Meta-analysis of gender and science research – Country group report UK and Ireland countries

This is one of the thematic reports of the study Meta-analysis of gender and science research, a project of the 7th RTD Framework Programme of the European Union (RTD-PP-L4-2007-1), commissioned by DG Research to the consortium led by CIREM (Spain) and made up of Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), Inova Consultancy Ltd. (United Kingdom), Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini (Italy), Bergische Universität Wuppertal (Germany) and Politikatörténeti Intézet KHT (Hungary). The study was carried out between 2008 and 2010.
The purpose of the study was to collect and analyse research on horizontal and vertical gender segregation in research careers, as well as the underlying causes and effects of these two processes.
The objectives of the study were to:

• Provide an exhaustive overview and analysis of research on gender and science carried out at the European, national, and regional levels.
• Make the study results accessible to researchers and policy-makers via an informed bibliography (online database) and a set of reports.
• Steer policy-making on gender and science and define future research priorities within the Framework Programme, in particular through good practice examples and gap analysis in the various research topics.

For the purposes of the study, ‘science’ was understood in its broadest meaning, including social sciences and humanities as well as research and technological development.
The study covered the research on gender and science produced between 1980 and 2008, in all European
languages, in 33 countries: the 27 EU Member States as well as 6 Associated Countries to the Seventh
Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) (Croatia, Iceland, Israel, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey).
The study produced five country-group reports, seven topic reports and the final synthesis report:

This report presents a review of the Anglo-Saxon literature catalogued in the Gender and
Science Database GSD. These publications explore the situation in the United Kingdom (UK)
and Ireland, spanning the last three decades. In the UK and Ireland scientific endeavour is
captured by the abbreviations SET; Science Engineering and Technology or STEM; Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Whilst these abbreviations include subjects as
diverse as Medicine and Building and Planning they do not include Economics or Psychology
which are defined as Social Sciences.
The literature about gender and science is not equivalent in the UK and Ireland. The majority of
publications are concerned with the UK experience. This can be explained by the historical
development of Ireland’s economy and scientific labour force, which lagged behind that of the
UK and then in the last decade has been dominated by inward investment and migration of
skilled workers into high technology sectors. Although Irish research is under-developed, robust
political and legislative commitments to gender mainstreaming in Ireland provide a helpful
context for future academic investigation.
The areas of interest pursued by UK researchers have been shaped by a number of drivers
including: politicians’ concerns for the country to remain globally competitive through scientific
innovation delivered by a skilled workforce; lobbyists’ campaigns for equal rights for women
employees; and female academics’ challenges to the cultures and practices of their own
science disciplines. The feminist perspective informing much of this work has supported a
primary focus on women’s experiences under the heading of ‘gender’.