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Abstract

This study is based on a literature review of three aspects of gender inequality in the field of science and technology (S&T): women being disadvantaged in S&T education, visible gender segregation in S&T occupations, and women being disadvantaged in the development of S&T careers. It analyses gender barriers and problems in the development of S&T careers and uncovers the key factors contributing to the career success of contemporary Chinese women scientists through textual analysis of the success factors for women scientists in China.

Keywords

Women scientists career success influencing factors

There are three key patterns of gender inequality in science and technology (S&T) occupations. First, gender inequality is prevalent in S&T-related occupations and manifested mainly in the following aspects: more men are employed than women, gender segregation remains serious, women work mostly in disadvantaged and informal jobs, high-level female professionals are in short supply in S&T sectors, women generally get less pay and unfair returns on their work, and women suffer from slower wage growth. Second, women in S&T are likely to face barriers to their career advancement, such as the ‘glass ceiling’ and the ‘motherhood penalty’. Third, gender inequality in the relevant occupations is the combined result of social, economic, cultural and personal factors such as the division of labour and growing empowerment awareness, the micro-rights mechanism concerning the transition of women's roles, the interactive construction of women's image and cultural traditions, and the structural identification of women with their career choices. The gender barriers and problems in the development of S&T careers are mainly manifested in the stereotyping of women's choice of S&T occupations, the glass-ceiling effect in women's career development, and the motherhood penalty.

In what follows, I use textual analysis of the factors contributing to the success of Chinese women scientists to uncover the key factors for their career success.

1. Analysis of the current situation of gender inequality in science and technology sectors

1.1 Women as a disadvantaged group in science and technology education

The United States (US) National Research Council (NRC) was established to promote the participation of more scientists and technologists in scientific research activities in order to achieve the research goals set by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. Over the past 60 years, the US has endeavoured to increase the number of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) graduates—a valuable labour resource that is closely linked to the country's health, prosperity and security. Meanwhile, the NRC has also devoted much attention to the development of STEM education in the US, particularly in relation to the circumstances of minority and female students.

Statistics from several education policy studies in the US show that the numbers of members of ethnic minorities and women working in STEM fields are grossly disproportionate to the demographic composition of the US. Historically, while the proportion of African American presidents was one in nine, there was only one African American among every 20 STEM professionals (Bowater and Yeoman, 2013). Similarly, although Hispanics had the highest rate of population growth in the US, in 2013, only 6% of US engineers and scientists were Hispanic (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Despite the fact that half of all women held college degrees and nearly half of the people working in biology and related sciences were women, the percentage of women in STEM fields was still very low, particularly in the engineering sector, in which only 15% of the workforce was female (Berlo, 1960). These disparities not only affect the country's competitiveness in economic development, but also limit the work opportunities of individuals (Warren, 1990).

A similar gap in participation is found in course choices for high-school students. According to 2014 statistics for US high schools compiled by the Office for Civil Rights of the US Department of Education, African Americans made up 16% of US high-school students but only 8% of those who chose calculus courses (Trench, 2012). Hispanic students accounted for 21% of the total, but for only 12% of those who chose calculus courses. Some high schools with large enrolments of minority students did not offer advanced courses. Almost one in five high schools with African American students did not offer any AP (advanced placement) courses, and one in three did not offer chemistry courses (Priest, 2010; Gasiewski et al., 2011). Even if their high schools offered those courses, minority students were less likely than white students or male Asian students to choose them, despite the fact that advanced STEM courses not only give students greater competitiveness in college applications but also make them better prepared for STEM majors in their college studies (Deboer, 1991).

Research conducted by Herrera and Hurtado (2011) shows that, although African American, Hispanic and white students demonstrated equal interest in choosing STEM majors in college, only a few students among the first two minorities were able to complete their studies, and the reason for that could be traced back to their high-school days or earlier. According to Albert Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive career theory, career choices are the result of the dynamics of self-efficacy, outcome expectations and personal goals supported and hindered by the environment. Based on this conception, self-efficacy (here, the belief that one can succeed in a STEM field in the future) and outcome expectations (here, what will happen if one participates in STEM) are key factors shaping individuals’ interests and career goals. The threat of entrenched perceptions makes minority students believe that they are not the favoured ones. Female, Hispanic and African American students may be threatened by this stereotype in STEM learning. Conversely, over-represented groups (white and Asian males) may perceive that they have the ability to complete STEM courses successfully and overcome difficulties. The latter view is supported by empirical research on STEM-related educational experiences. Nora et al. (2005) found that, when the grades they earned were lower than expected, Hispanic students felt more frustrated than white students. Besides, there was a closer link between past mathematics achievement and mathematics self-efficacy for minority students than for white and Asian students; and the mathematics self-efficacy of male students was stronger than that of female students with the same level of mathematics achievement.

