The study reveals an increase in women in research, but warns of persistent inequalities in technological and scientific fields.

The Nada es Gratis economics blog has published a review today on gender parity in scientific production in Spain, based on the article by our colleagues Elvira González-Salmón and Nicolás Robinson-García: Women scientists in Spain: A comparative study of the last 30 years.

This study reveals how the number of female researchers in different areas of knowledge has increased over the last 20 years. Fields closer to the health and humanities areas have benefited the most from this change, reaching levels very close to parity. We are talking about an increase of 10-15%, while other areas more related to technology and experimental sciences, despite seeing evident progress, have experienced a lesser increase, around 3-4%.

Evolution of gender presence from 1990 to 2021.

The study highlights this latter figure, pointing out a concerning connection with the “stagnation also observed in computer science in the United States and in the number of female math graduates in Spain.” The authors explain: “These preferences are influenced by gender dynamics and the workplace hostilities that women face when entering traditionally male environments,” which could explain why growth in these fields has not improved exponentially due to the continued masculinization of the sector in most countries.

In this international context, Spain is one of the highest-ranked countries in this area. According to the authors, “it is the second country with the highest percentage of women from 2010 to 2021” and currently ranks 4th, surpassed only by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

Ranking of female researchers by year.

The article also explores reasons for this improvement in Spain. According to Gonzalez-Salmón, the social and political conditions in late-century Spain fostered work-life balance policies and labor improvements that facilitated women’s entry into academia. However, this factor can be a double-edged sword, as the academic career, according to the authors, is marked by “the entry conditions for researchers in Spain (characterized, especially, by low salaries), which do not make research the most attractive career for many people.”

At the same time, this parity cannot truly be called such when disciplines with a high degree of female representation barely receive funding to promote academic projects and work, as the system favors fields with quantitative applications. This may generate “a vicious circle where funding bias can perpetuate inequalities,” even in areas with an equal level of representation.

The authors conclude that “parity may be a first step, but it does not imply effective equality. We must understand the data in its context and not use gender parity as the only indicator of women’s situation in science.” Without diminishing the value of these data for visualizing female presence in Spanish academia, the authors hope to apply other indicators to better outline the real situation of female researchers in Spain.

This manuscript is currently under review in a journal, and you can consult it through the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13982623.