SciCombinator

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an authoritative and influential source of reports on climate change. The lead authors of IPCC reports include scientists from around the world, but questions have been raised about the dominance of specific disciplines in the report and the disproportionate number of scholars from the Global North. In this paper, we analyze the as-yet-unexamined issue of gender and IPCC authorship, looking at changes in gender balance over time and analyzing women’s views about their experience and barriers to full participation, not only as women but also at the intersection of nationality, race, command of English, and discipline. Over time, we show that the proportion of female IPCC authors has seen a modest increase from less than 5% in 1990 to more than 20% in the most recent assessment reports. Based on responses from over 100 women IPCC authors, we find that many women report a positive experience in the way in which they are treated and in their ability to influence the report, although others report that some women were poorly represented and heard. We suggest that an intersectional lens is important: not all women experience the same obstacles: they face multiple and diverse barriers associated with social identifiers such as race, nationality, command of English, and disciplinary affiliation. The scientific community benefits from including all scientists, including women and those from the Global South. This paper documents barriers to participation and identifies opportunities to diversify climate science.

Women scientists across India are working together to build and advocate for family-friendly policies at their institutes.

In 2006 I wrote two Opinion pieces based on interviews with senior women scientists. Since then, there have been significant gains for women. However, there is no room for complacency, and all scientists need to work together to achieve true gender equality.

Women in medicine continue to experience disparities in earnings, promotion, and leadership roles. There are few guidelines in place defining organization-level factors that promote a supportive workplace environment beneficial to women in emergency medicine. We assembled a working group with the goal of developing specific and feasible recommendations to support women’s professional development in both community and academic emergency medicine (EM) settings.

Women in Molecular Imaging Network (WIMIN) is an interest group of the World Molecular Imaging Society (WMIS) aimed at advancing the careers of women in science. WIMIN represents women in the field of molecular imaging through all stages of their career development and promotes their advancement to leadership positions within the society and their careers. WIMIN’s roles include training and mentoring, and building bridges with other interest groups within WMIS and beyond as well as identifying challenges for advancement of female scientists and solutions to overcome them. In addition to ongoing WIMIN-sponsored programs to be described here, a number of exciting new programs will be initiated in 2017. WIMIN is committed to advancing the futures of female scientists in molecular imaging and welcomes all new membership.

But is it that ‘…teams lead by women physicians have better outcomes’?

The “Rosies” of Cell Metabolism are wrapping up 2016 with a fourth installment of the “Women in Metabolism” series. We are delighted to present ten women scientists who are leaders in the metabolism field, with their words on the value of perseverance, passion, ingenuity, and a bit of serendipity.

This study examines work-family role conflict and the factors predicting it, with a sample of 173 professional women in engineering and information technology (IT) firms, including 2 hospitals-1 public and 1 private. Our findings show no significant difference in the level of work-family role conflict encountered by women across medicine, engineering, and IT, whereas hours of work, family responsibilities, job demand, and work role overload were significantly correlated with work-family role conflict. Multiple linear regression analysis indicates that only work role overload, family responsibilities, and hours of work significantly predicted 45.9% of work-family role conflict. This implies that working women are burdened by work demands, which invariably affects the work-family role conflict they experience and leads to deterioration of their occupational health. It is suggested that employers should create a flexible work schedule and establish family-friendly policies in the workplace to promote a healthy work-life balance for women in science careers.

Women physicians face many challenges while balancing their many roles: doctor, specialist trainee, mother and partner. The most opportune biological time for a woman to start a family coincides with a great deal of demands and requirements at work. In this study we explored the options and capabilities of women GP specialist trainees in coordinating their family and career.

The “Rosies” of Cell Metabolism are back for the third part of the “Women in Metabolism” 2015 series. We are closing our anniversary celebrations with 14 inspiring and engaging new stories from women scientists in the metabolism field. A round of applause to all who contributed and supported this project!