̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - gender inequality

Gender inequality ingrained in global climate negotiations, say researchers

cjb250 — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 08:52:16 +0000

In an article published today in Lancet Planetary Health, a team of researchers – including several from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge – argue that much more needs to be done to mitigate the impacts of climate change on women, girls and gender-diverse individuals.

Focusing specifically on the intersection between climate change, gender, and human health, the researchers call on countries to work harder to ensure there is gender equity within their delegations to climate conferences and to ensure climate strategies identify gender-specific risks and vulnerabilities and address their root causes.

As the world prepares for COP29, concerns about gender representation and equality have reignited following the initial appointment of 28 men and no women to the COP29 organising committee in January 2024.

̽��ֱ��effects of climate change – from heavy rains, rising temperatures, storms and floods through to sea level rises and droughts – exacerbate systemic inequalities and disproportionately affect marginalised populations, particularly those living in low-income areas.

While the specific situation may be different depending on where people live or their social background (like their class, race, ability, sexuality, age, or location), women, girls, and gender minorities are often at greater risk from the impacts of climate change. For example, in many countries, women are less likely to own land and resources to protect them in post-disaster situations, and have less control over income and less access to information, resulting in increased vulnerability to acute and long-term climate change impacts.

They are also particularly at risk from climate-related threats to their health, say the researchers. For example, studies have linked high temperatures to adverse birth outcomes such as spontaneous preterm births, pre-eclampsia and birth defects. Extreme events, which are expected to become more likely and intense due to climate change, also take a severe toll on women's social, physical, and mental well-being. Numerous studies highlight that gender-based violence is reported to increase during or after extreme events, often due to factors related to economic instability, food insecurity, disrupted infrastructure and mental stress.

Dr Kim Robin van Daalen, a former Gates Cambridge Scholar at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, and researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), said: “Given how disproportionately climate change affects women, girls and gender minorities – a situation that is only likely to get worse – we need to ensure that their voices are heard and meaningfully included in discussions of how we respond to this urgent climate crisis. This is not currently happening at anywhere near the level it needs to.”

̽��ֱ��team summarised the inclusion of gender, health and their intersection in key decisions and initiatives under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and analysed gender representation among representatives of Party and Observer State delegations at COPs between 1995-2023. Progress has been slow, they say.

They highlight how previous scholars have consistently noted that emphasis remains mainly on achieving a gender ‘number-based balance’ in climate governance, over exploring gender-specific risks and vulnerabilities and addressing their root causes. They also discuss how there remains limited recognition of the role climate change has in worsening gendered impacts on health, including gender-based violence and the lack of safeguarding reproductive health in the face of climate change.

Although the situation is slowly improving, at COP28, almost three-quarters (73%) of Party delegations were still majority men, and only just over one in six (16%) showed gender parity (that is, 45-55% women). In fact, gender parity has only been achieved in the ‘Western European and Other’ UN grouping (which also includes North America, Australia and New Zealand). Based on current trends, several countries - particularly those in the Asia-Pacific and Africa regions - are expected to take at least a decade from COP28 before reaching gender parity in their delegations.

Dr Ramit Debnath, former Gates Cambridge Scholar and now an Assistant Professor at Cambridge, said: “ ̽��ֱ��urgency of climate action, as well as the slow understanding of climate, gender, and health connections, is cause for concern. Institutions like the UNFCCC must recognize these disparities, design appropriate methods to improve gender parity in climate governance, and keep these representation gaps from growing into societal and health injustices.”

Beyond ensuring that their voices are heard, more equitable inclusion of women has consistently been suggested to transform policymaking across political and social systems, including the generation of policies that better represent women’s interests. Previous recent analyses of 49 European countries revealed that greater women’s political representation correlates with reduced inequalities in self-reported health, lower geographical inequalities in infant mortality and fewer disability-adjusted life-years lost across genders.

Similar positive findings have been reported related to environmental policies, with women’s representation in national parliaments being associated with increased ratification of environmental treaties and more stringent climate change policies. For example, women legislators in the European parliament and US House of Representatives have been found to be more inclined to support environmental legislation than men.

