Challenges and coping strategies faced by female scientists—A multicentric cross sectional study

Farah Naaz Fathima · Phyllis Awor · Nancy Angeline Gnanaselvam · Fathiah Zakham

47 citations0/0 files storedPLoS ONE

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Career Development and Diversity Work-Family Balance Challenges Gender Diversity and Inequality

Abstract

Women can play a pivotal role in the progress and sustainability of the world if they are empowered through education and employment opportunities in Science, technology, innovation and through changing the social stereotypes that restrain them in certain workplaces. In the literature, few recently published studies exist that document the challenges faced by female scientists in their workplaces. The purpose of this study was to understand the challenges and coping strategies faced by female scientists around the world today, in order to contribute to their improved performance. A multi-centre electronic cross-sectional survey across 55 countries was conducted to profile female scientists and to identify the challenges that they experience throughout their career as well as the coping mechanisms that they use to overcome the barriers. A total of 263 female scientists from different countries across the world participated in our study and most participants were from the South East Asian Region. Most female scientists in our study belong to the middle and junior level career category and earning around 1250 USD per month. Most of the scientists reported availability of maternity leave at their workplace but less than a third reported presence of a creche at work. Workplace sexual harassment was reported by 24% of the study population. Work related stress (71.5%) and work life imbalance (46%) are also major challenges faced by female scientists. Self-confidence, dedication and hard work are the most commonly adopted coping strategy. Flexible work timings, woman-friendly management policies, fair appraisal and mentorship appear to reduce the work-related stress and improve work-life balance among female scientists. In conclusion, female scientists face numerous challenges, which can greatly affect both their individual and career growth. Intrinsic (personal) and extrinsic (institutional) factors are important for improving female scientists' wellbeing and productivity.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 47 citations exist upstream.

References

2022International Labour Organization 2012Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students 2013Bibliometrics: Global gender disparities in science 2018Flexible Working, Work–Life Balance, and Gender Equality: Introduction 2016Gender differences in caregiving among family - caregivers of people with mental illnesses 1998International Labour Organisation 2014European Institute for Gender Equality 2008The Gender Gap in NIH Grant Applications

Cited by

2022Work-Life Flexibility Policies From a Boundary Control and Implementation Perspective: A Review and Research Framework 2020Closing the gender gap at academic conferences: A tool for monitoring and assessing academic events 2021National Trends in Gender Diversity Among Trainees and Practicing Physicians in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery in Canada 2021The Roles of Female Involvement and Risk Aversion in Open Access Publishing Patterns in Vietnamese Social Sciences and Humanities 2021Shifting Perspectives in Polar Research: Global Lessons on the Barriers and Drivers for Securing Academic Careers in Natural Sciences

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.