Women Are 12 Percent of the Members of Scientific Academies Worldwide

A new report from the Academy of Science of South Africa finds that worldwide, women make up an average of 12 percent of the memberships of academic science societies. The report examined the membership ranks of 69 science societies around the world. The results showed that women are between 14 percent and 16 percent of academies whose members concentrated in the social sciences, medical sciences, and biological sciences. In contrast, women averaged only 6 percent of the members of mathematical societies and 5 percent of engineering societies.

While women make up 12 percent of the average scientific society’s membership, there is a wide range of differences from country to country. Women did better in the Western Hemisphere compared to women in Europe, Asia, or Africa. Cuba has the highest representation of women in scientific societies with 27 percent. Women are only 4 percent of the members of scientific societies in Poland and Tanzania.

In the United States, the survey found that women make up 13 percent of the membership of the National Academy of Sciences. The Royal Society in the United Kingdom and the Chinese Academy of Sciences each have a membership where women are 6 percent of the total. Women are more than 20 percent of the members in scientific academies in Peru, Nicaragua, Mexico, South Africa, and the Czech Republic as well as in the Caribbean Academy of Science, which has members from many nations.

The full 66-page report, Women for Science: Inclusion and Participation in Academies of Science, may be downloaded by clicking here.