1.2 Evident gender segregation in science and technology occupations

Data released in June 2018 by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics shows that the proportions of women holding bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in science-related fields are respectively 18%, 8% and 2%, compared to 37%, 18% and 6% of men. Women account for less than one-third of scientific researchers worldwide, and, at higher levels of decision-making, the gap between women and men is even wider (UNESCO, 2019). First, in the IT industry, against the background of S&T progress, women have already experienced the gender-based logic and the institutional and structural inequalities that lie behind a seemingly just and fair work environment (Wang, 2011). The IT industry—a digital industry backed by the rapid advance of information and communication technologies—currently employs 5 million people in China, but the programmer population has long been predominantly male. According to data from the 2018 Survey Report on the Salary and Survival Status of Chinese Programmers, the gender ratio of programmers in China is 12:1 (Cai, 2011). Second, in STEM fields, the latest UNESCO strategy for gender equality in and through education 2019–2025 shows that women account for only 35% of STEM students at the tertiary level (UNESCO, 2019). The under-representation of women in STEM fields reduces their opportunities to enter S&T communities such as emerging industries, which will result in new occupational segregation and a growing gender wage gap.

In the field of scientific research, Zhang et al. (2020) used Python software to identify the gender of researchers in the Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) database, with data covering most of the names in all European countries as well as the US, Japan, China and India. They found that under-representation of female researchers is a global phenomenon. In terms of academic jobs, the proportion of women in employment across all academic occupations in the European Union in 2010 was 45%. Specifically, women accounted for 53% of the group working in skilled jobs that require an undergraduate education, but only 32% of those working in the academic occupations of scientists and engineers. In the field of knowledge-intensive activities, the proportion of women was 44%, and women researchers represented 33% of the researcher population (Wu, 2016).

Statistics from the Chinese population censuses in 1982, 1990, 2000 and 2010 show that gender segregation has long existed in China's labour market. China's gender segregation index was 18.3 in 1982, 18.1 in 1990 and 19.1 in 2000, and that clear upward trend has continued, reaching 24.0 in 2010—its highest level in more than 30 years (Li and Xie, 2015). The phenomenon of occupational gender segregation in basic education denotes the concentration of a single gender group in a certain type of occupation. There is a serious problem of gender segregation in the teaching profession of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries and China, with women playing a dominant role in this particular profession. However, this gender imbalance varies between sectors, with lower proportions of female teachers at higher levels of the education ladder. On average, in all OECD countries, women account for more than two-thirds of teachers from pre-school to tertiary education. The imbalance is most pronounced in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia, where about four-fifths of teachers are female. Over the past 10 years, there have been clear signs of a so-called feminisation of the teaching profession. On average, the proportion of female teachers across all OECD countries rose from 61% in 2005 to 65% in 2010 and 68% in 2014. Without considering the proportion of female teachers in 2005, this upward trend is evident in every country where survey data is available (OECD, 2009).

In the field of basic education, the gender structure of China's teaching workforce has undergone sustained and substantial changes since the founding of the People's Republic of China, with female teachers outnumbering male teachers more each year. Over the 60-plus years from 1951 to 2012, the proportion of female teachers in secondary schools increased from 10.60% to 50.92%, up 40.32 percentage points; the number of female teachers in primary schools increased from 224,000 to 3,328,015, their proportion growing from 18.40% to 59.50%, up 41.10 percentage points (Wu and Zheng, 2015).

At the junior secondary level, the proportion of female teachers in science, mathematics and technology subjects is lower than among teachers overall (OECD, 2015). The proportion of female teachers also drops notably at higher levels of education. On average, the proportion of female teachers across all OECD countries is 97% at the pre-school level and 82% at the primary level, dropping to 63% at the secondary level and 43% at the tertiary level. This phenomenon is consistent with the majority of countries for which survey data is available. In all countries except Saudi Arabia and Turkey, the proportion of female teachers at the primary level is greater than 60%. In contrast, at the tertiary level, only four countries (Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia) have more female teachers than male teachers (OECD, 2016).

1.3 Women's disadvantaged position in science and technology occupations

Career choice includes two aspects: horizontal and vertical. The horizontal aspect focuses on the content of jobs chosen by different genders, and the vertical aspect focuses on the seniority of positions.

First, in terms of discipline distribution, research on the enrolment of undergraduate students in a selected number of general universities shows that most female graduates of S&T subjects have majored in science, engineering, agriculture and medicine. Education, manufacturing, and health, social security and social welfare are the three industries that employ most female S&T workers, accounting respectively for 37%, 26% and 9% of all female S&T workers (An, 2019; Liu and Zhang, 2006).

