In responding to this questionnaire, we are aware of the Ministers’ emphasis on increasing the participation of women in science and technology studies and careers. This pre-position raises several issues and further investigation is suggested in some areas to gain a deeper understanding of the way women choose, or are compelled, to work and any implications this has for science and technology.
Interventions to date focused, initially, on changing women/girls in ways that would make them more like men/boys, and then later, on changing the ways in which science is presented and taught to make it more relevant or accessible to women/girls1. However, assumptions outlined in the OECD paper still need to be tested to ensure we are isolating women as a target group for valid reason:
• Why can’t research and innovation be successful with less numbers of women?
• What is the pool of unused male talent?
• Is the proportion of those enrolled in science and technology to those employed in science and technology similar in other fields?
• Is the ‘waste’ and ‘counterproductive economics’ of this situation broadly reflected throughout women’s roles and occupations?
• If extra resources are to be expended to retain women in scientific careers, is this also not potentially counterproductive economically?
• How do we know which is the greater ‘problem’ – qualified women not working or children requiring an alternative carer?
• Why are gender differences between disciplines and sectors considered ‘problems’?
Arguments for the importance of women’s engagement in science rest broadly on democratic grounds (based on the logic that women are entitled to equality with men). The assumption is that inequality has arisen though disadvantage.
In our responses to the questionnaire, we have principally drawn upon gender comparisons. However, these are not the only comparisons to make, and they may not be the most useful unless we better understand why we are comparing women to men, and why we are attempting to redress the pattern of study and work for female researchers.