Forum: Hierarchical Segregation in Teaching and Research

Organised by WREN

How to solve the gender gaps in STEM?

The concept of “Hierarchical Segregation” proposed by Rossiter in the 1980s states that the greater the power and prestige of a job, the lower the presence of women in it. In WREN’s new forum, we will present the results of a survey carried out by Prof. Dr. Julia Mendes revealing that this concept remains strong in our field to this day. She will expose the (alarming) differences between research metrics of female and male professors and students in the Engineering graduate courses in Brazil.

Julia and her team from UFOP and UFJF evaluated the graduate programs of Engineering I (Civil, Environmental and Transport Engineering), investigating the advisor-advisee relationships by gender and analyzing the current scientific production of professors and students. They examined all the masters and PhD dissertations defended from 2013 to 2020 (+16,000) and drew conclusions about:

• the percentage of females among graduate students and professors
• the number of advisees by gender
• publication metrics by gender
• and the evolution of these numbers over the years.

We will have further contributions from two invited panellists: Prof Shamika Almeida, Associate Dean EDI – Faculty of Business and Law at the University of Wollongong in Australia, and Brazilian researcher Camila Infanger Almeida, a specialist in gender studies and public policy and a representative of the Parent in Science movement. Afterwards, we will exchange experiences and discuss the impacts of our current scenario. There will be both English and Portuguese breakout rooms available.

Researchers at all levels and from all areas of STEM are welcome to join and be part of the change!