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Inorms 2023: Mentorship, career flexibility and narrative changes suggested by speakers
More effort is needed to bring about greater gender equality in science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects in Africa, according to speakers at the annual conference of the International Network of Research Management Societies.
A panel on gender in Stem at the event in Durban, South Africa, on 1 June featured half a dozen speakers who set out their studies of gender equality in various countries across the continent, each conveying similar messages.
Dzidzo Yirenya-Tawiah (pictured, second from right), a senior research fellow in environment and sanitation studies at the University of Ghana, and Faith Njoki Karanja (pictured, speaking), a professor of geospatial and space technologies at the University of Nairobi, set out their joint Sistars project on advancing female Stem leaders in Ghana and Kenya.
They found that gender equality in Stem is a global challenge but that most data on it come from developed countries, Yirenya-Tawiah said. Karanja warned that the gap in female leadership in Stem in the countries studied “is real, is not getting any better” and worsens higher up the career ladder.
“If we don’t have women in positions of leadership, there’s going to be trouble” in terms of decision-making and what research is conducted, Karanja said.
Karanja and Yirenya-Tawiah found that there are many gender equality policies in place in their countries but that “they don’t speak to Stem” specifically, positing that this could be an area of future focus.
There are “real” barriers to female advancement in Stem, the researchers found, including limited research funding opportunities and chances to collaborate, and a lack of structured mentoring programmes.
The limited amount of funding means that “we need to have a deliberate effort by research managers in sharing information” on funding calls to help women identify opportunities, Karanja said.
Change the narrative
Ulrike Rivett (pictured, right), a deputy dean at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, said that a project called Gejusta that is focused on gender justice in Stem had found that there was a need to “change the narrative” around what constitutes a Stem field.
Nursing is generally considered to be “Stem-adjacent”, she pointed out, but she questioned why this is the case. “As soon as you care, you’re not [considered to be working in] Stem,” she said. “What is science and who decided?”
Rivett said Gejusta had found that more mentorship and career flexibility could also help women to advance in academia.
She said that institutions and funders should be more accepting of career breaks for female students who become mothers, asking why students cannot benefit from the same maternity breaks that are provided to workers.
Research Professional News is media partner for the Inorms 2023 conference in Durban. Read all of the coverage here.