02/02/2018

Women are a minority among university rectors and research grant recipients.

Foto: Tiago Queiroz/arquivo pessoal

Carolina Brito, Physics professor at UFRGS

Reproduction from the newspaper O Globo

RIO – Women are the majority in the Brazilian population, and for 27 years they have been the majority among those pursuing higher education, representing 49% of scholarship recipients from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the main research funding agency in Brazil. However, throughout their careers, they are being "expelled" from the academic world, in what is known as the "scissors effect." The numbers are striking examples of this exclusion: in undergraduate research scholarships, 59% are women; while in productivity scholarships, the most prestigious and with the largest funding, the female share drops to 35.5%. Within this group, there are also the 1A scholarships, the highest level, which only include 24.6% women.

There isn't just one explanation for this distancing as careers progress, but a combination of factors: discouragement in schools, families, and society; unequal division of childcare and household chores, overburdening women; the predominance of men in the management of funding agencies and collectives that bring scientists together; and sexism within institutions. Even today, female university students hear phrases from professors such as "You think it's difficult? Then go do ballet" or "You girls are slower, only you didn't understand, so I'm not going to explain it again," which were collected in the #esseemeuprofessor campaign, carried out by the Physics Institute of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in 2016, within the Girls in Science program.

"We replicated a campaign that was done at Mackenzie University in São Paulo. In 48 hours, we received 200 phrases," says physicist Carolina Brito, a professor at the university who coordinates the program. "I received phrases that I heard when I was starting college."

In the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, which has an internal nomination and voting process, only 14% are female. There has never been a female president in its 102 years of existence. There was a female vice-president, in the 1960s, Johanna Döbereiner, who developed a fertilization method for soybeans that increased the grain's competitiveness.

'I was criticized during my first term when I chose 70% women for the board and vice-rector positions', Soraya Soubhi Smaili (Rector of Unifesp)

The CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) has never had a female president in its 66 years of existence. This is one of the problems cited by female researchers as contributing to the low representation of women in science. The positions of power are in the hands of men.

— I was criticized when I began my first term as rector and chose 70% women for the board and vice-rector positions. They asked me: “Why so many women? Are you doing this on purpose? Are you getting revenge now? Is this a policy?” “Yes and no,” I replied. I gave opportunity and visibility to the women who were there, who have the capacity and talent, but were not being called upon to fill the positions. If they were all men, they wouldn't be asking this question — comments Soraya Soubhi Smaili, the first female rector of the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp).

In Brazilian federal universities, 28.3% of rectors are women. That's 19 out of 63 rectors. In the Brazilian Academy of Medicine, although women are the majority among graduates, around 55%, there are only five women among the 115 members, representing 4.3%.

Soraya Soubhi Smaili was the first female rector of Unifesp.

Carolina points out that, when looking at the overall numbers, women are the ones who graduate the most:

— In addition to segregation by field, the percentage of women decreases as their careers advance. In institute directorates, productivity grants, and prestigious positions, there are far more men. In physics, among graduates, 30% are women. In master's and doctoral programs, this number drops to 20%. Among professors, it's 15%, and in the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, only 5%. It's the scissor effect that sweeps women out of their careers.

According to her, a survey was conducted in 2005 among the CNPq committees that select the most prestigious professionals for productivity grants:

— Within the group of women receiving productivity grants, we saw that they had twice as many publications as the men. We presented this data to the committee, which elevated the women's group to a higher level.

To be eligible for productivity grants, researchers must have held a doctorate for a certain period of time. There are four levels, from A to D. Level 1A grants are the highest in terms of remuneration and are awarded to researchers "who have demonstrated continued excellence in scientific production and in the training of human resources, and who lead established research groups."

Marcelo Morales, acting president of CNPq, says he doesn't see a gender bias in the awarding of scholarships. He states that the lower presence of women at the top reflects the past. And he says he is optimistic about gender balance in scholarship allocation: the female share in scientific initiation is at the same level as that of men.

But CNPq is predominantly male. According to a 2013 survey, 70% of the advisory committees, which decide who receives productivity grants, are male, even in fields where female representation is greater, such as social and biological sciences.

"It's a historical fact that female participation has been neglected, but I believe this can be reversed. I believe we will achieve balance in less than ten years, with even greater female participation, based on the data we see in scientific initiation programs. I was a member of an advisory committee and I didn't see discrimination in the granting of scholarships," says Morales, who points out that, in some areas, there is gender balance. "In Nursing, women predominate. In biophysics, immunology, and medicine, the committees are balanced. Among research group leaders, women represent 46.6%."

TEN-YEAR DELAY IN CAREER

Another reason for women's exclusion is the difficulty of balancing childcare and housework with academic work. According to IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) figures, women dedicate 20 hours a week to housework, double the time men dedicate. Because of this, Fernanda Staniscuask, a professor of Biosciences at UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul), decided to conduct research to measure how much motherhood delays or excludes women from academia. One thousand women have already been interviewed, and more than half of them are the sole caregivers for their children. The goal is to gather this data and secure grants for researchers who have recently had children.