Dr Ronita Bardhan, Associate Professor at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: "Achieving equitable gender representation in climate action is not just about fairness - it's a strategic necessity with significant co-benefits. We can shape climate policies and infrastructure that address a broader spectrum of societal needs, leading to more inclusive solutions enhancing public health, social equity, and environmental resilience."

While the researchers’ analyses focused on achieving gender balance, studies on women’s involvement in climate governance suggest that increased representation does not by itself always lead to meaningful policy changes. Even when formally included, women’s active participation in male-dominated institutions is often constrained by existing social and cultural norms, implicit biases and structural barriers.

Dr van Daalen added: “If we’re to meaningfully incorporate gender into climate policy and practice, we need to understand the risks and vulnerabilities that are gender-specific and look at how we can address them and their root causes at all phases of programme and policy development.

“But we also need to resist reducing women to a single, homogenous group, which risks deepening existing inequalities and overlooks opportunities to address the needs of all individuals. It is crucial to recognise the diversity of women and their embodiment of multiple, intersecting identities that shape their climate experiences as well as their mitigation and adaptation needs.”

̽��ֱ��team also highlights that gender-diverse people face unique health and climate-related risks due to their increased vulnerability, stigma, and discrimination. For example, during and after extreme events, transgender people in the United States report being threatened or prohibited access to shelters. Similarly, in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Samoa, gender-diverse individuals often face discrimination, mockery, and exclusion from evacuation centres or access to food. Yet, say the researchers, there are major gaps in knowledge about the health implications of climate change for such groups.

Find out how Cambridge's pioneering research in climate and nature is regenerating nature, rewiring energy, rethinking transport and redefining economics - forging a future for our planet.

Reference
Van Daalen, KR et al. Bridging the gender, climate, and health gap: the road to COP29. Lancet Planetary Health; 11 Nov 2024; DOI: 10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00270-5

Climate governance is dominated by men, yet the health impacts of the climate crisis often affect women, girls, and gender-diverse people disproportionately, argue researchers ahead of the upcoming 29th United Nations Climate Summit (COP29) in Azerbaijan.

Given how disproportionately climate change affects women, girls and gender minorities, we need to ensure that their voices are heard and meaningfully included in discussions of how we respond to this urgent climate crisis

Kim van Daalen

Hansel ohioma

Surviving the flood at Ahoada in Rivers state Nigeria

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Cinema has helped 'entrench' gender inequality in AI

fpjl2 — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 10:17:06 +0000

Study finds that just 8% of all depictions of AI professionals from a century of film are women – and half of these are shown as subordinate to men.

Men may not ‘perceive’ domestic tasks as needing doing in the same way as women, philosophers argue

fpjl2 — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 09:39:23 +0000

Philosophers seeking to answer questions around inequality in household labour and the invisibility of women’s work in the home have proposed a new theory – that men and women are trained by society to see different possibilities for action in the same domestic environment.

They say a view called “affordance theory” – that we experience objects and situations as having actions implicitly attached – underwrites the age-old gender disparity when it comes to the myriad mundane tasks of daily home maintenance.

For example, women may look at a surface and see an implied action – ‘to be wiped’ – whereas men may just observe a crumb-covered countertop.

̽��ֱ��philosophers believe these deep-seated gender divides in domestic perception can be altered through societal interventions such as extended paternal leave, which will encourage men to build up mental associations for household tasks.

Writing in the journal Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, they argue that available data – particularly data gathered during the pandemic – suggest two questions require explanation.

One is “disparity”: despite economic and cultural gains, why do women continue to shoulder the vast majority of housework and childcare? ̽��ֱ��other is “invisibility”: why do so many men believe domestic work to be more equally distributed than in fact it is?

“Many point to the performance of traditional gender roles, along with various economic factors such as women taking flexible work for childcare reasons,” said Dr Tom McClelland, from Cambridge ̽��ֱ��’s Department of History and Philosophy of Science.

“Yet the fact that stark inequalities in domestic tasks persisted during the pandemic, when most couples were trapped inside, and that many men continued to be oblivious of this imbalance, means this is not the full story.”

