by WAGDY SAWAHEL
“More Arab women than men are graduating in science, but not at all are finding their way into postgraduate research or into the workplace,” says a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit. It calls for news ways of teaching and improved workplaces to tackle the problem.
This was outlined in the report, Accelerating Growth: Women in science and technology in the Arab Middle East. The Economist Intelligence Unit announced its findings on 17 October at the Abu Dhabi headquarters of the Advanced Technology Investment Company.
Based on research and in-depth interviews with experts, including policy-makers, academics and business people, the report examines the role of women scientists in Arab nations, the state of science education in the region and the prospects for women scientists in the workplace.
It also highlights discrepancies between numbers of women earning advanced degrees, and those able to integrate effectively into the workforce.
According to the report, female students perform at least as well as their male counterparts in science and maths, and in many instances are outperforming them. Grade eight girls across the majority of countries in the Arab Middle East, for example, score consistently better than boys in maths and science.
Early high performance is reflected in the number of women seeking higher education.
In Palestine, 56% of undergraduate enrolments in 2010 were women, compared to 47% a decade earlier. This is especially pronounced in science: in Saudi Arabia, 65% of all enrolments in science degrees in 2010 were women, versus 40% a decade earlier.
But the rising number of Arab women graduating in science is not translating into more women scientists in the workplace. Women account for just 1% of researchers in Saudi Arabia, 19% in Palestine and 22% in Libya, markedly lower than the world average of 30%.
And despite their high proportions in undergraduate places, many do not pursue postgraduate research. Women make up just 34% of participants in science masters courses in Saudi Arabia, and 29% in PhD programmes.
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