Second, women are severely under-represented in S&T sectors, especially in areas of high and sophisticated technologies, making it difficult for them to enjoy the fruits of the fourth industrial revolution or to master high-end innovation skills. More importantly, due to a lack of knowledge and skills, women are more likely to become the victims of technological advances. The 2019 McKinsey Global Institute report, The Future of Women at Work: Transition in the Age of Automation, noted that clerical occupations such as secretarial, scheduling and bookkeeping jobs, which are dominated by female workers, are most vulnerable to the impact of automation (Zhang et al., 2020). In the US, 80% of administrative, teaching and nursing staff are women. According to the results of the sixth population census in China, the proportions of female workers in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors are respectively 53.1%, 19.2% and 27.7%, compared to 44.2%, 28.1% and 27.7% for male workers. The number of women working in the low-income primary sector is thus significantly greater than the number of men. There is also a notable gender gap in the mastery of the latest technologies (Zhang, 2009).

In China, the female workforce of S&T professionals is structured in a pyramid shape and distributed unevenly across different fields. Data shows that, from 1960 to 2011, there were 14.63 million female S&T workers at the junior college level in China, which was the highest among all groups, accounting for 58.7% of the total; 9.07 million at bachelor's degree level, with a share of 36.4%; 1.081 million at master's degree level, with a share of 4.3%; and 133,000 at the doctoral level, with a share of 0.5%. Women accounted for 41.9% of all S&T workers added between 2006 and 2011 (Lv and Han, 2015).

In terms of academic decision-making, only 15.5% of higher education institutions are headed by women, and only 10% of universities with the power to grant doctoral degrees have a female president; women account for 36% of the members of academic decision-making organisations. Among academic jobs in Canadian universities, the higher the position, the lower the percentage of women. Take statistics from 2012 as an example. The proportion of women was approximately 50% for lecturers, 42.6% for assistant professors, 36.2% for associate professors and only 21.7% for full professors (Council of Canadian Academies, 2014).

A 2013 report published by the National Natural Science Foundation of China showed that no academic leaders were women, and that only one of the 16 winners of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars was a woman (Yu et al., 2012). According to data published by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), men account for 94% and 95% of the academicians of the two institutions, respectively; none of the CAS academicians who received the highest national S&T award from 2000 to 2013 was a woman (Yang and Ma, 2012). In the field of social sciences, the situation of women is slightly better, but even so there is no reason for optimism. In the third list of outstanding Chinese humanities and social scientists published by the research team of the China University Alumni Association, male scholars accounted for an overwhelming 93.04% of entries (Zeng and Li, 2015).

2. Gender barriers and issues in career development in science and technology occupations

2.1 Stereotypes in women's science and technology career choices

The word stereotype is made up of two Greek words: stereo and typos. It refers to a generalised and fixed view that people hold about something, which is extrapolated to assume that a particular characteristic is inherent to a whole thing or to everything in the same category, ignoring individual differences. The characteristic is seen as an attribute of a certain group, usually defined on the basis of race, gender, age or occupation. A gender stereotype is a stereotype of the traits possessed by men and women that takes gender as a categorical criterion. In social psychology, a stereotype is a widely applied definition of a particular type of individual or a particular behavioural pattern intended to represent the overall character of all those individuals or behaviours. In most cases, such a definition may reflect reality to an extent but is not always accurate. Wang (2000) defined stereotypes in terms of psychological cognitive processing, arguing that a stereotype is an abstract knowledge structure connecting the psychological qualities and the external behavioural characteristics of a particular social group.

Stereotype threat theory (STT) refers to the idea that a stereotype would cause pressure on and disruption of a person's ability to behave. A number of STT studies have been conducted abroad. Blažev et al. (2017) verified the impact of stereotypes on the academic performance of male and female students in STEM. Research conducted by Hand et al. (2017) found support for the conclusion that the under-representation of women in STEM fields is most likely caused by gender stereotypes, and that teachers’ stereotypes of students of different genders may have an impact on their studies. Using a sample of high-school girls studying STEM subjects, female STEM undergraduate students and female PhDs involved in STEM programmes, Robnett (2016) concluded that gender stereotypes affect women at all educational levels, and that female students in maths-related majors are particularly vulnerable to gender bias from male students in the same major.

2.2 The glass-ceiling effect in women's career development

In the glass-ceiling effect, women or members of ethnic minorities are unable to reach the top echelons of a company or an organisation, not because they are not competent or experienced enough, and not because they do not want the position, but because of an invisible barrier that they face in the organisation. As a result, if women or minorities in an organisation want to move up the career ladder, they will feel that an invisible barrier is standing in their way as they move closer to the top, with the result that they can reach only a certain point.

