The Leaky Pipeline

What drains the brain away from science.

Since their inception, over 900 recipients have been handed the Nobel prizes for their extraordinary work across their respective disciplines. Out of this, only 57 women have been honoured with the prize as of 2021. While it is a simple deduction considering the gender gap in science, where the number of female Nobel laureates is reflective of lower proportion of women in science, the work of Liselotte Jauffred at the University of Copenhagen reveals that the gender gap in science does not match the gender gap in the pool of Nobel Laureates in the Sciences. However, Nobel laureate nominations were not the only parameter that give evidence of the gender gap that stalk women as they climb the ladder of seniority and influence in science- the higher they go, the worse the bias gets.

Disproportionate numbers of women remain in low-level positions both in academia and in business, even after their presence has made itself felt for many years, inhibiting generational change. Competent women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) careers are lost at every educational transition stage. This loss, known as the ‘leaky pipeline’, has been a long-standing matter of concern in science and technology. As its result, skilled individuals are unable to use their potential to its maximum which in turn leads to loss both at an individual and at a communistic level.

Where does this leak begin?

From the beginning of their formative years at school, young girls who pursue STEM subjects at school level often drop them. A research led by Microsoft in 2018 reveals several reasons for the same: peer pressure, a lack of role models, and lack of support from parents as well as teachers, There is a general misperception of what STEM careers look like in the real world. In co-educational places of learning, the environment within the same classroom can be quite different for male and female students which drives girls away from these subjects.

This also leads to low self-esteem which shows in the latter half of their life when they enter colleges and jobs. It is often seen that women who enter into graduate programs have the same initial grade point averages as their male counterparts, yet they receive less financial support and are less likely to complete their doctoral degrees. A few other institutional barriers faced by women can be the relatively inflexible academic format, with a persistent “male model” of scientific career as the norm to which women are expected to conform, and the second being men excluding women from informal communication processes along which emerging scientific knowledge is disseminated. An indirect manifestation of this separation is also the lower availability/lack of mentoring for women than for men. Women face gender stereotypes and gender biases in STEM fields. Their work often goes unrecognized by employers, one of the evidences being that the time required for promotion for women is usually longer than for men of comparable achievement.

Even women like Rosalyn Yalow, Barbara McClintock, Gerty Cori, and Maria Mayer, all Nobel laureates, received promotions to professorships far later than men of comparable achievement. This lag in promotion is equally evident among “rank and file” female scientists. In some cases, this lag is due to inequitable access to resources, and, in others, it is due to discrimination.

Similar blockages to women’s access and promotion have also been reported for industrial research jobs, e.g. limited access to industrial jobs in science and engineering, “old boys’ networks” effect in recruitment and hiring practices, paternalism, sexual harassment, different standards for judging the work of men and women, lower salaries and inequitable job assignments- aspects of a male-oriented culture that are hostile to women and limited access to mentors- all these contribute to women leaving jobs and thus reduced workplace diversity.

As technology advances at a rapid speed, the labour market keeps evolving. As a result, an increasing number of jobs require STEM skills and knowledge. It is true that the number of female graduates has increased in STEM subjects yet STEM jobs are still majorly underrepresented by women- less than 30% of the world’s researchers are women and this under-representation occurs in every region in the world because women either do not transition into workforce or “leak out of the pipeline” because of the above stated reasons.

The issues that hinder the repair of the leaky academic pipeline are not going to be resolved quickly but small steps like making sure that high school is a safe space for all students pursuing science, involving young girls in science programs, making sure that mentors for aspiring female scientists are present in universities, institutions, etc, making sure that the faculty and new students feel welcome in the departments concerned and making women aware about the these leaks will make a difference in the long run.