Published in the Research School of Physics Event Horizon
Vol43 Issue69 14–18 May 2018

Global survey designed to help understand diversity (or lack thereof) in science.  

In 2010, the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) and the American Institute of Physics (AIP) conducted the Global Survey of Physicists comparing experiences of men and women physicists around the world. There were 14,932 respondents from 130 countries and 8 languages. The results highlighted contrasts between women and men, and between less and more highly developed countries. This survey was valuable in understanding gender issues such as differential access to resources, opportunities for men and women on a country-by-country basis, or cultural expectations concerning child care. It aided decisions on where interventions are best targeted.

In this project, we will improve and extend the global survey to chemistry, astronomy, biology, computer science, and mathematics. We will target 45,000 respondents in multiple languages. In order to have a better knowledge of the gender gap in science around the world, we will explore comparisons across regions, countries, disciplines, level of development of the country (more developed or less developed), sector of employment (academia, industry, school), and age (younger and older respondents). We will also look at scientists’ development of interest in science, experiences in education and careers, family support, access to resources needed to conduct science, and opportunities to contribute to the scientific enterprise. The survey will use special input from the three major regions of the ICSU Regional Offices — Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Background:

https://icsugendergapinscience.org/work-packages/global-survey/

Direct link to the survey

https://statisticalresearchcenter.aip.org/cgi-bin/global18.pl

Event Horizon image from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Woman_teaching_geometry.jpg