McClelland and co-author Prof Paulina Sliwa argue that unequal divisions of labour in the home – and the inability of men to identify said labour – is best explained through the psychological notion of “affordances”: the idea that we perceive things as inviting or “affording” particular actions.

“This is not just looking at the shape and size of a tree and then surmising you can climb it, but actually seeing a particular tree as climbable, or seeing a cup as drink-from-able,” said Sliwa, recently of Cambridge’s philosophy faculty and now at the ̽��ֱ�� of Vienna.

“Neuroscience has shown that perceiving an affordance can trigger neural processes preparing you for physical action. This can range from a slight urge to overwhelming compulsion, but it often takes mental effort not to act on an affordance.”

There are dramatic differences in “affordance perception” between individuals. One person sees a tree as climbable where another does not. Objects offer a vast array of affordances – one could see a spatula as an egg-frying tool or a rhythmic instrument – and a spectrum of sensitivity towards them.

“If we apply affordance perception to the domestic environment and assume it is gendered, it goes a long way to answering both questions of disparity and invisibility,” said McClelland.

According to the philosophers, when a woman enters a kitchen she is more likely to perceive the “affordances” for particular domestic tasks – she sees the dishes as ‘to be washed’ or a fridge as ‘to be stocked’.

A man may simply observe dishes in a sink, or a half-empty fridge, but without perceiving the affordance or experiencing the corresponding mental “tug”. Over time, these little differences add up to significant disparities in who does what.

“Affordances pull on your attention,” said Sliwa. “Tasks may irritate the perceiver until done, or distract them from other plans. If resisted, it can create a felt tension.”

“This puts women in a catch-22 situation: either inequality of labour or inequality of cognitive load.”

This gender-based split in affordance perception could have a number of root causes, say philosophers. Social cues encourage actions in certain environments, often given by adults when we are very young children. Our visual systems update based on what we encounter most frequently.

“Social norms shape the affordances we perceive, so it would be surprising if gender norms do not do the same,” said McClelland.

“Some skills are explicitly gendered, such cleaning or grooming, and girls are expected to do more domestic chores than boys. This trains their ways of seeing the domestic environment, to see a counter as ‘to be wiped’.”

̽��ֱ��“gendered affordance perception hypothesis” is not about absolving men say Sliwa and McClelland. Despite a deficit in affordance perception in the home, a man can easily notice what needs doing by thinking rather than seeing. Nor should sensitivity to domestic affordances in women be equated with natural affinity for housework.

“We can change how we perceive the world through continued conscious effort and habit cultivation,” said McClelland. “Men should be encouraged to resist gendered norms by improving their sensitivity to domestic task affordances."

“A man might adopt a resolution to sweep for crumbs every time he waits for the kettle to boil, for example. Not only would this help them to do the tasks they don't see, it would gradually retrain their perception so they start to see the affordance in the future.”

Collective efforts to change social norms require policy-level interventions, argue the philosophers. For example, shared parental leave gives fathers the opportunity to become more sensitive to caring-task affordances.

Added Sliwa: “Our focus has been on physical actions such as sweeping or wiping, but gendered affordance perceptions could also apply to mental actions such as scheduling and remembering.”

By adding a gender dimension to the theory of “affordance perception” and applying it to the home, a new hypothesis may help answer questions of why women still shoulder most housework, and why men never seem to notice.

Men should be encouraged to resist gendered norms by improving their sensitivity to domestic task affordances

Tom McClelland

Getty images

Wiping down the countertop

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Women economists underrepresented ‘at every level’ in UK academia – report

fpjl2 — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 09:37:44 +0000

Women are underrepresented "at almost every level" within the discipline of economics at UK universities, according to a new report co-authored by a Cambridge economist.

Dr Victoria Bateman says that her research for the Royal Economics Society (RES) found signs of “stagnation and retreat” in the closing of gender gaps across the study of economics – with female intake (relative to male) actually falling at both undergraduate and master’s levels over the last two decades.

Published today, the report ‘Gender Imbalance in UK Economics’ marks 25 years since the establishment of the RES Women’s Committee, which was set up to monitor and advance the representation of women in UK economics.

