36 gender equality in research

One researcher in three in the government sector and one in five in business enterprises is a woman. As in other countries, women are less well represented in all sectors among researchers than in the professions providing research support. The male to female ratio in research personnel depends on the research field.

In 2012, more than half a million people in France were participating directly or indirectly in R&D activities and of these research personnel, 29% were women (table 36.01). They were better represented in government (40%) (public bodies, higher education institutions and NPI) than in business enterprises (22%). In addition, the female to male ratio remained higher in the least qualified jobs in R&D, the ancillary staff (35%), than among researchers (26%).

As in higher education programmes, women are better represented in medicine and agronomy than in aerospace and digital technology (chart 36.02). In 2012, there were equal numbers of men and women in research teams at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale - INSERM), the Institut Pasteur and the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (Institut national de la recherche agronomique - INRA). In contrast, they represented only 16% of researchers at the French National Aerospace Research Centre (Office national d’études et de recherches aérospatiales - ONERA) and 20% at the French National Institute for Computer Science and Applied Mathematics (Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique - INRIA). Numbers are comparable in business enterprises. In 'Pharmacy' and 'Chemistry', women represent 57% and 47% of researchers respectively (chart 36.03). However, women are poorly represented in 'Aeronautics and space construction' (16%), 'Automobiles' (13%) and 'Manufacture of machines and equipment' (8%). In these last three branches, however, the proportion of women is higher among researchers than among ancillary staff.

In five years, the representation of women among researchers in business enterprises fell by 0.8%. The increasing proportion of research in the service branches is the reason for this situation. Having increased by half in five years, due mainly to 'specialised scientific and technical activities' and 'information technology and computer service activities', in 2012 research in service branches accounted for 38% of all researchers in business enterprises. Here the proportion of women is lower (at 18%) than in the industrial branches overall (21%), as feminisation is particularly strong in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

These trends in France are similar to those observed in other OECD countries. Everywhere, we see an under-representation of women in research teams, especially in business enterprises (chart 36.04). Portugal, Estonia and Slovakia, however, have near equality between men and women. In these countries, women represent more than 40% of all researchers. In contrast, in South Korea and Japan, fewer than 20% of researchers are women. The situation in France is similar to that in Germany (27%).

Between 2011 and 2012, the change in women's representation in France among all R&D personnel weakened slightly (29.2% compared with 29.6%). Nevertheless, care must be taken when interpreting these figures as there is a two-fold effect on staff structure, with the increasing weight of business enterprises in relation to government combined with that of researchers in relation to ancillary staff. If we consider only researchers, the figures speak for themselves: the proportion of women has increased, both in business enterprises (+0.4 points) and in government (+0.1 points), yet the number of researchers overall was down (-0.1 points) due to the increasing proportion of business enterprises and the poorer showing by business enterprise researchers.

Laurent Perrain