Presentation held by M. Pilar López Sancho (Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid - CSIC) during the conference "Structural gender change at universities and research funding organizations", an event of H2020 project SUPERA. Madrid, 16/11/2018

1. Gender biases in funding.
Recommendations for achieving
equality
M. Pilar López Sancho
Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de
Madrid-CSIC
Comisión de Mujeres y Ciencia
16/11/2018 P. López Sancho

2. Nature 2013
1974 Harvard Medical School Joint Comittee on the Status of Women
1981 NSF and Science and Technology Equal Opportunities Act
(Women and minorities) *

3. 23/10/2017 P. López Sancho
PNAS 2015
2,823 applicants, 42.1% W
467 awarded, 37.9% W
W success rate declined at
every step. Loss of 4% W
Committees contained 32.6% female reviewers
3 calls 2010-2012
Starting Grants ERC 2007-11
Loss of 5% W in grant review
procedure

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Canadian Institutes of Health Research: 24,000 grant applications (2011-2016)
-A programme focused evaluation on the applicants
-B programme focused on their research
To test whether funding differences were due to quality of the applicants’
research or to factors related to the applicant, such as gender.
Outcomes
A: the success rate for male applicants was 4% higher than for female applicants
B: the success rate for male applicants was 0.9% higher than the rate for female
applicants.
When reviewers were asked to complete a training module about inconcious
bias, gender and minorities differences in funding outcomes decreased.
Giorgia Guglielmi
CIHR

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PNAS 115, 7943 (2018)
STUDY women and men funding trajectories from 1991 to 2015. Explore funding
amounts and stability.
2015 in Biology women earned 53% of PhDs but composed 48% of postdocs,
44% of assistant professors, and 35% of the professoriate with PhD in biology.
Similar discrepancies persist in academic medicine.
Women composed only 31% of grantees in the analysis.
Women report less interest than men in becoming principal investigators.
Women were less likely to attempt to renew grants (42.45%/45.44%) and less
successful in RPG renewal receiving less favorable reviews than men(35.98/39.28%)
Women’s larger drop-off in NIH funding at first renewal could reflect
career changes.
Broad gender differences remain and that thoughful intervention during key
transitions could help reduce these differences.
Women who have “made it” in science are having careers of comparable length
to men and are sustaining funding to support these careers.
$32.311 millions in 2016
WG Women in BM careers 2007
Office R. on Women Health 1990

6. The Guardian
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Friday 10 Aug 2018

7. 23/10/2017 P. López Sancho

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PNAS112, 13203 (2015)
STEM faculty 71% men
NSF promoted inclusiveness as a
core value in its 2014-2018
strategic plan.
Funds ADVANCE Institutional
Transformation grants to increase
the participation of women faculty
in STEM
PNAS Impact factor 9.661

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Success rate 12.7%
44 nationalities

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Success rate 12%
27 nationalities

11. Improving gender equality in RFO
Indicators broken by field, age, academic age/position.
• Share of women and men among applicants
• Share of women and men among successful applicants
• Success rate for women and men applicants.
• Average size of grant for women and men.
• Share of women and men among reviewers
• Share of women and men among heads of review panels
• Share of women and men in funding decision-making
bodies
16/11/2018 P. López Sancho
Gender and Diversity WG, Science Europe

12. Gender-inclusive language indicators
• Organisation gender-policy
• Grant calls
• Application information/ Website
• Written communications directed at
applicants.
• Requirements must be specified in gender-
inclusive lenguage.
• Instructions for evaluators/evaluation
sheets.
• Instructions to committee members
16/11/2018 P. López Sancho PNAS 2015

13. Funding Gap
• The “paradox of equality” makes people
less vigilant for unequal outcomes and can
enhance biased evaluations.
• Lower success rates for female applicants
imply women with more teaching and
administrative tasks at university
departments.
• Funding gap and underrepresentation of
women in STEM are perpetuated.
16/11/2018 P. López Sancho

14. 7FW/H2020:PIs distribution by sex and area
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Social S. &Humanities
Biology
Natural Resources
Agricultural S.
Physical S.
Material S.
Food S.
Chemical S.
%W
38
34
24
41
21
39
54
53
W
35.6%

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52,3
44,4
42,0
40,0
35,8
25,0
47,7
55,6 58,0 60,0
64,2
75,0
0
20
40
60
80
100
Predoctoral Postdocs RyC CT + ID IC PI
%
Personal Investigador CSIC 2017
% Mujeres % Hombres Informe Mujeres Investigadoras 2018
35,6% W
CSIC Scientific staff, December 31, 2017
31% W

16. Improving gender equality in RPO
• Indicators broken by scientific field, age:
Applications for recruitment and promotions
• Share of women and men among applicants
• Share of women and men among persons
recruited/promoted
• Success rate for women and men applicants
• Share of women and men in boards
• Share of women and men among heads of boards
• Share of women and men in decision-making bodies
16/11/2018 P. López Sancho
Gender and Diversity WG, Science Europe

17. General recommendations
• Defining explicit objectives for gender
equality. Explicit commitment
• Mandatory actions should be undertaken to
meet the objectives
• Collecting data, monitoring indicators
• Understanding unconscious bias and
gender-science stereotypes.
• Gender specific training for the staff
• Top level support
16/11/2018 P. López Sancho
Gender and Diversity WG, Science Europe