90 likes | 266 Views
GROUP 3: WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP ROLE IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. THE ROLE OF WOMEN AS LEADERS IN RESEARCH. Leadership: Definition Level 1 – Principal Investigator: involved in coming up with research proposal ( writing skill for small & large scale research and multi-disciplinary)
E N D
THE ROLE OF WOMEN AS LEADERS IN RESEARCH Leadership: Definition Level 1 – Principal Investigator: involved in coming up with research proposal (writing skill for small & large scale research and multi-disciplinary) Level 2 – Head of evaluation committee (multi-disciplinary, expert in specific field) Level 3 – To be a member of national level think-tank (shaping the national research for short, medium and long term – development by design)
Current status • Observed that there were no specific policies in place to support women in leadership positions which focuses on scientific research. In general the group agreed that leadership in science research has to be primarily based on merit and scientific criteria but that equal opportunity had to be given to women. • Discussed UNESCO’s specific gender affirmative policies in hiring and its applicability to research. • Agreed that the status in different countries as far as basic levels of participation of women in research is different and that specific programmes have to be introduced to level the playing field at each stage. • Discussed and shared scenarios and ideas from the perspectives of participants from India, Nigeria, Myanmar and Malaysia. • Agreed that the lack of data and specific information on the levels of leadership of women in research was critical.
Current status • Agreed that the cultural and social constraints, and the even the attitudes of women themselves were among the root causes of the inability of women to reach significant numbers in leadership roles. That among the key success factors were a strong family support system and self- confidence. There was also consensus that many women chose to leave demanding careers in research because of social pressure in a scenario described as “choosing to leave because there is no choice” • One scenario discussed was the difficulty of women re-entering research positions should they take a leave of absence e,g to start a family. The issue of stigma associated with women and maternity leave was also discussed. • Agreed that there was a lack of women “Icons” who could be role models of women who succeed in both a demanding research career while raising a family
Strategies • To develop a comprehensive database on the levels of participation of women in research, their career path, the extent of leakage during career advancement and the number of women in different levels of research and research leadership. • To create formal network for women research scientist to facilitate interaction, collaboration among women scientist/researcher of similar interest. • To formulate a policy for women scientist/researcher to facilitate re-entry into research. • To introduce a specific intervention programme in leadership and mentoring for women scientist/researchers. • To provide more scholarships and to facilitate women to pursue postgraduate studies.
Mechanisms • To source for international funding for developing the database and analysis perhaps through UNESCO and ISTIC. – NIEW to • To leverage existing platform such as AkademiSains Malaysia(ASM), NAM/ISTIC, AKEPT etc. to facilitate the creation of formal network. • Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development to table the proposed policies to the parliament after getting the consensus from all stakeholders such as the GLCs (TM, TNB, SIRIM, MIMOS etc. ), private and public sectors (MARDI, RRI, FRIM, IMR etc.). • To identify mid-career researchers, creating awareness on the importance of the intervention programme for their career advancement. • To make available appropriate support for women to enable them to have a work-life balance
RECOMMENDATIONS • That country specific databases be generated with a focus on the levels of participation of women at different levels of the research career spectrum to enable specific intervention programmes to be developed • That for Malaysia, an intervention programme targeted at identifying, assisting and grooming talented women mid-career research professionals for leadership roles be introduced that would contribute to its achieving the 30% goal of women leaders by 2020.