Encouraging and supporting to become

scientists• Parents • Supporting the interests, capacity and

potential of their daughters as well as their sons

• Teachers and university leadership

• The educational system at different all levels, family-friendly policies ++++

• Policy makers, leaders of the scientific community education gender

• Gender sensitive policies, political will and vision

• Ministries of Education, Gender, STI, Economy

• Integrated approach in whole government policies

• Public at large • Increasing awareness of STI as well as the value of including women in girls and STI

• Productive Sector • Employment trends, HR policies; job creation

UNESCO—L’Oréal Partnership for Women in Science

• The UNESCO-L’Oréal Partnership for Women in Science, established in 1998,has gained world renown for its pioneering recognition of outstanding female scientists around the world, and support for promising young women scientists.

• 62 L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Award Laureates senior from 28 countries have been recognized for their contributions to the advancement of science. Two of the Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn and Dr. Ada Yonath were awarded the Nobel Prize, for Physiology and Chemistry respectively, in 2009.

• Close to 1400 younger women scientists have been awarded international, regional or national fellowships. A new mid-career award “In the footsteps of Marie Curie” has been created.

Summary: Gender Equality in Science & Technology means:

1. More women in S&T, more S&T for women ;2. Recognizing women’s traditional science and knowledge as S&T expertise;3. Strengthening the gender perspective in S&T so different impact on women & men are understood & assessed

in planning;4. Strengthening the gender perspective in S&T so women & men can benefit, participate & contribute equally.

5. Strengthening science and engineering worldwide, to the benefit of society

Strategic Directions

• Higher education is a “strategic sweet-spot”, but it must be dramatically transformed. (UNESCO Chairs and networks as example)

• Alliances with industry are vital

• New multi-governmental research funding mechanisms are essential.

• International collaboration on policy instruments must be promoted

• Political will needs to be harnessed, through such processes as Rio + 20

Ideas for the future

• More extensive and rigourous collaboration on understanding:• More effective models for sharing experience and policy

instruments• Strengthened relationships with professional societies and

industry• A new alliance for promoting leadership of women in science

and engineering?

Conclusions

• Considerable, but variable, progress on promoting leadership roles of women in STI

• Much more needs to be done, and successful policy and practice needs to be emulated

• Changes in the international landscape of science offer new opportunities to enhance participation of women

• New alliances should be forged to take concrete steps to move our societies forward