Research results of Brush et al. (2009) provide the gender ratios among artificial intelligence (AI) workers in different industries, which clearly show the dominant position of men over women. The proportion of women in senior positions is very low compared to the proportion of men. Less than 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, and the proportion of women partners in venture capital firms is only 6% (Figure 1).

Figure 1.
Proportion of AI workers in different industries.

In Europe, the Americas, the Asia–Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa, the proportion of women on corporate boards is much lower than the proportion of men, accounting for 11.9%, 9.9%, 6.5% and 3.2%, respectively, of the total (World Economic Forum, 2019). The situation is similar in academia and politics. According to statistics from the International Parliamentary Union, in 2019, women occupied only 24.3% of the seats in national legislatures. Although there is an overall gender balance in the numbers of postgraduate students of biological science majors who graduated during the same period, the number of men in teaching positions is three times that of women (Sheltzer and Smith, 2014).

In China, 20.6% of the organisations that employ top-level professionals recruit only men or give preference to men under the same conditions, 30.8% of them promote men faster than women under the same conditions, and 47% of them hire more men than women in positions with high technical requirements and promising career prospects (Research Team of the Third National Survey of Chinese Women's Social Status, 2011).

There are two types of occupational segregation: horizontal segregation within occupations and vertical segregation between different occupations. Horizontal segregation is mainly manifested in the fact that the majority of managerial positions are occupied by men, while women are mostly engaged in non-managerial jobs such as teaching. Vertical segregation is mainly manifested in the high concentration of women in the teaching profession (especially in basic education) and the growing trend in that direction.
2.3 Motherhood penalty theory in women's career development

Motherhood penalty theory has been a key academic interest in recent years and is considered one of the primary explanations of the gender gap in the labour market. The so-called motherhood penalty, also known as the cost of motherhood, is the negative impact on women's career development in the labour market as a result of childbirth, and it is a reflection of the contradiction between fertility and production. The ability of women to get pregnant is the main biological difference between men and women. Birth, in a broader sense, covers the processes of conception, childbirth and postnatal breastfeeding. Currently, owing to the impact of social and cultural attitudes, women bear most of the responsibility for raising offspring. According to Becker's (1965) time allocation theory, the amount of time and energy a person has is not unlimited. If more time and energy are devoted to family, there is less time and energy available for work. For most families that have children, parenting accounts for a significant proportion of the unpaid labour time. Therefore, for a considerable period, women are unable to devote the same amount of time and energy to work as men of the same age because of their biological and family responsibilities. In this sense, the motherhood penalty can be seen as a trade-off between paid and unpaid labour in the allocation of limited time and energy: the greater the weight of unpaid labour in the utility function, the greater the likelihood of the motherhood penalty.

Figure 2(a) represents the situation of a woman who has given birth to a child. Through her life, she suffers from an advanced penalty before getting pregnant, a motherhood penalty in the traditional sense when giving birth to and raising the child, and a lagged penalty when the child reaches adulthood. Figure 2(b) represents the situation of a woman who has not given birth to a child. She is still penalised during her childbearing years and is looked upon differently by society, even facing substantial consequences, for not having a child. In summary, gender inequality in occupations is reinforced by a set of general factors. Studies conducted in other countries also show that gender inequality in the occupational field is the combined result of personal, social and economic factors.

Figure 2.

Different types of motherhood penalty.

3. Textual analysis of the success factors for Chinese women scientists

The book series Great Beauty: Chinese Women Scientists, published by the China Popular Science Press in March 2019 and co-authored by the Chinese Women Scientists Association and the Women Scientists Committee of the Standing Committee of the China Association for Science and Technology, provides a detailed introduction to the personal growth, work experience and research achievements of 21 outstanding contemporary women scientists in various fields. The cases selected for the book are well structured, rich in content and highly representative, which makes them helpful for exploring and studying the key factors of gender equality for women scientists in the science, technology and innovation environment.

3.1 Proportion of top women scientists in China

The two volumes of Great Beauty: Chinese Women Scientists tell the life stories of a group of Chinese women scientists, presenting their schooling experiences and scientific research journeys in the form of short biographies that demonstrate how they balanced work and family. By including true stories, the book series aims to showcase the patriotic, innovative, pragmatic, collaborative and sacrificing spirit of outstanding Chinese women scientists in the contemporary era, and to call on young people to love and learn science and aspire to a career in science. The publication of this series is a concrete effort to carry forward the glorious traditions of Chinese scientists into the new era and promote the fine characters of women scientists, including their commitment to serving the motherland and the people, their perseverance and can-do spirit, their indifference to fame and fortune, their selfless sacrifice, and their belief in perfection and the pursuit of excellence.

Take CAS and CAE, the two most authoritative scientific research institutions in China, as examples. According to 2019 statistics, women accounted for only 6% of the 807 CAS members; and, among the 900 CAE members, only 47 or about 5% of the total were women. As shown in Figures 3 and 4, the overall proportion of women in the list of new members of the two academies spiralled upwards from 2011 to 2019. Even so, only a tiny proportion of the new members are women.

