Analyzing implicit gender bias in Optics and Photonics at the predoctoral stage in Spain

  1. María-Baralida Tomás 3
  2. Alba de las Heras 1
  3. Beatriz Santamaría Fernández 2
  4. Ana I. Gómez-Varela 4
  5. Clara Benedi-Garcia 5
  6. Martina Delgado-Pinar 6
  7. Veronica Gonzalez-Fernandez 7
  8. Rosa Ana Pérez-Herrera 8
  1. 1 Universidad de Salamanca
    info

    Universidad de Salamanca

    Salamanca, España

    ROR https://ror.org/02f40zc51

  2. 2 Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
    info

    Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

    Madrid, España

    ROR https://ror.org/03n6nwv02

  3. 3 Universitat d'Alacant
    info

    Universitat d'Alacant

    Alicante, España

    ROR https://ror.org/05t8bcz72

  4. 4 Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
    info

    Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

    Santiago de Compostela, España

    ROR https://ror.org/030eybx10

  5. 5 Indizen Optical Technologies S.L., Madrid, Spain.
  6. 6 Universitat de València
    info

    Universitat de València

    Valencia, España

    ROR https://ror.org/043nxc105

  7. 7 Universidad Complutense de Madrid
    info

    Universidad Complutense de Madrid

    Madrid, España

    ROR 02p0gd045

  8. 8 Universidad Pública de Navarra
    info

    Universidad Pública de Navarra

    Pamplona, España

    ROR https://ror.org/02z0cah89

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Revista:
Óptica pura y aplicada

ISSN: 2171-8814

Any de publicació: 2023

Volum: 56

Número: 3

Tipus: Article

DOI: 10.7149/OPA.56.3.51155 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAccés obert editor

Altres publicacions en: Óptica pura y aplicada

Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible

Resum

Gender biases play a very significant role in areas related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The association of gender with certain attributes, behaviors or professions leads to a lower proportion of women in STEM. In the field of Optics and Photonics, we can identify a gender disparity between technical or bio-clinical approaches within the same area when examining the authorship of the defended thesis. In this work, we quantify the impact of implicit gender bias in the Ph.D. programs related to Optics and Photonics in Spain. Here we present an exhaustive study about the UNESCO descriptors of the theses defended within 2015- 2020 through the open-access repository TESEO, where all the doctoral theses of Spanish universities are compiled. The doctorate program of each thesis is considered and classified into a technical or bio-clinical category. With this classification, we quantify the number of male and female authors within each category, and the results show up a clear unbalance in most of the evaluated descriptors: men are more likely to choose technical doctorate programs, while women are mostly present in clinical or biological programs. This difference is seen even in descriptors where both genders are equally represented. On one side, women’s underrepresentation is higher in “Physics”, “Astronomy and Astrophysics”, “Earth and Space Sciences”, and “Technological Sciences”. Oppositely, the areas of “Chemistry”, “Life Sciences”, and “Medical Sciences” show a greater gender-balanced distribution for most of the descriptors.

Fuente de los datos: Dialnet