Beyond the Leaky Pipeline : Consolidating Understanding and Incorporating New Research: About Women's Science Careers in the UK

Abstract

This paper draws its evidence from the report Meta-analysis of gender and science research: Country group report UK and Ireland countries (Bennett et al 2010) which used the Gender and Science Database (GSD, www.genderandscience.org) to compile an extensive literature review of the research already undertaken on women’s and men’s careers in science. The paper begins by outlining the nature of horizontal and vertical segregation in the Science Engineering and Technology (SET) sectors in the UK. It then describes Sue Berryman’s model of a ‘pipeline’ to explain women’s career progression in science occupations and academic disciplines (Berryman 1983). The model has provided a focus for different explanations of the barriers and issues faced by women, combining research on gendered stereotypes and labour market practices and processes. The policy responses which the model has prompted are outlined. The final section of the paper discusses the ways in which the model has been expanded through critique and the development of new research areas, such as in the fields of diversity, globalisation and multiple gendered subjectivities which offer promising ways of moving beyond a view of women’s careers in science as single, narrowing and prescribed trajectories.

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