Cathrine Hasse, Associate Professor, DPU, University of Aarhus, Denmark

1. Public hearing on ‘Women and Science’, The European Parliament, December 18th 2007Women’s experience in science: scientific culture - concepts, stereotypes, barriers? Cathrine Hasse, Associate Professor, DPU, University of Aarhus, Denmark Stine Trentemøller, Research assistant, DPU, University of Aarhus, Denmark

2. Target Countries where the interviews are carried outOther target Countries where statistical data are collected Target Countries where the interviews are carried outOther target Countries where statistical data are collected

3. IUPAP Conference: Woman in Physics Paris 2002Figure Caption: Data collected for the conference and analysed by K Wiesner

4. Cultural diversity • The more industrialised the countries the larger difference between boys and girls interests in science Sjøberg, S. (2004). Naturfag som allmenndannelse; En kritisk fagdidaktikk. 2. utgave. Gyldendal Akademisk. (http://folk.uio.no/sveinsj/) BUT • Italy, Portugal Spain and many Eastern European countries have just as many female physicists

5. Disproportional gendered choices • Whatever the country (with their respective equality policies or lack of), whatever the discipline, and whether women were the majority or minority of students in that discipline, the proportion of women among the professorates, went down to somewhere around ten percent in every country, in every discipline. (See among others SHE-Figures, Gender and Excellence in the Making,, the Helsinki Group Reports, and the ETAN- report)

6. Innovation: Look at leavers • A. The primary objective of the UPGEM project is to identify relevant local cultural-historical processes behind “brain-drains” of female physicists, who are leaving the field despite having the same formal qualifications as their male colleagues. • B. Qualitative studies of working environment of academic staff (leavers and stayers) in physics institutes at universities distributed along the north/south and the east/west axes of the European map.

7. UPGEM-work plan

8. Female Stayer Culture Culture Leaver Male MODEL OF CULTURE CONTRAST ANALYSIS

9. Data and Hypotheses Data • 208 interviews with male and female physicists (50 in Poland, and Italy, 36 in Denmark, Estonia and Finland) translated into English. Aprox. 50% of the informants are employed outside of academia. 2. Field observations from 20 physics institutes 3. X-Ray of 20 physics institutes 4. Information boxes with cultural historical background information

10. Stayers and leavers’ position in the Danish data Distribution of male and female stayers position in academia Red= F Blue= M

11. Leakey Pipeline • Whatever discipline we’re discussing, whatever the proportion of women among the undergraduates and whatever equality measures are put in place, we still see a disproportionate leakage of women from scientific careers at every stage in the academic hierarchy in every country (Alper 1993)

12. PUSH / PULL Factors Push factors • Competition • Stereotypical identity • Lack of Self-esteem • Political changes • Lack of career perspectives • Low pay + Short term contracts • Work motivational problems • Bad working environment (conflicts, harassment) • Insufficient organization of workplace • Mobility requirements Pull factors • Family responsibility • New job possibilities (i.e. in industry or business) • Better pay • Better career options

13. Stayers and Leavers • Stayers fields: Geophysics, theoretical physics, nano physics, solid state physics, particle physics, nuclear physics, X-ray physics, aerosol physics, astrophysics, astronomy, meteorology, material physics etc. • Positions held by leavers: Designers, Public Researcher, Industrial researcher, Patent Consultants, Academic administration • Website administrators, Well site engineers, College teachers, Record managers, Medical physics • Research & development in high technology companies, Energy industry, Specialist positions in public sector, • HR management, Polytechnics and high school, Investment companies, Dissemination of Didactics, Retired • Unemployed

14. Examples of codes and hypothesis • 1) • Code: Motivation • Hypothesis: Females are more often than males encouraged to study and do career in physics by personal relations such as a teacher, family member or mentor. • 2) • Code: Family Member • Hypothesis: Women more often than men have physicists in their family. • 3) • Code: Mentor • Hypothesis: Having a mentor facilitates your career advancement in physics in academia as well as outside of academia. • 4) • Code: Professor • Hypothesis: Staying on good terms with your professor is a prerequisite for staying in academia at all. This especially affects women because they are poorer at making and maintaining professor-bonding. • 5) • Code: Identity • Hypothesis: We find cultural differences in how men and women identify themselves as physicists • 6) • Code: Stereotypes • Hypothesis: Female physicists are connected to different stereotypes than male physicists

15. 9) Code: Competition • Hypothesis: We find more female physicists in universities that are less competitive compared to the more competitive universities. • Definition: This code is used when you judge the interviewee speaks of competition. It can be competition for jobs, prestige, funding. It can refer to personal and general experiences. • Best example: The case where some physicists tries to block the publications of another group because they compete.

16. Nature of competition • Ongoing race of publishing new results • Emphasizing oneself • Being able to act and think strategically

17. Positive-negative attitude to Competition Positive towards competition at work • The majority of the males • Less than 1/5 of the females • Negative towards competition at work • The majority of the females • Less than 1/5 of the males

18. Attitudes towards competition in countries Finland: Female informants reported rarely on competitive situations in their career and expressed unwillingness to enter competition Male informants considered competition as an inherent part of academic work and saw it both as a career booster and a career obstacle Denmark: Males talk more often of competition as a positive element. They generally have a relatively neutral attitude towards competition, and seem to acknowledge and accept the conditions. Overall, the female informants appear less willing to compete and less willing to acknowledge the relevance of taking part in competition (they just want to do their job), though some of them (mainly stayers) are aware of the competition and speak of being competitive. Italy: Negative accounts of competition mainly came up in female narratives

19. Negative competition female leaver Denmark: I: Do you think you would have still been there if there had not been so much competition? [Female leaver]: Yes, that is for sure, then I would not have felt the constant expectations of results and so on. The question is whether that is a natural part of research, the competition itself. No, I do not know. It had helped me if there had not been any competition element in it.