“ ̽��ֱ��economy affects everyone, and economists need to represent us all,” said Bateman, an Economics Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. “If they don’t, that’s a major barrier to building a solid understanding of the economy.”

“Across all students, from undergraduate to PhD, there are twice as many men studying economics as there are women in UK universities. While in many respects the discipline of economics has come a long way in the 21st century, the gender gap is clearly still real, persistent and in some ways getting worse.”

Bateman and colleagues argue that attracting, retaining and promoting female economists is a “particular problem” within UK academia when compared to areas of government and third sector organisations such as think tanks.

Only a quarter (26%) of economists working in UK academia are female, and only 15% of economics professors are women, compared to 38% of the economists at the UK Treasury and 44% of researchers at economic think tanks.

Among UK students entering the discipline, the gender gap has actually widened since 2002, when 31% of economics undergraduates and 37% of master’s students were women. By 2018, this had fallen to 27% and 31% respectively. Bateman says these statistics show that the closure of the gender gap in economics “isn’t simply a matter of time”.

“Only a third of economics lecturers in the UK are women, and just 15% of economics professors,” said report co-author Dr Erin Hengel, who received her PhD in economics from Cambridge before going on to lecture at the ̽��ֱ�� of Liverpool.

“While these figures are better than they were 25 years ago, the improving trend has levelled off. It appears that progress is starting to slow far before we reach any kind of gender parity.”

When the report’s authors factored in ethnicity, the percentage of female students was higher. In 2018, a third (33%) of Black economics undergraduates and 31% of Asian ethnicity undergraduates were women, compared to a quarter (25%) of White students.

However, women from ethnic minority backgrounds are not staying in academic economics. ̽��ֱ��report also found that at PhD level, the proportion of women is ten percentage points lower among minority candidates than white candidates.

Perhaps startlingly, the report found that between 2012 and 2018 there was not a single Black woman employed as a professor of economics anywhere in the UK.

Bateman says she hopes the new report will serve as a “call to arms” for the discipline of economics. “We are calling on universities to ask themselves why so few UK women are attracted to studying and researching the economy and why, even when they are, they do not stay,” she said.

Bateman’s 2019 book ̽��ֱ��Sex Factor showed how the status and freedom of women are central to prosperity, and that 'gender blindness' in economics has left the discipline wide of the mark on everything from poverty and inequality to understanding cycles of boom and bust.

“Unless economists are diverse, we cannot hope to build a complete understanding of the economy, and, with it, formulate the right kinds of policies,” Bateman added.

New research shows the gender gap in the teaching and study of economics is still dramatic and actually getting worse. Economists argue that this is not just a problem for the discipline, but for society as a whole.

Unless economists are diverse, we cannot hope to build a complete understanding of the economy, and, with it, formulate the right kinds of policies

Victoria Bateman

̽��ֱ��Gender Imbalance in UK Economics Short Edit

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Mind Over Chatter: ̽��ֱ��future of reproduction

ns480 — Thu, 27 May 2021 12:41:58 +0000

Season 2, episode 6

Our reproductive capabilities are changing in exciting ways, altering our fundamental understanding of fertility, reproduction, and even parenthood.

In this episode of Mind Over Chatter, we ask our guests what the consequences of novel reproductive technologies are likely to be, and how they will impact the future of human reproduction.

Subscribe to Mind Over Chatter

We cover topics ranging from egg-freezing, so-called ‘three-parent-babies, and the importance of studying the embryonic development of primates.

Historical demographer, Dr Alice Reid, who researches fertility, mortality and health in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tells us how reproduction has changed over the last 200 years and how it has been influenced by improvements in gender equality, as well as discussing the likely demographic impact of assisted reproduction.

Dr Lucy Van de Wiel, whose research focuses on the social and cultural analysis of assisted reproductive technologies such as egg freezing, introduces the important ways in which reproductive technologies must be considered in the context of wide social and political issues.

Finally, Dr Thorsten Boroviak shares his cutting-edge research on developing new reproductive technologies – the ability to generate your own egg or sperm from any cell of your body – and the importance of studying the embryonic development of primates.

