For this year’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science on February 11th, we hosted a special event to discuss our policy recommendations to promote gender equity in research funding and to discuss with our community about what needs to change for ensuring mothers and other caregivers have equal opportunities for career advancement in the STEMM sector.
The webinar was co-hosted by Isabel Torres, co-founder & CEO of Mothers in Science (MiS), and Anaelle Hertz, our Research Officer, who are co-authors of the action plan released recently with our policy recommendations. In the event, Isabel and Anaelle first discussed the policy recommendations, including how they were developed and the specific problems they aim to resolve. They also briefly discussed the evidence and rationale on which they the policies are based, and which you can read about in more detail in this essay recently published by our team.
The action plan outlines specific and actionable strategies to promote inclusion of caregivers and close the gender gap in research funding, explained Isabel. The call to action follows a pre-pandemic global survey conducted by MiS and five partners which found that women in STEMM often have to face many barriers in the workplace after they become parents, including pregnancy and maternity bias and discrimination, which eventually forces them to take a “family-friendly” lower-responsibility job, take a career break or work part-time or leave the STEMM sector altogether.
“Funders can influence the scientific community more broadly and also implement more inclusive policies, particularly for mothers whose research careers largely depend on funding success.”
Isabel then explained how MiS began a global movement for mothers in STEMM and discussed what future plans our team has to make sure funding agencies listen to our call for action and start implementing policies to promote inclusion of caregivers in research funding.
The idea for this action plan was first discussed at the MiS international conference in 2021 during a “Brainstorming” networking session. About 40 conference delegates and speakers who participated in the session agreed to form a global working group tasked to draft policy recommendations and approach leaders and decision-makers in STEMM worldwide. It was also decided to first focus on funding agencies because they are critical for scientific production and career advancement. MiS committed to lead and organise these global efforts and develop an action plan for funding agencies which would be enforced by 18 major non-profit organisations for women in STEMM.
Next, Isabel and Anaelle discussed the specific problems facing mothers in STEMM that needed to be urgently addressed. The policies in the action plan were designed to tackle specific obstacles resulting directly or indirectly from career gaps, gender roles and lack of childcare, maternity bias and impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
“Maternity bias is the strongest form of gender bias, but unfortunately receives less attention.”
The event participants asked many questions around these relatable topics, especially issues concerning gender/maternity bias in the grant evaluation process. Isabel argued that “maternity bias is the strongest form of gender bias, but unfortunately receives less attention.” As a result of this, the Matthew Effect of accumulated advantage persists and continues to widen career gaps for mothers and caregivers in STEMM fields around the world.
CLOSING COMMENTS
To end the hour-long discussion, the hosts urged research funders worldwide to take meaningful action and use the action plan to improve their practices and cultivate a culture of fairness and inclusion more broadly in the STEMM academic sector. They also encouraged the event participants to self-advocate – “Speak up if your fellowship, scholarship, or research grant does not offer you everything you need as a parent to continue doing research and keep up with your peers, contact your funding agency, show them our action plan, and ask them to change their policies!”
Self-advocacy also requires learning about these policies and inspiring others in your institutions to promote change. We encourage you to download the action plan, read and share it. Join the global movement to help us create systemic change!
Written by Diane Ugwu
Edited by Isabel Torres
2nd May 2023