National Assessments on

Gender in Science, Technology

and Innovation

Gender Equality in the Knowledge Society

Sophia Huyer, Executive Director, WISAT

Senior Advisor, OWSD

 • Five countries in the developing world: Brazil, India, Indonesia, Korea, South Africa, USA and one region – EU

• National researchers collected qualitative and quantitative data to fill in the Gender Equality-Knowledge Society framework

First Phase (November 2011 – May 2012)

Overall Findings:

The knowledge society is failing to include women to an equal extent. In some cases, their inclusion is negligible.

Gendered barriers to STI and technology create a large gender gap in the knowledge society that will not improve automatically with economic growth.

Country/region rankings

GE&KS Framework

Health

Social status

Economic status

Access to resources

Agency

Opportunity & capability

KS Decision Making

Knowledge economy

STI participation

STI participation

STI participation

STI participation

Key Findings

Female participation in STI is characterised by:• Approximate parity in S&E overall• Alarmingly low representation in the science,

technology and innovation fields• Under-representation in engineering, physics

and computer science — lower than 30% • Declining representation in the labourforce

Key Findings

Female participation in STI is characterised by:

• Little sex-disaggregated data at the national level

• Less access to productive resources

There is no simple solution

• Female parity in the science, technology and innovation fields is tied to higher economic status; government and politics; economic, productive and technological resources; and policy implementation

• Education is insufficient and needs to be supported by a multi-dimensional approach

Country/region rankings

Thank you.

Women in Global Science and Technology (WISAT)Organization for Women in Science for the

Developing World (OWSD)

www.wigsat.orgshuyer@wigsat.org