Latest Elsevier gender equality study reveals 20 years of progress, but challenges remain for women in research and innovation

By India Education Diary Bureau Admin On Jun 21, 2024

New Delhi – Elsevier, a global leader in scientific information and analytics with a long-standing commitment to advancing inclusion in research and health, has released its latest report analyzing gender equality in research. Progress Towards Gender Equality in Research & Innovation – 2024 Review examines inclusion and diversity in career cohorts across intersecting disciplines and geographies, tracking multiple indicators over 20 years. It reveals progress, with women now representing 41% of researchers globally, but also that serious challenges persist in gender equity in research and innovation.

India leads in the growth of women researchers, yet global challenges persist

Growth Rate: Over the last decade, India presented the 3rd highest compound annual growth rate for women’s share of active researchers, at 2%, behind only Egypt and the Netherlands.
Policy Citations: Women researchers in India are more often cited by policy documents than men on average, with respective normalized scores of 0.41 and 0.37 across all subject areas. Within broad scientific areas, women outperform men in Physical Sciences (0.37 versus 0.35), Social Sciences (0.36 versus 0.33), STEM (0.40 versus 0.37) and are on par in Health Sciences (0.52 for both).
Knowledge Transfer to Patents: Although women are underrepresented as inventors on patent applications, they are cited as often as men when focusing on patents citing scientific literature (0.40 for both). Women score higher in Life Sciences (0.36 versus 0.34) and STEM (0.38 versus 0.37).
Early Career Cohorts: Early career Indian women in Health Sciences reached parity in 2022, representing 41% of all Indian active researchers in this area. In Life Sciences, early career women reached the parity zone in 2021, and as of 2022, they represent 43% of active researchers.
Grant Funding: The share of women among grant awardees in India has shown improvement but lags behind global leaders. In India, the share of women among grant awardees is currently 33% compared to 37% globally.

Notably, at the current pace of change, equality remains unacceptably far away; for example, although women’s representation in mathematics, engineering and computer science is increasing, it is not projected to reach parity with men’s until 2052. And, while grant funding for women is rising (from 29% in 2009 to 37% in 2022), translation of research into innovation through patent applications – which serve as a proxy for understanding involvement in the full value chain of research – is much lower for women researchers. This is despite women’s strong performance in disciplines that relate to solving some of the biggest challenges the world faces, as expressed in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The Report provides a substantial evidence base for academic leaders, funders, and policymakers to take data-led action on gender equality in research and innovation; key findings include:

Women have made gains in the last two decades – as of 2022, they represent 41% (compared to 28% in 2001) of all active researchers globally, with strong representation in Health Sciences. However, gender diversity hasn’t progressed equally in all fields, for example in the physical sciences women represent just 33% of researchers.
Women’s participation in the research workforce differs substantially by country/region. In Portugal and Argentina, just over half (52%) of active researchers are women. Women make up nearly half of active researchers in Brazil, Spain, and Italy, and around 40% in the USA and UK. However, women make up 33% in India, now the world’s third largest research producing country; 30% in Egypt; and less than a quarter (22%) of active researchers in Japan.
The average share of women among grant awardees increased globally from 29% in 2009 to 37% in 2022. The largest increases were for the Netherlands (+19 percentage points), Denmark (+13), the United Kingdom (+12), France (+10), Canada (+10), and Portugal (+8).
Women comprise the majority of active researchers working on some UN SDG research areas, including education (SDG 4), gender equality (SDG 5), reduce inequalities (SDG 10) and peace and justice (SDG 16). For 10 of the 17 SDGs, proportionally slightly more women engage in more multidisciplinary research than men. Multidisciplinary research, in which researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds collaborate, is considered important to solving complex global challenges.
Women’s progress is especially marked when assessed using indicators around societal impact, with their research more likely than men’s to be cited in policy documents and media.

The report offers five recommended areas of action for the research and innovation communities:

Accelerate commitments and actions towards greater gender equity in research.
Stop the decline in participation with rising seniority by prioritizing the retention of early-career women researchers into mid and advanced career stages.
Develop incentive structures to help women play an equal part in the full research and innovation value chain, including patents.
Apply a broad range of indicators to measure research effectiveness, including societal and policy impact.
Continue to collect and report inclusion and diversity data to monitor progress, identify gaps, evaluate policies, and drive accountability.

Commenting on the report, Mirit Eldor, Managing Director, Life Sciences Solutions at Elsevier and Secretary of its Inclusion and Diversity Independent Advisory Board, said: “With guidance from our Inclusion and Diversity Advisory Board, we have shaped this latest Gender Report to illuminate progress, ongoing disparities and pathways towards a more equitable research ecosystem. The report also offers the research community insights that can help evolve how research excellence is evaluated. We can now better understand the impact of women’s research in addressing the most serious challenges our world faces today.”

“India’s rapid growth in women researchers highlights ongoing gender equity efforts,” said Prof. Dr. Sandeep Sancheti, Vice President of Research Relations & Academic Affairs at Elsevier India. “India’s strides in gender equality in research are truly encouraging. We’ve made significant headway in creating a more inclusive academic environment. This progress, while notable, highlights both our achievements and the challenges that remain. At Elsevier India, we are dedicated to fostering an ecosystem that not only supports but also amplifies the contributions of women researchers, ensuring they have the opportunities and recognition they deserve to drive innovation and address global challenges.”

Dr. Hannah Valantine, Professor of Medicine, at Stanford University and member of Elsevier’s Inclusion and Diversity Advisory Board, said: “I was just so taken aback by the Gender Report’s scope, depth, breadth, thoughtfulness, and potential for real impact. It can lead to genuine culture change within institutions and funding agencies to in turn benefit individual researchers of all genders throughout their careers.”

In an era where researchers are increasingly expected to help tackle the world’s most complex and important problems, especially as the 2030 deadline for the UN SDGs gets closer, the Report provides valuable intersectional insight into women’s contribution to the global research and innovation ecosystem, the need for traditional academic evaluation metrics to evolve, and the continuing imperative for greater inclusiveness in the research and innovation workforce.