Key points:

[2:10]- change of human reproduction over the last 200 years

[5:45]- egg freezing and changing meaning of what it means to be ‘fertile’

[12:05]- higher levels of gender equity can produce higher levels of fertility

[23:19]- generating eggs and sperms from any human cell

[24:02]- can a man produce an egg?

[40:37]- when should one freeze their eggs?

[64:54]- reproductive justice and reproductive equity. Ensuring reproductive autonomy while ensuring non-exploitation

[65:59]- Final question: what is the most exciting thing that will happen to humankind in the future?

Mind Over Chatter: ̽��ֱ��Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Podcast

Women bear brunt of coronavirus economic shutdown in UK and US

fpjl2 — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 09:29:43 +0000

Women on both sides of the Atlantic are more likely to have lost their jobs or suffered a fall in earnings since the coronavirus pandemic took hold – even after accounting for differences in types of occupation, a new study suggests.

Economists from the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Zurich have collected two waves of data in the UK and the US – the first toward the end of March and then again in the middle of April – from almost 15,000 people.

̽��ֱ��second wave of data from mid-April suggests that – across gender, age and occupation – a total of 15% of the UK population have lost their jobs due to the economic impact of coronavirus. In the US it’s even higher: a total of 18%.

However, significantly higher rates of women and workers without a degree had experienced job loss or wage drops in the four weeks prior to questioning, compared to men and those with a university education.

In the UK, 13% of workers with a degree lost their job compared to 18% without a university education. In the US, the rate of job loss was 22% for those without a college degree compared to 15% of college-educated workers.

Women in the UK are four percentage points more likely to have lost their job than men, with 17% of women newly unemployed compared to 13% of men. ̽��ֱ��gap in the US was even wider: 21% of women compared to 14% of men.

̽��ֱ��researchers found that this gender gap in job loss due to coronavirus persisted even after controlling for education, occupation and regional location within each nation.

“We found that people without university degrees are more likely to be working in jobs with tasks that just can’t be done from home, making them more vulnerable to loss of employment,” said Dr Christopher Rauh, a report author from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Faculty of Economics.

“While we can fully explain the education gap for job loss probabilities by differences in the types of work, the same is simply not true for the gender gap we see in job loss,” he said.

Despite this, the survey study found that – on average across both countries – women are more optimistic than men about their chances of keeping their job going forward.

̽��ֱ��researchers suggest that one potential reason for the gender gap they identify might be found in hours spent homeschooling and caring for children.

Data gathered from 9-14 April show that, on average during a typical working day, men in the UK spend under 2.5 hours on childcare, and do under two hours of homeschooling.

Women in the UK, however, spend over 3.5 hours on childcare, and do over two hours of homeschooling. In the US this childcare and homeschool gender gap is very similar, although slightly smaller.

̽��ֱ��type of occupation makes a massive difference to whether the coronavirus economic shock had taken your job in the last month. In the US, food serving and preparation was by far the worst hit type of occupation with 40% losing their jobs, followed by transportation and then production.

In the UK, the cleaners and maintenance workers have fared worst with 33% losing their jobs, closely followed by personal care services, then food workers and construction. In both countries, those who work in computing and occupations such as architects and engineers were least affected by loss of employment.

̽��ֱ��research also found a stark difference in job or earnings loss across the board between those on permanent contracts compared with temporary contracts, and those who can fully work from home compared with those who cannot do any. However, these inequalities were far greater in the US than the UK.

̽��ֱ��latest research builds on the first wave of survey work conducted near the end of March, which showed that those under the age of thirty and on lower incomes were more likely to have seen wage and job losses.

Added Rauh: “In general, younger individuals across the board, as well as women and those without university education, were significantly more likely to report experiencing drops in income.”

“ ̽��ֱ��outlook on the future is bleak. Of all those still employed, 32% of people in the UK and 37% of people in the US believe they will lose their jobs in the next few months,” he said.

“Our findings highlight the need for immediate policy responses that target those most aﬀected by the economic crisis.”