Figure 3.

Proportion of new female members of CAS.

Figure 4.

Proportion of new female members of CAE.

3.2 Data mining of keywords in relation to contemporary Chinese female scientists

First, we applied data mining on the book's keywords to determine the frequency of their appearance in the book, and we used word frequency as a weight indicator to form the word cloud map in Figure 5. The analysis shows that work (工作, 218 times), team (团队, 155 times), technology (技术, 132 times) and design (设计, 113 times) appear most frequently in the book, which shows that work is the most important factor in the lives of women scientists, and that a good team is indispensable to their work. All of the women are well versed in the advanced technologies in their fields of expertise, and many of them have been involved in the design of advanced equipment and procedures.

Figure 5.

Word cloud of keywords in relation to contemporary Chinese female scientists.

Other high-frequency words in the book include fields (领域, 88 times), scientific research (科研, 85 times), international (国际, 84 times) and students (学生, 84 times), which reflects the fact that the women are all top-rated experts in their research fields. Many of them have studied abroad to learn cutting-edge technologies, but, after completing their studies, they have returned to China without any hesitation and made a valuable contribution to the development of the country. While dedicating themselves to the study of S&T, many of them are also passionate about education and talent cultivation, and they have brought up many outstanding students through their teaching careers.

In order to explore further the links between keywords, we visualised the links using the keyword co-occurrence method. First, we sorted the intrinsic aggregation relations between the keywords and converted them into the JSON data exchange format. Then we uploaded the data files to an online platform for visualised analysis of complex networks to improve the distribution of data points through rapid and flexible allocation of mechanistic modules on the platform. Finally, we clustered the data points by colour and area using the Louvain algorithm, adjusting the position of each data point slightly to produce Figure 6. Each node represents one keyword, the size of the node represents the frequency of the keyword, and the lines between the nodes represent the correlation between two keywords. It is clear in Figure 6 that the most frequent keywords are fields (领域), work (工作) and professional (专业).

Figure 6.

Visualised analysis of keyword relevance.

Analysis of Figure 6 indicates that women scientists are doing an excellent job in their work. They are well versed in advanced technologies and constantly breaking new ground. Building their profession on a solid foundation, they have led their teams in the pursuit of innovation and contributed many ‘firsts’. They keep learning and acquiring knowledge in their own research fields, and they work diligently to teach students and foster talent, completing with flying colours the mission entrusted to them by their motherland. However, while making advances in their research, they find it difficult to take care of their families, as their dedication to work leaves little time for other activities.

I examined the career-development features and gender-equality elements in Great Beauty: Chinese Women Scientists further using latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) analysis. LDA is a model for generating document topics and an analytical tool for text topic modelling. Also known as the triple Bayesian probability model (the three elements being words, topics and documents), LDA is mainly applied to shallow semantic analysis of text data. Here, to uncover the evolutionary trend of textual themes, we merged the documents for each scientist into a single document to form a set of documents divided between individual women scientists, and then we analysed those according to their subjects. That process enabled us to locate changes in the themes for the 21 women scientists. In order to establish the evolutionary pattern, we selected five relatively stable critical themes for in-depth analysis. As shown in Table 1, the five themes are represented by scientists, key research areas and research methods, and mostly the research areas of women scientists.

Table 1.

LDA thematic analysis of Great Beauty: Chinese Women Scientists.

	Theme 1	Likelihood	Theme 2	Likelihood	Theme 3	Likelihood	Theme 4	Likelihood	Theme 5	Likelihood
1	Wang Jingkang	0.98	DMU	0.76	Zheng Ruyong	0.88	Artemisinin	0.20	Jiang Liping	0.92
2	Li Fanghua	0.89	Su Chenhuan	0.69	Li Lanjuan	0.88	Environmental protection	0.20	Jiang Yan	0.89
3	Tunnel boring	0.87	Zhang Miman	0.65	Han Xiqiu	0.78	Li Lanjuan	0.20	Yang Fuqing	0.77
4	Malaria	0.80	Satellite communication	0.64	Wang Xiaoyun	0.74	Fungus	0.20	Wu Yixian	0.71
5	Wang Dujuan	0.75	Fish	0.63	Zhu Zhaoyun	0.68	Ecological civilisation	0.20	Avian flu	0.71
6	Qian Yi	0.68	High-speed	0.52	Chen Kun	0.66	Seabed	0.20	Chen Hualan	0.62
7	Animal	0.61	High-speed train	0.52	Wang Xuan	0.62	Software	0.20	Virus	0.60
8	Qin Chuan	0.58	Palaeontology	0.50	Chen Xiangmei	0.60	Wang Jingkang	0.20	Tyre	0.58
9	Electron microscope	0.56	Liang Jianying	0.48	Sea-bed	0.58	Satellite communication	0.20	Operating system	0.57
10	Laboratory zoology	0.51	Fossil	0.47	Hash	0.55	Malaria	0.20	Plane	0.56

