20200414女性科学家报告英文4.doc

The Role of Chinese Women in Science and Technology Development Based on Statistical Data (2004)

（Oct.22，2004）

Wang Yan, Wu Yishan, Zhao Lixin

王艳 武夷山 赵立新

(Institute of Scientific and Technical Information ofChina, ISTIC)

1. Background

Mao Zhedong, former Chairman of China, had a famous wisdom: “Women can hold up half the sky”. It influenced a lot of people inChina, including both women and men. Women play more and more important role in the development ofChina, and more and more people care about the issue about gender equality. However, have Chinese women played a role they ought to and could to? Have they gained the equal position as men? There are still many questions to answer. We want to discuss the role of Chinese women in science and technology development. We just want to investigate the phenomena reflected by statistical data and try to find some problem, because many researchers have done a lot of work to discuss the cause of these phenomena.

2. General Status

Firstly, let’s see the general status of the total population, the sex ratio and the employment status of Chinese women.

2.1 Total Population and Sex Ratio inChina

Data source: National Bureau of Statistics of China, China Statistical Yearbook

We can find that the proportion of male in the total population is little higher than that of female, but they are approximately balanced.

2.2 Employment Status of Women in Urban Units

2.2.1 Proportion of Female Employed in Urban Units

The Proportion of Female Employed in Urban Units is 38.0% in 2000.

2.2.2 Sector Distribution of Women Employed in Urban Units

Number of Female Employed in Urban Units (10 000 persons): by Sector

Data source: National Bureau of Statistics of China, China Statistical Yearbook

We can find that the total number of women employed in urban units is declining year by year, and the numbers of many sectors including Scientific Research and Polytechnic Services show the same tendency. However, the following 6 sectors show an increasing tendency: 1)Finance and Insurance, 2)Real Estate Trade, 3)Health care, Sports and Social Welfare, 4)Education, Culture and Arts, 5)Radio, Film and Television, 6)Government, Party Agencies and Social Organizations. We can find all these sectors need the employees with high educational degree. More and more women choose these professions. But they didn’t choose scientific research.

Secondly, let’s see the Sector Distribution of Female Employed in Urban Units.

Sector Distribution of Female Employed in Urban Units (%)

Data source: National Bureau of Statistics of China, China Statistical Yearbook

We can find that the sector of Geological Prospecting and Water Conservancy has least employees, then Real Estate Trade with a steady increasing tendency, the third is Scientific Research and Polytechnic Services with a relatively fixed proportion.

3 Educational Level of Chinese Women Compared with Men

We can find the following 9 educational levels in China Statistical Yearbook. We discuss the educational distribution for men and women respectively, and the gender distribution in different educational level.

l  No schooling at all

l  Elimination of illiteracy class

l  Primary school

l  Junior high school

l  Senior high school

l  Vocational school

l  Junior college

l  Undergraduate

l  Graduate

3.1 Educational Level Distribution

Educational Level Distribution of Age 6 and Above Population Cohorts: by Gender.

 Data source: National Bureau of Statistics of China, China Statistical Yearbook

It can be seen that the distribution tendencies of different educational level between men and women are similar, near normal distribution. But the peak of the line for women is faster than that for men. The average educational level for women is lower than men.

We can also get the conclusion in the following figure: The Gender Distribution in Different Educational Level

Data source: National Bureau of Statistics of China, China Statistical Yearbook

That is to say, the proportions of female decrease with the higher and higher educational level.

3.1 Average Educational Level And Illiteracy Ratio

The following table shows us the Average Educational Level and Illiteracy Ratio of Adults. We can say the disparity of the educational level between men and women, but it shows the declining tendency with time. It is a good phenomenon.

Data source: All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF),

http://www.women.org.cn/womenorg/fuerfazhan/funv/funvjiaoyu.htm

The disparity of educational level between men and women indeed exists. According to the Survey of the Public Scientific Literacy, it is found that, in 2001, 14 Chinese basically possess public scientific literacy in 1000 Chinese, the ration is 1.4%, and the ratio is 1.7% for men and 0.98% for women.

4. Persons Involved in Science and Technology Activities

4.1 Women Involved in Scientific and Technical Activities in ST Institutions

Firstly, let’s look at the statistics on the persons involved in science and technology activities in ST institutions.

