International Workshop on "Women and Science / Technology" Network in Asia

The Gender and Science Project (or Studies on Science Related Issues and Cultivation of Women Scientists) sponsored by National Science Council of Taiwan, is chaired by Professor Chia-Li Wu and 4 other co-chairs. The project period is from June 2011 to the end of 2013. There are three main parts in the project: 1) Encourage and cultivate women scientists and engineers; 2) Collect and share data/literature on gender and science research and ways of promoting women scientists and engineers; 3)Construct a gender and science database to enable international comparison.

As one of the co-chair, my assigned tasks cover mainly the last part, i.e. constructing a G&ST database and analyze the data. For this purpose, we need to find out the G&ST indicators that are often used internationally. Therefore, we reviewed several international databases, and decided to start with the EU framework−She Figures.
She Figures 2009 is the third publication (following She Figures 2003 and She Figures 2006) of a key set of indicators that are essential to correctly comprehend the situation of women in science and research. She Figures reflects a clear wish to develop pan-European harmonised statistics facilitating cross-national comparisons and to build a base of gender disaggregated data available at the EU-level that allows to track changes over time and that has great value both to increase knowledge and to inform policies.

Researchers and R&D expenditure data are collected through the R&D Survey, which since 2004 has been carried out as a joint data collection between Eurostat and the OECD. In addition, there are R&D data of Japan and the United States that are drawn from the OECD’s Main Science and Technology Indicators (MSTI).

There are over 50 indicators in She Figures, and divided into four chapters to illustrate the horizontal and vertical gender segregation in S&T fields. In my presentation, data from Taiwan are collected using the same standard definition with She Figures, i.e. the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 97) and International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO 88). Some data of Taiwan are still not available and need to be produced later. Interpreting the similarities and differences between EU, Taiwan and some Japan data reveals some interesting hint, a task that my team plan to proceed more thoroughly after all data are confirmed valid.

In conclusion, this presentation suggests that we can draw on some ideas of She Figures, and develop a pan-East Asian framework/template for further collaboration and comparison.