4. Key factors for the career success of Chinese women scientists

4.1 Relaxed educational environment and growth path

Early education and the family environment have a great influence on a person. Women who grow up in an environment of gender-inequality ideas, such as ‘men are superior to women’, ‘the husband takes care of work; the wife takes care of the family’ and ‘men are afraid of entering the wrong profession; women are afraid of marrying the wrong man’, can hardly establish ambitious scientific dreams. Therefore, a relaxed family and growth environment is crucial for the cultivation and development of women scientists.

The first step is family education, which is the initial source of motivation for growth. Some argue that a child's future is shaped by education. If we see every child as an undiscovered genius, then a good family education is the sunshine and rain that nourish the genius, providing ample space and nutrients to bring out the best in the child and build a strong character. The book series Into the World of Women Scientists provides many examples of this point. For example, Hedy Lamarr's parents wanted their children to read and so bought them a lot of books and magazines. However, convinced that learning should not be limited to books, they also encouraged their children to use their imaginations and guided their education through the selection of toys and gifts. Lamarr's father bought her a telescope so that she could gaze at the stars from their backyard. Adriana Ocampo's father worked three part-time jobs (teacher, electrician and salesman) at the same time. Despite his busy work schedule, he took time to teach Ocampo skating, and he bought her a set of chemistry experiment models and a telescope with a carrying case. The success of many Chinese women scientists can also be attributed to the early family education they received. For example, Zheng Ruyong's parents were very supportive of their children's studies and respected their choices; Wang Xiaoyun's father was very supportive of her studies and wanted her to grow up to be a scientist like Marie Curie. Therefore, we should devote more attention to the education of parents, and communicate the correct educational philosophy and ideas to them through lectures and parents’ meetings, so as to lay a good foundation for the early education of children.

The second step is school education. School is where students are educated in an organised and planned way, and it plays a vital role in their enlightenment and the development of their minds. Many outstanding women scientists received a good education and the guidance of many excellent teachers and mentors during their formative years, with a profound impact on their development. This shows the importance of paying attention to the guidance provided for female students in education. In their daily teaching, primary and secondary schoolteachers should educate children about gender equality and encourage them to pursue ambitious goals. Textbooks must stress the concept of gender equality and avoid the use of gender-biased words. Teacher training should be strengthened to raise awareness of gender equality, and gender-equality education should be introduced into teacher-training schools. These measures can be taken to ensure that students embrace the idea of gender equality in their schooling and acquire the ability and confidence to pursue their scientific aspirations.

4.2 Balance in personal and family development

For women scientists, there is a conflict between research work and family life. On the one hand, in order to bring their scientific thinking into line with international standards, many take the opportunity to study abroad for a period. They have to face the challenges of studying alone in a foreign country for at least one or two years, perhaps for as long as five years, before returning to their families; as the years go by, the odds of family break-up increase exponentially, and their children may also be left with regrets about a lack of maternal presence during their formative years. On the other hand, scientific research requires a great deal of time, enthusiasm and energy. Even with a lot of effort, it is very difficult to produce good results; achieving the desired outcomes without putting in the hard work is highly unlikely, if not impossible. Nevertheless, household chores, life chores and the duties of child-rearing must also be attended to. Most married women take on more responsibility than married men do for household chores and child-rearing in their families, which makes life difficult for women scientists working in research.

Nevertheless, if career and family life are properly balanced, they can complement each other. Many women scientists have achieved excellence in their research while also having happy family lives. Some women scientists have been able to use all the fragmented time they have to do their research, even when they are holding children in their arms or doing housework. In addition to their own time-management skills and work efficiency, the support and understanding of their families is an important factor in balancing work and family life. Some women scientists have husbands who are also engaged in scientific work, and they understand each other, support each other and progress together. Their husbands will also help look after the family and take care of household chores.

A happy family is the best medicine to relieve stress and soothe the soul, and it is also a haven where women scientists can build up their strength (Bao, 2011). However, many women scientists still feel guilty about their families and regret not giving their children more attention because of the busy schedule of their research work. Therefore, support policies for women scientists should be improved to address their concerns so that they can devote themselves wholeheartedly to their research. Public childcare and social services should also be improved to ease the family burden of women scientists.

4.3 Coordination of multidimensional factors for career development

Many outstanding women scientists are able to make full use of all the available factors to carry out their research activities, and to balance those factors to lead their teams in accomplishing difficult tasks.

