Mitigating the Male Stereotype of Science

The capabilities¹ and effectiveness² of women as scientists continue to be doubted amongst the male-dominated scientific community. There is no scientific basis to these perceptions as research disproves them³. A common perception is that women publish less and that the quality of their work is often questionable. Hasan et al.⁴ conclude that the quality of research by female research scholars is at par with that of their male counterparts and the quantum is commensurate with their proportion. Another widely held notion is that women are unable to devote adequate time to research because they have to manage both family and work. Kurup and Maithreyi⁵ demonstrate that more women scientists (47%) than men (34%) devote 40–60 hours per week and that 86% of women scientists can manage both family and work. Subtle, but deep ischolar_mained work place gender biases against women scientists seem to be a plausible explanation for the prevalence of such doubts.