Focusing on Women in Science and Technology.

Skill gaps are a key constraint to innovation, hindering productivity growth and economic development. In particular, shortages in the supply of trained professionals in disciplines related to Science, Technology, Engineering, andMathematics (STEM) may weaken the innovation potential of a society. A wide gender gap has persisted over the years at all levels of STEM disciplines throughout the world. Although the participation of women in higher education has increased, they are still underrepresented. Latin America is no exception. The untapped potential of fully trained and credentialed women represents an important lost opportunity not only for women themselves but also for society as a whole. Although there is growing recognition of the importance of the issue in developing countries, Latin America faces a lack of information that prevents researchers from deepening the understanding of this phenomenon and policymakers from designing effective interventions. This note aims to contribute to the academic and policy debate in the region by reviewing the main factors put forward in the literature to explain gender inequalities in recruitment, retention, and promotion in STEM disciplines and by providing evidence of the scope and results of policies directed to obtain a better gender balance in the sector.

The incomplete exploitation of women’s potential in STEM areas constitutes an important lost opportunity for society. However, women face multiple barriers that prevent their recruitment, retention, and promotion along the entire STEM career path. Depending on career stage, a number of obstacles have been identified in the literature, mostly with respect to developed countries. Personal preferences, stereotypes, lack of role models, and cultural norms impact women’s choices in higher education, while gender-biased recruitment, hiring and evaluation processes, restrictive regulations and norms, exclusion from networks, male-dominated culture, and work-family conflicts have significant direct negative effects on various aspects of women’s career development. Moreover, women face several additional barriers that affect their performance and consequently their career progression, such as lack of access to information, funding or institutional support, biased research evaluation procedures, and low recognition in the field. Several countries have recognized the significance of these barriers and have implemented policy instruments to overcome them and encourage gender parity in science. Despite these efforts, differences in participation, productivity, and progression up the academic and technological ladders persist. This is even truer in Latin America, where policies aimed atpromoting women’s presence in science are sporadic and based on scant information that is fragmented among different agencies and bodies. Indeed, with respect to advanced education, most countries collect data on gender only at the aggregate level, and breakdowns by field of science are rare. As for indicators on scientific careers, information is usually potentially available at scientific councils but is neither collected nor disseminated. Finally, gender-disaggregated lists of science and technology products - publications and patents, for example - are seldom published. Having complete and comparable information on the real dimension and features of the gender gap in science and technology careers in the region is key to understanding its root causes and proposing effective policies. A preliminary research effort is needed, consisting of the production and dissemination of gender-disaggregated statistics and studies on the possible peculiarities of the gender breakdown in science in Latin America and the Caribbean and a rigorous evaluation of the impacts of various policy instruments designed to address them