Research: man's world

Research at Dutch research institutes is mostly carried out by men. Only 20 percent of researchers at these institutes are women. The proportion of women researchers in the private sector is even lower, at 9 percent.

The proportion of women in other staff categories in research is higher. In the private sector 10 percent of research assistants and 24 percent of other research staff are women. At research institutes these proportions are higher, 31 percent of research assistants and 33 percent of other staff respectively.

Women in the labour force and women researchers in the private sector, 2001

Women underrepresented

In the private sector, 31 percent of the employed labour force are women. In the research departments in these private companies, however, only 9 percent of researchers are women. In the manufacturing industry, for example, 20 percent of all employees are women, while only 8 percent of researchers are women. In the services sector, the difference is even larger: some 38 percent of all employees are women, while women account for only 11 percent of researchers.

Netherlands has fewest women

Compared with other countries the proportion of female researchers is low in the Netherlands. In Finland the proportion of women researchers in research institutes and in private companies is nearly twice as high.

Women researchers by country

In Portugal too, it is more common for a women to hold the position of researcher. More than 54 percent of researchers in research institutes there are women.

Martje Roessingh