̽��ֱ��findings by the research team, composed of Rauh along with the ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford's Abi Adams-Prassl and Marta Golin and the ̽��ֱ�� of Zurich's Teodora Boneva, are published as a working paper through the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Institute for New Economic Thinking: https://www.inet.econ.cam.ac.uk/working-paper-pdfs/wp2018.pdf.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge-INET Institute has now launched a dedicated website for all their coronavirus-related research: covid.econ.cam.ac.uk.

How you can support Cambridge's COVID-19 research effort

Donate to support COVID-19 research at Cambridge

New data shows women and people who did not go to university are more likely to have lost work and earnings since mid-March.

Of all those still employed, 32% of people in the UK and 37% of people in the US believe they will lose their jobs in the next few months

Christopher Rauh

Craig Whitehead

Chef in Soho, London.

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Women much less likely to ask questions in academic seminars than men

ta385 — Thu, 27 Sep 2018 18:01:00 +0000

Women are two and a half times less likely to ask a question in departmental seminars than men, an observational study of 250 events at 35 academic institutions in 10 countries has found.

This disparity exists despite the gender ratio at these seminars being, on average, equal. It also reflects significant differences in self-reported feelings towards speaking up.

̽��ֱ��research, led by a then Junior Research Fellow at Churchill College, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, adds to a growing body of evidence showing that women are less visible than men in various scientific domains and helps to explain the “leaky pipeline” of female representation in academic careers. Women account for 59 per cent of undergraduate degrees but only 47 per cent of PhD graduates and just 21 per cent of senior faculty positions in Europe.

̽��ֱ��bias, identified in a paper published today in PLOS One, is thought to be particularly significant because departmental seminars are so frequent and because junior academics are more likely to experience them before other kinds of scholarly events. They also feature at an early stage in the career pipeline when people are making major decisions about their futures.

“Our finding that women ask disproportionately fewer questions than men means that junior scholars are encountering fewer visible female role models in their field,” warns lead author, Alecia Carter.

Self-reported behaviour and perceptions

In addition to observational data, Carter and her co-authors drew on survey responses from over 600 academics ranging from postgraduates to faculty members (303 female and 206 male) from 28 different fields of study in 20 countries.

These individuals reported their attendance and question-asking activity in seminars, their perceptions of others’ question-asking behaviour, and their beliefs about why they and others do and do not ask questions.

̽��ֱ��survey revealed a general awareness, especially among women, that men ask more questions than women. A high proportion of both male and female respondents reported sometimes not asking a question when they had one. But men and women differed in their ratings of the importance of different reasons for this.

Crucially, women rated ‘internal’ factors such as ‘not feeling clever enough’, ‘couldn’t work up the nerve’, ‘worried that I had misunderstood the content’ and ‘the speaker was too eminent/intimidating’, as being more important than men did.

“But our seminar observation data show that women are not inherently less likely to ask questions when the conditions are favourable,” says Dieter Lukas, who was a postdoctoral researcher at Cambridge during the data collection.

Question-asking behaviour

̽��ֱ��researchers found that women were more likely to speak up when more questions were asked. When 15 questions were asked in total, as opposed to the median of six, there was a 7.6 per cent increase in the proportion of questions asked by women.

But when the first question in a seminar was asked by a man, the proportion of subsequent questions asked by women fell six per cent, compared to when the first question was asked by a woman. ̽��ֱ��researchers suggest that this may be an example of ‘gender stereotype activation’, in which a male-first question sets the tone for the rest of the session, which then dissuades women from participating.

“While calling on people in the order that they raise their hands may seem fair, it may inadvertently result in fewer women asking questions because they might need more time to formulate questions and work up the nerve,” said co-author Alyssa Croft, a psychologist at the ̽��ֱ�� of Arizona.

̽��ֱ��researchers were initially surprised to discover that women ask proportionally more questions of male speakers and that men ask proportionally more of female speakers.

“This may be because men are less intimidated by female speakers than women are. It could also be the case that women avoid challenging a female speaker, but may be less concerned for a male speaker,” said co-author Gillian Sandstrom, a psychologist at the ̽��ֱ�� of Essex.

Linked to this, the study’s survey data revealed that twice as many men (33 per cent) as women (16 per cent) reported being motivated to ask a question because they felt that they had spotted a mistake.

