Saturday, February 11, 2023

Women in Science: EU Records Nearly 7 Million Female Scientists in 2021

February 11, 2023
© Diane Serik | Unsplash

The number of female scientists across European countries increased by 41 per cent in 2021 compared to the previous year, taking the total number of these scientists to 6.9 million.

According to Eurostat, the European Office for Statistics, the difference in the number of female scientists is 369,800 higher than in the preceding year and the majority of these workers are engaged in the services sector as 46 per cent of scientists and engineers are women, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Furthermore, data show that women represented 28 per cent of all employees in the air transport sectors, while they account for 21 per cent of scientists and engineers. On the other hand, water transport sector records the lowest number of transport sector – eight per cent were female, followed by manufacture of transport equipment (12 per cent) and motor vehicles (13 per cent).

Breaking down the data, it is noticeable that women represent 46 per cent of the scientists and engineers in the knowledge-intensive services, while 22 per cent make up the high-technology sectors such as high-technology manufacturing and knowledge-intensive high-technology services, while 18 per cent are engaged in high and medium-technology manufacturing.

As per countries, with the highest proportion of female scientists, Lithuania holds the first position with 52 per cent of people in the field being female scientists and engineers, followed by Bulgaria, Latvia and Portugal (all 51 per cent) while the lowest proportion is recorded in Luxembourg (35 per cent), Germany and Italy (both 34 per cent), Hungary (33 per cent) and Finland (31 per cent).

The data further show that in terms of regions, there are four Spanish regions that have high female scientists and engineers’ percentage; Centre and Canary Islands (both 55 per cent), North-West (52 per cent) and North-East (51 per cent). The Portuguese regions of Região Autónoma dos Açores, Madeira and Continental Portugal, have also a good share of female scientists with 62, 57 and 51 per cent of all scientists and engineers being women, respectively.

“Severna i yugoiztochna in Bulgaria (56 per cent), Makroregion Centralny (55 per cent) and Makroregion Wschodni (53 per cent) in Poland, Northern Sweden (52 per cent), as well as Lithuania (52 per cent) and Latvia (51 per cent),” the press release by Eurostat explains.

On the other hand, regions with the lowest proportion of female workers include German regions of Baden-Württemberg (30 per cent) and Bayern (31 per cent), in addition to the Finnish region of Manner-Suomi and the Hungarian region of Közép-Magyarorszá, which both recorded 31 per cent of the total workers in the field being women.

No comments: