Editorial: Women in science: Genetics

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Jaira Ferreira de Vasconcellos, James Madison University; Malak Abedalthagafi, Emory University; Silvia Calo, Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra; Rana Dajani, Hashemite University; Zodwa Dlamini, University of Pretoria; Bertha Hidalgo, University of Alabama Birmingham; Carine Le Goff, Université Paris Cité and Université Sorbonne Paris Nord; Aparna Vasanthakumar, AbbVie
• Language: English
• Date: 2022-10-03
• Publisher: FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2022 de Vasconcellos, Abedalthagafi, Calo, Dajani, Dlamini, Hidalgo, Le Goff and Vasanthakumar.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2022.1038317
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: FRONTIERS IN GENETICS
• Volume: 13
• Start Page: 1038317
• End Page: 1038317
• Keywords: genetics; genome-wide association studies; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Genetics & Heredity; genetic diversity; genomics; Science & Technology; cancer; development
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Epidemiology; Biology, General; Health Sciences, Pathology; Health Sciences, Oncology

Abstract

The reality of the workforce in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields is still that women remain significantly underrepresented. Women obtain more than half of the undergraduate degrees in biology, chemistry, and mathematics in the United States and constitute about half of the American workforce. However, the American Community Survey from the United States Census Bureau has shown that women only held approximately 30% of STEM jobs in 2019 (Census, 2019). Of interest, the percentage of women pursuing STEM education is higher in the Middle East in comparison to the West (Study International, 2019), and according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development women test better and feel more comfortable in mathematics than men in Jordan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (Khazan, 2014). However, worldwide women continue to hold more junior positions in science, earn significantly less and do more unpaid work than their male colleagues, and are overall less likely to be supported during their higher education training (Author Anonymous, 2011; Khazan, 2014; Sommerfeld et al., 2017). Some overarching factors to help explain the larger gender gaps include masculine cultures that leave women with a low sense of belonging, the lack of sufficient early experiences in these fields, and gender gaps in self-efficacy (Cheryan et al., 2017). Moreover, more than 50% of women reported personal experiences with gender-related bias in a 2010 survey from AAAS/L'Oreal, compared with 2% of men who responded to the same survey (AAAS, 2010). And more recently, Chatterjee and Werner reported that original research articles written by women as primary authors had fewer citations than original research articles written by men as primary authors and senior authors, especially when both primary and senior authors were women (Chatterjee and Werner, 2021), demonstrating the existence of gender-based differences in article citations that can directly impact professional trajectory and success.