Women were also more likely to ask questions when the speaker was from their own department, suggesting that familiarity with the speaker may make asking a question less intimidating. ̽��ֱ��study interprets this as a demonstration of the lower confidence reported by female audience members.

Welcoming the research, Professor Dame Athene Donald, Professor of Experimental Physics at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Master of Churchill College, Cambridge, said:

“Asking questions at the end of talks is one of the activities that (still) makes me most nervous ... Whatever anyone may think when they meet me about how assertive my behaviour is, it would seem that I too have internalised this gender stereotype."

Recommendations

“This problem can only be addressed by lasting changes in the academic culture which break gender stereotypes and provide an inclusive environment,” Alecia Carter says.

̽��ֱ��researchers accept that this will take time but make four key recommendations to improve the situation in departmental seminars:

Where possible, seminar organisers should avoid placing limits on the time available for questions. Alternatively, moderators should endeavour to keep each question and answer short to allow more questions to be asked.
Moderators should prioritise a female-first question, be trained to ‘see the whole room’ and maintain as much balance as possible with respect to gender and seniority of question-askers.
Seminar organisers are encouraged not to neglect inviting internal speakers.
Organisers should consider providing a small break between the talk and the question period to give attendees more time to formulate a question and try it out on a colleague.

“Although we developed these recommendations with the aim of increasing women’s visibility, they are likely to benefit everyone, including other underrepresented groups in academia,” said Carter.

“This is about removing the barriers that restrain anyone from speaking up and being visible.”

Reference:

Alecia J. Carter , Alyssa Croft, Dieter Lukas, Gillian M. Sandstrom, ‘Women’s visibility in academic seminars: Women ask fewer questions than men.’

PLOS ONE (2018). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202743

A new study reveals a stark disparity between male and female participation in a key area of academic life and offers recommendations to ensure all voices are heard.

Junior scholars are encountering fewer visible female role models

Alecia Carter

Christopher Rose

A seminar audience in Austin, Texas, United States

̽��ֱ��researchers and further info

̽��ֱ��researchers have compiled a list of articles about diversity in academia and encourage readers to contribute to these resources.

Alecia Carter is a Researcher at the Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution, Université de Montpellier.

Dieter Lukas is a Senior Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.

Alyssa Croft is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the ̽��ֱ�� of Arizona, Tucson, USA.

Gillian Sandstrom is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the ̽��ֱ�� of Essex, UK.

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Cambridge astrophysicist calls on UN to help girls reach for the stars

ed515 — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 14:15:46 +0000

Dr Ghina Halabi, a postdoctoral researcher in the Institute of Astronomy, has proposed a “UN sponsored international female alumni ambassador programme, for female role models to go back to their countries and their alma maters to inspire young girls to aspire, to dream and to achieve”.

Halabi received her doctorate from the American ̽��ֱ�� of Beirut, and holds the distinction of being the first person to be awarded a PhD in Astrophysics from a Lebanese institution. She is keen to share her story, to highlight the opportunities available to women. Speaking at a high-level panel meeting at the UN Secretariat she raised the importance of role models, and said; “I feel it is my role, and obligation, to go back and inspire other women.” ̽��ֱ��UN’s Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women Lakshmi Puri, Director of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs Simonetta Di Pippo, and NASA Astronauts Scott Kelly and Sandy Magnus were among the panel members who heard her proposal.

“We need more role models,” she says. “But the research shows that for role models to work, girls need to be able to identify with them. You can be it if you can see it.

“ ̽��ֱ��key thing I’m proposing here is to bring the role model back to her alma mater. ̽��ֱ��Kenyan scientist would go back to her school and university in Kenya, the Indian woman would do the same thing in India, the Iranian in Iran, and this way you have perfect engagement, girls can identify with these role models.

“We would visit our hometowns and our localities often and hold an event or two, just sharing our stories. It doesn’t have to be our science, just our stories. And imagine, if I go and talk to 20 girls every time, and there are 200 of me and we do that every year, and they go and tell their stories, think how big the network would get.”