First, they keep their feet on the ground and seize every opportunity to refine their research work. For example, Li Fanghua, in order to access advanced instruments for conducting experiments, made every effort to get an instrument installation job and fostered good relations with the company's engineers. She finally got the opportunity to use the instruments for her research when the engineers were taking their break from work. In order to unravel the mystery of the origin of the ancestors of tetrapods, Zhang Miman performed continuous grinding of her fossil specimen, sleeping for only four or five hours at night. Through two years of hard work, she converted the fossil, which was only 28 mm in length, into more than 540 wax moulds less than 1 mm thick. Li Lanjuan gave up her job as a teacher to become a ‘barefoot doctor’ in the countryside so that she could study and improve her medical skills. With determination and perseverance, she stayed at patients’ bedsides day and night, undeterred by the risk of infection, and gained valuable experience based on her analysis of the data she collected. After more than 10 years of hard work, Li's team mastered key technologies and developed a unique and effective artificial liver system for which they had independent intellectual property rights.

Second, despite hardships and obstacles, women scientists mobilise all available factors and lead their teams in achieving outstanding results. For example, Zhu Zhaoyun was tasked with rebuilding the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at a time of low staff morale. Chen Xiangmei donated all her savings and books to her hospital department after returning from her studies abroad. Instead of requesting housing for herself, she asked the hospital to support the construction of her nephrology department. Under her leadership, her team overcame the challenges of weak capacity in basic research, inadequate facilities and equipment, underdeveloped clinical technologies and insufficient human resources. They built the department from scratch, taking the lead in seeking breakthroughs in research and achieving leapfrog development in both the size and the strength of the department. In the battle against SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), Qin Chuan and her team were entrusted with a number of important missions, including the development of animal models. She always carried out the most dangerous tasks herself and led her team through emergencies with calmness and composure. Undaunted by harsh conditions, Yang Fuqing led a group of young teachers to complete the design of the instruction system text and the operation system of Model 150, China's first millions of operations per second computer. To test the alpine resistance of railway rolling stock, Liang Jianying took her research team to Yituli River in Inner Mongolia, where they conducted tests in severe winter weather with temperatures of −38°C, eventually creating a brand new model capable of withstanding harsh environments.

Hardworking and diligent, these outstanding women scientists made the most of all factors and seized every opportunity in their research work. Through their hard work, they not only achieved the finest research results but also led their teams to overcome hardships and obstacles and mobilised all available resources to achieve success.

4.4 Conditions supporting career development

For many women scientists, the encouragement and support of colleagues, teachers and leaders are critical for their career success. For example, during the national examination in 1956, Qian Yi captured the attention of Professor Tao Baokai with her graduation thesis and became one of the professor's students. After graduating with distinction, she stayed on to teach in the university and began her research—on water pollution prevention and control—as Professor Tao's assistant. In 1985, Professor Zhang Yuanmou passed the baton of the research laboratory and the innovative research team he had personally founded to Wang Jingkang and encouraged her to keep forging ahead in the field of industrial crystallization and to contribute to the industrial transformation of crystallization technologies in China. After returning to China, Chen Hualan went to work in the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. With the support of her PhD supervisor, Yu Kangzhen, and the leadership of the institute, she realised the dream of setting up her own laboratory, which was soon designated by the Ministry of Agriculture as the National Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza and tasked with the responsibility for diagnosing highly pathogenic avian influenza in China. When Shenyang Blower Works Group Corporation (SBW) took on the task of developing a million-tonne ethylene compressor unit, the name Jiang Yan came to the attention of the company's leaders. Without hesitation, they gave the important assignment to this 33-year-old woman who had neither good communication skills nor a background at a prestigious university.

The policy support that women scientists receive also contributes to their career development. For example, in 1986, Li Lanjuan received financial support in the form of 3000 yuan from the Youth Science Fund for a research project on the use of artificial livers in the treatment of fulminant hepatitis; that initial support started her lifelong pursuit of scientific research. One encouraging development is that some of the policies currently implemented already take into account the special conditions of women and provide them with correspondingly more support. The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), for instance, has now extended the age limit for women applicants to the Young Science Fund by five years to under the age of 40. In addition, the NSFC's policy of ‘preference for women on equal terms’ has begun to bear fruit (Gao, 2011; Miao, 2019). With the support of those policies, the number of female researchers leading NSFC projects has increased substantially, which has had a positive impact on the growth of women scientists.

As can be seen from a comparison with international policies on women's development in the field of S&T, China is currently in a phase of transition from equal rights to favourable policies, and a notable gap with developed countries still exists. Although China has made some progress in the protection of women's rights and interests in relevant documents and policies, the policies specifically designed for female S&T workers are not yet sufficiently detailed. Therefore, from existing domestic experience, we believe it is necessary to provide female S&T workers with incentives for their career development.

