The presence of Brazilian women in science has increased by about 30% in two decades

The presence of Brazilian women in science has increased by about 30% in two decades. The country ranks third among the countries with the largest female participation in the region, behind only Argentina and Portugal.

After working in science for nearly three decades, pharmacist Julianne Fleck faced sexism to make advances in virus research and environmental quality.

“A man once said, 'When you're a researcher, people accept it. When we're women, we can show all our degrees, all our qualifications, but we still have to show more, so we have to show that you really know what you're doing,'” he says.

In the list of scientific articles published in the country, female participation is less than half, but it is increasing. In 2002, 38% of Brazilian productions had at least one woman among the authors. After 20 years, it rose to 49%. The numbers were collected by Elsevier-Bori, an information analysis company.

The study shows that they dominate publications in fields such as pharmacology and psychology. In nursing, it reaches 80%. In computing, engineering and mathematics, female participation has also increased, but is still less than 30%.

Despite their increasing presence in science, the survey shows that the more experience women have, the less their contribution compared to men. While 51% of publications are authored by young researchers, the participation of scientists with more than 21 years of professional career drops to 36%.