The position of women in the Czech science sector is the worst of all EU countries, according to a monitoring report by the National Contact Centre for Gender and Science of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS), which monitored developments between 2005 and 2022.
Academics contacted by CTK agreed that this is a society-wide problem that creates disparities and begins with the upbringing of children.
According to Jana Marikova-Kubkova, a senior scientist at the CAS Institute of Archaeology, the world of science is increasingly adapting to the male-led model and women have to make much greater efforts to achieve the same positions as their male colleagues.
The number of female doctoral students is growing, but there is still a lack of women in senior positions in the academic and scientific world, said Marikova-Kubkova. In her institute, for example, there is not a single woman in a top management position.
In 2022, according to the monitoring report, the total representation of Czech women among heads of research at universities and other research and development institutions was 13.5%. In the decision-making, strategic and control bodies of these institutions, the representation of women was 22.6%, and in advisory bodies, the share was 25.7%.
According to the monitoring report, the Czech Republic has long failed to exploit the potential of qualified women in scientific fields. While the total number of people working in research and development nearly doubled between 2005 and 2022, the representation of women in these fields declined slightly over the same period. In 2022, women accounted for only 28.7% of the R&D workforce, the lowest in the EU.
The proportion of women studying at master’s level at universities in the Czech Republic was 60.2% in 2022, while the proportion of women at the doctoral level was 45%. In all scientific disciplines, with the exception of engineering, women outnumber men at the master’s level.
