The study reveals that women with computer science degrees find it more difficult to carry out their work due to personal responsibilities and childcare. The report, funded by the Women’s Institute, analyzes the contextual and gender difficulties that women encounter in developing their professional careers.
The study “The situation of computer science research has been published in Spain”, framed within the Women@inf project financed by the Women’s Institute and coordinated by the Institute University of Women’s Studies (IUEM) and the Computer Scientific Society of Spain (SCIE) through its “< a href=”https://www.scie.es/activityes/mujer-en-informatica/”>Women and Informatics Commission” in which AIPO participates.
The main researcher of the project Women@inf and the preparation of this study is our colleague Carina González González (ULL) . In addition, the members of the “SCIE Women and Informatics Commission” have participated, such as our colleague Alicia García Holgado (USAL), SCIE member leading this commission.
About the report
Through a questionnaire answered by 406 people (214 men and 192 women) belonging to computer science research or members of scientific societies in different areas of specialization, it has been revealed that 10% more women than Men have encountered difficulties when carrying out their work or academic tasks due to their personal responsibilities (59.5% compared to 50.2%). Within these responsibilities, caring for children is considered the main obstacle to fulfilling their obligations, and it is also observed that responsibility for children continues to fall to a greater extent on women (78.6% compared to 65.5%). However, the same does not happen when the cause that prevents this correct professional development is exhaustion or “burn out”, to which men seem to be more sensitive than women (30.1% compared to 22%). p>
In this sense, 15.8% of women with dependents consider that caring for family members is the main obstacle to the development of their professional career, while this percentage drops to 7.5% in the case of men.
However, the people surveyed also considered favoritism towards other people as the main obstacle in their professional career, with women being the ones who considered themselves harmed to a greater extent (16.9% and 4.7%). The figure increases in the case of women with dependents up to 20% compared to 5% of men with dependents.
The report considers that these, among others, may be some of the causes of the gender gap at the university, which increases as one advances in job category. Specifically, a distance of 45 points is recorded for the position of Full Professor (or equivalent) and more than 69 points for that of Full Professor (or equivalent).
The questionnaire on which the study is based consisted of 40 questions, organized into different dimensions: demographic questions (19), work-life balance (4), current context (6), and factors and causes (20).