Women Involved in Scientific and Technical Activities in ST Institutions

Data source: Information Center  of China Science and Technology Statistics, http://www.sts.org.cn

Women contribute a little more than 1/3 to the people involved in ST activities in ST institutions. This is the general picture.

4.2  Awardees of Funds for Talents of National Science Fund ofChina

How about the elites? We discussed the awardees of Funds for Talents of National Science Fund of China (NSFC), and the academicians of both Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering.

There are two important Funds for Talents of National Science Fund of China, one is called National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, and another one is called Joint Fund for Overseas Chinese, Hong Kong and Macao.

Funds for Talents of National Science Fund of China

(1) Awardees of National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars

(2) Joint Fund for Overseas Chinese, Hong Kong and Macao

Data source: http://www.nsfc.gov.cn/cen/ndbg/2002ndbg/no05/102.htm

http://www.nsfc.gov.cn/e_nsfc/desktop/zn/nb/file/0116.htm

It can be seen that the proportion of women awardees for each funds is much lower than men.

4.3  Academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences

 Gender Distribution of Academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Data source:  Chinese Academy of Sciences,

http://www.casad.ac.cn/the_whole_web_root/chinese/ysjs/department.asp

4.4 Academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering

The distribution of academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering in different Academic Divisions: by Sex.

Data source:  Chinese Academy of Engineering, http://www.cae.cn/01jj/gcyys/ysmd01.htm

*in which 28 persons are academicians of other divisions.

We can see the following two divisions: (1) Medicine and Health Engineering, (2) Agriculture, Light Industry and Environmental Engineering, have relatively higher proportion of female than other division. It may be because that these two fields are regarded as suitable for women to work by many people.

4.5 Persons Involved in Science and Technology Management

It is very difficult to find out the data, so we just want to give two special cases.

In NSFC, women contribute 33.7% to the total staff, near the proportion of women in ST institutions.

In Ministry of Science and Technology of China, there are 8 ministers, in which 1 woman. There are 20 department directors, in which 3 women.

5 Contributions to Science and Technology of Chinese Women

It is very difficult to find out the data. We want to discuss this issue according to the paper authors and awards winners.

5.1 Paper published in Scientific and Technical Journals of China

According to the Sample Statistics on First Authors of Science and Technology Papers, in 1991, the ratio of the paper numbers first authored by man to woman is 5.02. That is to say, there are more than 5 papers are first authored by man when 1 paper is first authored by woman. The ratio decreased to 4.99 in 1996.

Let’s discuss the papers in different subjects.

Sample Statistics on First Authors of Science and Technology Papers: by Subject and Sex

Data source: Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (ISTIC), China Science and Technology Papers and Citations.

It can be seen that the gender difference is least in the subject Medicine and Health according to the paper first author. It is consistent with that the highest women proportion in all the divisions of Chinese Academy of Engineering is Medicine and Health Engineering. Of course, the elites are much fewer, the proportion is 1/3.03=33.3% to 15.7%.

5.2 Awards Winners of Science and Technology

Of course, the winners of National Science and Technology Awards are the elites in the ST development. There are 3 most famous national science and technology awards in China. Let have look at the results. We only find the data for 1997.

Numbers of National Science and Technology Awards Winners, by Sex (1997)

Data source: Office of National Science and Technology Awards,

http://www.nosta.gov.cn/statistics/shujutongji-97.htm

We can find that women only contribute 13.4% to the three famous awards in China.

6. Discussions

1.     It is very difficult to find out the needed data for investigation. It may be because of this consideration: we wouldn’t to emphasis the gender difference because we regard the gender equality. However, the situation is more like that the problem has not been given enough concern or the problem has been neglected.

2.     Chinese women play some role in the development of science and technology, but the role is limited. This is consistent with the global situation. We can find both the entering difficulties (threshold effect) and advancing difficulties (glass-ceiling effect) at the same time.

3.     The tendency of occupations choosing shows that more and more Chinese women involved in the knowledge-based sectors. But the situation is not optimistic for the group of science and technology. If we don’t pay more attention to this problem, the role of Chinese women in the development of ST may be more and more weak.

4.     The development of ST is important for the overall development of China, even our whole globe. More and more countries have paid more and more attention to develop the human resource of science and technology. How to encourage more women to enter the ST troop? How to make it more attractive for women to choose the ST occupations? We have a lot of to do.