While attitudes on gender equity and parity have considerably improved in recent history, there are still measurable inequities stemming from systemic bias in the career progression, recognition, and perception of women in the sciences, including our sub-field of computational materials research. Addressing the obstacles to equity is in everyone's interest. Making research inclusive is critical, not only from an ethical standpoint, but also for attracting and retaining dedicated and talented minds, enhancing the vibrancy of all fields, and nurturing a diverse range of ideas. Diversity in representation and thought can increase a group’s collective intelligence, improve productivity, and improve retention in growing fields such as ours. Representation of the entire populace is also necessary for ensuring that science is responsible and relevant to societal needs. In this perspective, Livia B. P rtay et al. from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick, UK, reviewed the current challenges and barriers for women in science, citing data and analysis from the literature. Based on the number of degrees awarded by subject and gender by US academic institutions reported by the US Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the authors demonstrated that the proportion of graduate degrees awarded to women has steadily increased in all fields over the past 30 years, but the gap between male and female undergraduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines often still looms large. The barriers that women face in STEM environments can often be summed up as: Unconscious biases- stereotypes about women's fitness for the field, the Marie Curie Strategy-special personality traits deemed necessary for a woman’s success, Caring Responsibilities-expectation that woman assume the primary burden of caretaking, Decreased Visibility-exclusion of woman scientists and lack of prominent role models. These biases and barriers can be measured in a range of different ways, from a cognitive perspective, such as low citation rates, short letters of recommendation, lower funding, award inequality, gendered student evaluations, in terms of the working environment, decreased networking opportunities, disproportionate workload. The first step in addressing the barriers is to acknowledge the existence of bias and then take practical action, such as unconscious bias training to identify and address social stereotypes, changing the narrative to show and advertise the goals of research to diverse student populations, improving visibility and mentoring to encourage belonging and professional confidence, improving environments by installing inclusiveness in institutional policies and informal interactions, reforming funding and awards to increase transparency and broaden accomplishment metrics beyond publications, checking gender-bias in citations and recommendations through Citation Diversity Statement (CDS) and other tools. This paper summarizes the gender inequality in the field of computational materials research, hoping to raise awareness in the scientific community and move academia towards a more equitable environment.
沪公网安备 31010502006565号
