Research shows that women face more obstacles in their academic lives

Gender inequality exists in various fields of science. Unpublished data compiled by GEMAA, the Interdisciplinary Affirmative Action Study Group, of Rio de Janeiro State University, show that women remain underrepresented in many disciplines.

Even among those with greater female participation, women scientists tend to face more obstacles moving up the academic career ladder than males.

Researchers have dubbed the reduction of female presence in a given area the scissor effect, even when there are women who are competent to perform the job, explained Luiz Augusto Campos, GEMAA coordinator and researcher with support from the Instituto Cerapilera.

Other examples also show that women with degrees do not make it to the top of the career ladder.

The field of agricultural sciences has already achieved gender equality in PhDs, with 51 percent of women doctors. But only 25% of professors in this discipline in the country’s universities are women. The numbers of animal husbandry and fishing resources are similar.

Luiz Augusto Campo also points out that there are very asymmetrical areas that don’t have a scissor effect, and even a low presence for women in general.

The researcher points out that the data helps to understand the groups that equity policies should work on and that some areas require investments in both hiring female teachers and training more female teachers.

Among the areas that have already achieved gender equality in both activities are architecture, urbanism, history and the arts.