20. Open and hidden Competition • Open competition is typically between various research groups, universities or even countries. Open competition is characterised by practices where colleagues generally show greater group orientation by e.g. planning strategy jointly and where all know who is competing for specific funding or positions. • Hidden competition is typically described as occurring at a personal level, i.e. in-group competition such as individual colleagues competing against each other, and is typically of a disputable nature.

21. Open and hidden Competition • Open competition: • [female leaver]: They didn’t accept the theory we brought which is a part of how research is done; you retain your point of view and continue to do so. You spend a lot of energy on fighting the others and move yourself forwards … In twenty years we can see who was right. • Hidden competition: • [female stayer]: Sometimes I think back at the time in high school were I didn’t want to be a part of the intrigue among the girls but now that I’m working at the Institute of Physics I have to be in it if I have to have a shot in the competition.

22. Handling competition at work • [Female leaver]: [T]hose who are responsible for a group, tend to create a spirit of a “healthy” competition among the employees. I don’t believe there is such thing as a “healthy” competition because human soul is corrupt, so to say, and instinctively, out of fear and survival spirit, it tends to surpass the others. If such an instinct remains uncontrolled (..) then it all comes to the rule of the strongest, which is only harmful.

23. Handling competition at work Some research groups seem to be better than others to handle competition. Two specific research groups in the data, a “geo-group” and a “bio-group”, stand out as having developed characteristic open traditions in terms of handling in-group competition in a collaborative way. Joint meetings on planning strategies, where all know e.g. who is competing for specific funding, lead to a better working environment.

24. 30) Code: Stereotypes • Hypothesis: Female physicists are connected to different stereotypes than male physicists. • Definition: The code refers mainly to stereotypical notions of physicists in society or even among physicists themselves. You should use this code regardless of whether the person interviewed identifies with the stereotype or not. • Best example: “There are two types of physicists – those nerds who only works and those who do other things as well”, “He was a real absent-minded type, you know.” or “Most people seem to think it is weird to study physics” (said by a female).

25. Diverse stereotypical identities in physics sciences DK: Geeks and High Priests and Playful Boys IT: Genious and Over-philosophical Geek EST: Black Smith, High Priest and Playful Boys Carry male connotations

26. Cultural models of physics • Denmark: Connections between physics as hard + elitist = science anxiety = negative feelings = less directional force + masculine = less motivation especially for girls • Italy: Connections between physics + classical and philosophical studies. No connections to hard, elitist and masculine = more directional force= more motivation especially for girls.

27. Visibility of Women No clear female connotated stereotype in DK Being visible as a female is perceived as problematic by many DK females The matter of being female is put before their recognition as competent physicist. In the Danish interviews no females describe themselves as accentuating their femininity at work.

28. Female visibility • [Female Danish physicist]: … what I find hard is…when you travel to _ to conferences and.. What becomes difficult is actually eh _ _ that you sort of get seen.. • I: As a woman? • [Female Danish physicist]: Yes. I mean, you get …it is like you have a flashlight in your forehead [laughs]. I mean, it can be [unclear] but sometimes it is very demanding .. and you talk to them …and they talk to you just because you are a woman. • I: Yes. • [Female Danish physicist] : …and when you talk to them ..they think you are interested just because you talk to them [laughs]. • I: Yes • [Female Danish physicist]: and that can be really hard.

29. Visibility of Women In the Italian context female visibility seems to be used as an advantage in some situations. In the interviews and fieldwork the Italian women appear more feminine and seem be able to play on their femininity without this interfering with their recognition as competent physicists.

30. Female Visibility • I: Do you think that your career would have changed if you had been a man? • [Female Italian physicist]: Honestly, I have to say that when a committee to guarantee the same possibilities to men and women was created also here in this institution, many female colleagues came to me and asked me “when do you begin?/when do you travel abroad?”, but I think I have never been discriminated, on the contrary [unclear] I had some advantages because in a surrounding where they are all men, there is always some kind of pleasure in being kind to a woman, in giving her a bonus, in making her a favour. So there was no discrimination towards me. I remember that I had a female university mate who always opened a button more in her blouse when she sit for an exam and she used to say: “Look, this is a point more that I get”, it is not always like this but sometimes you can [unclear] in a surrounding where there are a lot of men, there are advantages for a woman, but there can also be some disadvantages.

31. UPGEM Conference: DRAW THE LINE • First Announcement of the UPGEM Conference • Copenhagen, May 30-31, 2008 • Research in Academia shows that female and male scientists follow different career paths in different national contexts. Some countries are better than others at attracting female scientists to a research career in natural science. Even so, female scientists in these countries never reach top positions to the same extent as their male colleagues. The results presented at the UPGEM conference unveils the complex and intricate cultural patterns behind these facts. The project gives a multifaceted picture of the diversity of the everyday life at universities in five European countries, Italy, Poland, Finland, Estonia and Denmark.

32. Homepage • http:// • www.upgem.dk