— Because they take time off to have children, they stop publishing and can't get research grants. Without resources, research can't be done.

Fernanda cites motherhood as one of the reasons for the ten-year delay in women's careers in science compared to men.

— In CNPq's productivity grant programs, men are typically between 45 and 49 years old, while women are ten years later, between 55 and 59 years old.

'I met a professor I knew, and he was surprised that I managed to pass Calculus 1 and Calculus 2,' Carolina Brito (Physics teacher)

The survey also showed that a portion of women choose not to have children or to have only one in order to pursue their careers: approximately 25% of them do not have children.

— Motherhood occurs early in a woman's career, around age 32, when she is flourishing in the scientific field — comments Fernanda.

In mathematics, women are rare. At the internationally recognized Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA), there is only one woman among 50 permanent professors. Carolina Araújo studies algebraic geometry. Through equations, she studies the curvature of shapes:

— From a professional standpoint, I don't feel any strangeness, because I've gotten used to this male-dominated environment, I've learned to deal with it. My mother is an engineer. I have a thick skin. But, from a social standpoint, it makes me uncomfortable. I feel that many women could pursue this career, but they don't because they don't feel comfortable. There's a sense of not belonging that keeps great talents away from this area.

'It takes a lot of competence, mobilization, and leadership. They have to be better than men,' Maria Tereza Leme Fleury (professor at FGV-SP and FEA-USP)

For Carolina, the imbalance is detrimental to science:

— Talent is evenly distributed. The more diverse the research group, the more efficient it is.

Marcelo Viana, director of IMPA, acknowledges that the situation is undesirable, but states that there is a low supply of women scientists in mathematics:

— Currently, there is one female teacher. There have been two, and we've had periods without any women on the permanent staff. For temporary teachers, the situation is a little better; 15% of those registered are women, and we manage to hire 25% of them. Among the students, 25% are women.

Viana says that next year, IMPA plans to institute blind selection, without gender identification, to see if it improves participation.

"There's no natural reason why a woman shouldn't study mathematics. Cultural factors weigh heavily in this choice. A friend's daughter said she wanted to study engineering, but her father discouraged her, saying she wouldn't be able to assert herself among the workers. There's a lack of encouragement."

The vice-president of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC), Vanderlan da Silva Balzani, recently published an article entitled "Women in science: why are there still so few of us?" She, who is also a full professor at the Chemistry Institute of the São Paulo State University (Unesp), states that every day there are more women working in various fields, but when it comes to the top, such as the Nobel Prize, the number of men is much greater.

In the article, she points out that a woman, the Polish scientist Marie Curie, is the only person to date to have won two Nobel Prizes in different fields: the first in 1903 in physics, and the second in 1911 in chemistry, conducting research on radioactivity.

“Marie Curie’s example must have inspired thousands of young people to pursue scientific careers, including the author of this text. But when the aforementioned award is taken as a measure of the results of this encouragement, they can still be considered very modest. In the 90 years that followed that Solvay Conference (1927), adding up the fields of physics, chemistry and medicine, only 16 Nobel Prizes were awarded to women, out of a total of 320 awards.”

But Vanderlan is optimistic. He believes that new generations will overcome the cultural obstacles that keep women away from science.

— When I arrive to pick up my grandchildren from school, I see girls and boys playing together with dolls and toy cars. In my day, girls weren't encouraged to enjoy science.

Professor Luiz Davidovich, president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, says that the percentage of women is similar to that found in other countries, but affirms that he is doing political work to encourage members to nominate women for the academy.

— Among younger researchers, up to 40 years old, the proportion of women rises to 21.4%. In the last election, out of 15 new members, five were women. We are improving.

In economics, there are few female tenured professors.

Economist Monica de Bolle, a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, conducted a survey of economics departments at three major private universities and one public university in Brazil. She found that, among the 80 tenured professors, only six were women.

— There's something very striking. When you look at undergraduate and graduate classes, they're balanced. Why are there so few among the tenured professors? It's chilling.

Maria Tereza Leme Fleury was the second director of the Faculty of Economics and Administration at USP (University of São Paulo).

Maria Tereza Leme Fleury, who was the second woman to head the Faculty of Economics and Administration at USP (University of São Paulo) and also led the School of Administration at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo (FGV-SP), says that more is demanded of women to reach the top of their careers. According to her, organizations need to be prepared to welcome women into management positions.

— It takes a great deal of technical skill, mobilization, and leadership, which need to be developed in these women. They have to be better than men. There is a learning process that is built up as they take on positions.

Maria Tereza says the time of harassment and jokes is behind her:

— In my generation, yes, there was a lot of that. Meetings were full of jokes and pranks, I had to argue, complain. But I feel that the organizational environment is changing.