Halabi was invited to speak at the UN Expert Meeting on Space for Women, at the UN-Women Headquarters in New York City last October. She was the only UK academic at the event, which was organised to discuss the scope and goals of the UN’s Space for Women Project. A key theme was innovative ways to empower women and girls, particularly in developing countries, to get into science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), and effective approaches for capacity building and development.

Halabi delivered a presentation to the meeting on the Institute of Astronomy’s work towards equality and diversity, and spoke about their success in achieving an Athena SWAN Bronze Award. She said “Athena SWAN is an excellent initiative because it standardises the efforts to improve representations of minorities and women in STEM. It’s currently extending pilot schemes in different countries, including Ireland and Australia, and I think people, in the US for example, thought ‘why don’t we have a nation-wide scheme like this’. It was very well received.”

Halabi has collaborated with a colleague in Washington DC, Dr Sara Langston, to create an outline of how the alumni ambassador programme will run, and is keen to secure endorsement and logistical support from the UN. She said; “If the UN can give an ambassador role to women who are successful in their fields, they will have an incentive, and feel encouraged and driven to take part.

“My involvement in the Space for Women project has introduced me to civil society leaders and experts from governments, international organisations, United Nations entities and research institutions in the public and private sectors in space and non-space fields. ̽��ֱ��fact that astronomy and space bring us all together was an eye opening experience on the role of astronomy in bettering the human condition.”

UNISPACE+50 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. ̽��ֱ��UN describes it as ‘an opportunity for the international community to gather and consider the future course of global space cooperation for the benefit of humankind.’ Events this week include a two-day conference, an exhibition, and a special high-level session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

A plan to build a global network of STEM ambassadors to encourage women and girls into science, put forward by a Cambridge academic to the United Nations, will be discussed at the UNSPACE+50 event this week.

To inspire young girls to aspire, to dream, and to achieve

Ghina Halabi

Researcher profile: Dr Ghina Halabi

I am the first person to obtain a PhD in astrophysics from a Lebanese institution. This is a distinction I am very proud of, and I hope my achievements will serve to inspire other women and girls into STEM education and careers.

Astronomy, one of the oldest sciences, is engrained in the history of every culture. ̽��ֱ��rich space imagery inspires us to try and discover more about the Universe; and contextualise our very existence. Astronomy is at the forefront of scientific research, and scientists across the field are constantly setting new records by imaging the farthest stars, exploring habitable worlds, witnessing the most violent explosions and charting stellar census.

Stars are the atoms of the Universe. They play a crucial and prominent role on galactic and cosmological levels. Beyond hydrogen and helium, they create all the elements in the universe as by-products of the nuclear fusion that keeps them alive. They are also the hosts and birthplace of planets that form in their circumstellar or protoplanetary discs at or near the end of the stars' own formation process.

I research the evolution of these enigmatic objects, their interactions with their nearby companions, and the nucleosynthesis processes taking place through their lifetimes. To do that, I use stellar evolution codes that model their structure and element formation. I also investigate the interaction between nearby stars and the implications of this proximity on their evolution and their ultimate fate.

A typical working day includes running stellar evolution simulations and analysing the results. I also chair and organise weekly meetings for the Stars group, design Astrophysics projects for Master’s students; and mentor students, providing support and guidance over the course of their studies. I supervise Mathematics students at Churchill College, peer-review papers, and engage in science communication and outreach activities.

Space is never short of fascinating topics and research projects. A key moment for me was the realisation that my research is not remote from everyday life, but that astronomy has a strong humanitarian dimension. Our theoretical exploration is inspired by observational astronomy, which plays a fundamental role in technological innovations that benefit humankind. This reaches areas like health, humanitarian aid, communication, agriculture, climate change, transportation and disaster response.

Tenacity, networking, resilience and ambition are crucial elements for success. These are some of the key qualities that have helped me along my career. What has also shaped my journey was jumping into new experiences that were totally outside my comfort zone. To be able to do this, I had to consciously prevent myself from feeling like an imposter and own my work, my accomplishments and my journey. These ventures into unfamiliar territories helped me grow and establish myself and my reputation. I have also learned to shrug off negative messages that are tainted with gender-bias. Sometimes, you just have to fight it off with a smile and carry on.

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