5. Summary and recommendations

5.1 Summary

The total number of female S&T workers in China is inadequate, and their potential is yet to be put into full play. The quality of female S&T workers is significantly lower than that of their male counterparts, and greater efforts are needed in human capital development. The proportion of top-rated female S&T professionals is relatively low, especially at the top management level. To address these inadequacies, and taking into account the fact that the development of female S&T workers is influenced by multiple factors, some researchers have shared their insights on the development of female S&T workers at three levels: the macro, meso and individual levels (Wei, 2013). At the macro level, efforts are needed to strengthen the relevant organisations and institutions, to introduce policies for promoting the development of female S&T workers, and to foster a better social and cultural atmosphere. At the meso level, efforts should include creating a supportive environment conducive to the growth of female S&T workers and introducing incentives and safeguards based on the patterns of women's career development. At the individual level, it is necessary to mobilise the initiative of female S&T workers, enabling them to accumulate and update knowledge and to balance work and family responsibilities.

5.2 Policy recommendations

On the basis of the preceding analysis, we make five recommendations for promoting the career success of contemporary Chinese women scientists.

First, build a complete development platform for female S&T workers during the career exploration stage. Female S&T workers under the age of 30 are a group with great passion for research, but they are often deprived of research opportunities due to their junior job roles and are unable to bring out their competitiveness. Research organisations should do their best to unleash the motivation and creativity of female S&T workers at this stage, to provide them with internship opportunities for scientific research, and to pave the way for them to develop their research capabilities. Relevant departments and institutions should provide targeted training programmes for female S&T workers early in their careers, with a focus on long-term career planning for the individuals and the long-term development of the organisation.

Second, improve the quality of work and life of female S&T workers during the career advancement stage. Professional women usually see career development as a process of personal development, and they place considerable emphasis on work–life balance and the pursuit of a good quality of life. However, S&T work is complex, requires dedication and is psychologically demanding for those who engage in it. Female S&T workers at the career advancement stage are confronted with greater work–family conflict than men. If research organisations fail to attend to their needs and instead overburden them with work, female S&T workers will not be able to achieve the desired results and may also suffer great psychological stress. Such a situation is not conducive to the long-term development of either the organisation or the individual. Therefore, research organisations should focus their efforts on improving the quality of work and life perceived by women at this stage.

Third, provide counselling and training for female S&T workers during the career plateau stage. The emergence of the career plateau reflects the pressures caused by high part-time income and the psychological ambivalence and exhaustion triggered by the current retirement policy in China. Therefore, while calling for the establishment of a gender-equal retirement policy, we also recommend providing psychological training and counselling for female S&T workers at the career plateau stage. The training and counselling should focus on their vocational needs, help them to overcome conflicting self-perceptions at work and guide them to make full use of their experience and competitiveness.

Fourth, help female S&T workers to adapt and maintain their work stamina during the career exit stage. Under the current retirement policy in China, female S&T workers at the career exit stage often hold senior job titles and have strong competitiveness. Therefore, it is important to pay adequate attention to putting their talents to proper use. We need to incorporate retired female S&T professionals into human capital planning, task specialised agencies and personnel with managing retired S&T workers, and bring into play the role of retired S&T workers as a redevelopment of human capital, so as to put the development of retired female professionals onto a scientific track. We also need to pay attention to the training of new recruits and succession within research teams. If supported to maintain their creativity, female S&T workers at this stage can provide value by passing on the baton to their successors and fitting better into the organisation's development plan.

Finally, promote a culture of gender equality to improve the research environment for career development. We need to foster a gender-equal culture and create a social environment that is supportive of the development of female S&T workers. The building of that culture will not happen overnight, and it will require effort from all parties. To incorporate gender awareness into public policies, a key role must be played by social organisations. First, the government, as a public authority and maker of public policies, should perform the basic function of constructing a basic public policy framework that shapes the cause of gender equality. Second, intermediate organisations should play their role as indispensable forces for advancing the cause of gender equality. We need to bring into full play the role of those organisations and mobilise the participation of all social sectors in fostering a gender-equal culture. We need to jointly promote the cause of women's development and jointly undertake the social responsibility for gender equality to form a harmonious social environment that is conducive to women's development.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank many generous colleagues around the globe who contributed to this work and the support of National Natural Science Foundation of China (no 72074031).

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research,authorship,and/or publication of this article: This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no 72074031).

Author biography

Jingying Wang is a professor at the Faculty of Education,Beijing Normal University. She is mainly engaged in studies of science education and physics teaching. Her research interests include students’ scientific awareness and non-cognitive abilities,science education supported by technology,interactions between science teaching and learning,and evaluation of science textbooks.

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