Gender Equality in Research & Innovation – How Gender Impacts the Research Journey

This HEPI blog was kindly authored by Ylann Schemm (@YlannSchemm), Executive Director of The Elsevier Foundation and Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at Elsevier.

Twenty years ago, women made up only 29% of researchers globally and approximately 15% of senior researchers. Today, those numbers are 41% and 27% respectively – a positive yet incredibly slow increase. Looking beyond participation, women are strong in many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) research areas and interdisciplinary research, health disciplines, policy and citations – indicating their significant commitment to societal impact. But, even as women enter the “parity zone” in many areas, progress is still sadly uneven across scientific fields, geographies and patent applications, underscoring the need for continued focus and targeted, evidence-based interventions.

Elsevier’s 2024 gender report, Progress Towards Gender Equality in Research & Innovation, is a landmark examination of gender equity in research across 18 countries, the European Union’s 27 member states and the world as a whole. Tracking progress over the last 20 years, it provides a substantial evidence base for academic leaders, funders, and policymakers to take data-led action on gender equality in research and innovation.

Notably, at the current pace of change, equality remains unacceptably far away; for example, although women’s representation in mathematics, engineering and computer science is increasing, it is not projected to reach parity with men’s until 2052. Participation in patent applications is another indicator as those serve as a proxy for understanding involvement in the full value chain of research. Although grant funding for women is rising globally (from 29% in 2009 to 37% in 2022), translation of research into innovation through patent applications remains staggeringly low for women researchers, with just 3% made by women-only teams, and 27% contributing through mixed gender teams. As patents represent research being applied to real-world solutions, we could truly be missing out on the full human potential to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems, especially given women’s strong performance in disciplines that relate to the UN SDGs.

Research excellence is measured by a narrow set of metrics—research output, citations and grants– to define success and value which means that many of women’s contributions to the research enterprise are generally not factored into promotions or grants. This lack of recognition, in turn, slows career progression– something which needs addressing, and fast. The report’s findings clearly demonstrate the need to take a holistic approach to evaluating research and to apply a broad range of qualitative and quantitative indicators to measure research effectiveness, including societal and policy impact. As part of this, we need to adopt a longer time frame in evaluation, as the transformation of scientific knowledge into policy and patent citations can be slow, taking up to 10 years. This would ensure that women researchers’ contributions are fully recognised and that they can progress in their careers.

In an era where researchers are increasingly expected to help tackle the world’s most complex and important problems, especially as the 2030 deadline for the UN SDGs nears, the report provides valuable intersectional insights into women’s contributions to the global research and innovation ecosystem, the need for traditional academic evaluation metrics to evolve, and the continuing imperative for greater inclusiveness in the research and innovation workforce.   

Other findings include:

• Whilst women have made gains in the last two decades and this increase is encouraging, gender diversity hasn’t progressed equally in all fields. In the physical sciences, women represent just 33% per cent of researchers.
• Women’s participation in the research workforce differs substantially by country/region. In Portugal, Spain, Italy, Argentina and Brazil, around half of active researchers are women, with around 40% in the USA and UK. However, women make up 33% of active researchers in India, now the world’s third largest research producing country; 30% in Egypt; and 22% of active researchers in Japan. 
• The average share of women among grant awardees increased globally from 29% in 2009 to 37% in 2022. The largest increases were for the Netherlands (+19%), Denmark (+13), the United Kingdom (+12), France (+10), Canada (+10), and Portugal (+8). 
• Women comprise the majority of active researchers working on some UN SDG research areas, including education (SDG 4), gender equality (SDG 5), reduce inequalities (SDG 10) and peace and justice (SDG 16). For 10 of the 17 SDGs, proportionally slightly more women engage in multidisciplinary research than men. Multidisciplinary research, in which researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds collaborate, is considered important to solving complex global challenges.  
• Women’s progress is especially marked when assessed using indicators around societal impact, with their research more likely than men’s to be cited in policy documents and media.

With these findings in mind, there are five recommended areas of action for the research and innovation communities, including universities and funders:  

1. Accelerate commitments and actions towards greater gender equity in research.
2. Stop the decline in participation with rising seniority by prioritising retention of early-career women researchers into mid and advanced career stages.
3. Develop incentive structures to help women play an equal part in the full research and innovation value chain, including patents and IP.
4. Apply a broad range of indicators to measure research effectiveness, including societal and policy impact.
5. Continue to collect and report inclusion and diversity data to monitor progress, identify gaps, evaluate policies, and drive accountability.

The Elsevier Foundation is committed to advancing inclusion in research and healthcare and contributes more than $1 million each year to non-profit organisations and uses findings like these to inform which issues, projects and groups to focus on to have the most impact. Over the past two decades, our Foundation has forged partnerships that support underrepresented researchers, librarians and healthcare professionals through role modelling, mentoring, raising their visibility and spotlighting their contributions.