Gender Working Group Transformative Actions:

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• Gender Working Group Transformative Actions
• Are they Still Relevant?

Sophia Huyer Gender, Science and Technology for
Sustainable Development Looking Ahead to the
Next 10 Years UNESCO, Paris December 12-13, 2006
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Gender Working Group Transformative Action Areas

• Gender equity in science and technology education
• Removing obstacles to women in scientific and
  technological careers
• Making science responsive to the needs of
  society the gender dimension
• Making the science and technology decision-making
  process more "gender aware"
• Relating better with "local knowledge systems"
• Addressing ethical issues in science and
  technology the gender dimension
• Improving the collection of gender disaggregated
  data for
• policy makers.

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1. Science education

• In general
• Access to education has increased overall, gender
  disparities are decreasing
• Sociocultural barriers remain
• Other factors include HIV-AIDS, conflict, living
  in rural areas
• Gender disparity for girls in secondary and
• tertiary levels overall, with regional
• variation

www.aaas.org
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1. Science Education

• Girls enrollment in ST courses decrease at
  secondary level
• Enrollment at tertiary level is in bio and life
  sciences
• Presence in hard sciences persistently low
• Need for more data

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2. Science workforce

• Also related to gender dimensions of national
  capacity building for STI systems
• Attrition at every stage numbers of women
  decrease all the way up the ladder

www.sarg.org.za
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2. Science workforce

• Reasons for attrition
• Domestic responsibilities
• Performance evaluation
• System based on old models
• GOFS

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3. Needs of Society

• Currently framed in context of Millennium
  Development Goals or poverty reduction, although
  it is also included in ST for social development
  discourse.
• Awareness of scientists of the needs of
  society contributions of women to development
  of research agendas and implementation of ST
• Still a missing ingredient.
• More research needed on women's ST interests,
  needs and concerns
• Focus on big or high tech at cost of
  appropriate tech

FAO/16242 /Peyton Johnson
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3. Needs of Society

• New factors
• HIV-AIDS
• Globalization
• increased market competition
• jobs in the IT sector (albeit at lower levels)
• Womens access to land rights and tenure
• Biotechnology

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4. ST Decision making

• Some progress - international and national
• GAB network of national committees
• Recognition of women as resource for national
  capacity in STI
• ST for social development
• Poverty reduction and MDGs
• OAS ST inputs to Summit of the Americas
• India, South Africa

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4. Relating better with local knowledge systems
www.sristi.org
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4. Relating better with local knowledge systems

• Indigenous or traditional knowledge recognized,
  but not part of mainstream agricultural RD
• Profile of gender dimension has decreased?
• IPRs related to this, in terms of communal
  ownership and ability to benefit
• -gt gender dimensions almost ignored
• -gt related also to biotech and gene resources,
  knowledge of local and agricultural biodiversity

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6. Ethical issues

• Conduct and application of scientific research
• GAB-IDRC Expert Consultations on Gender
  Dimensions of Biotechnology RD - health
  implications
• Gender, Globalization and Health program

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7. Collecting sex-disaggregated data

• GAB-UNESCO Toolkit on Gender Indicators in
  Engineering, Science and Technology
• EU- She Figures
• RICYT - Latin America
• South Africa
• RESGEST project
• Emerging work on gender
• and ICT data and indicators

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Remaining gaps

• Education strategies for dissemination,
  replication and transfer of successful strategies
  and approaches from countries like the USA to
  other regions.
• Workforce Sophisticated and nuanced
  understanding of issues
• Move to translate knowledge to action
  comparative baseline criteria, guidelines and
  indicators for progress.
• Needs of Society
• Work on gender dimensions of NRM and
  agriculture/food security has been increasing
  (FAO, CGIAR, others)
• Small-scale technologies for local level
• production and agriculture
• ST Decision making Campaign to educate and work
  
• with policy makers

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Remaining gaps

• Need for more work on womens IPRs, support for
• protection and benefits
• Ethics Still a GAB role in this area?
• Sex-disaggregated Data increase understanding of
  policy makers and statistical agencies of the
  value of collecting disaggregated data.

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Remaining gaps where to?

• Biotechnology
• hardly any work on or understanding of gender
  dimensions
• GAB could potentially make an important
  contribution, building on expert workshops of
  2004

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Remaining gaps where to?

• ICT
• CSTD mandate to monitor UN system-wide followup
• many other groups active in policy research,
  activism and UN advocacy
• Climate change
• women most vulnerable in many instances
• effects on NRM, agricultural, and livelihoods
  capacities
• little work in this area
• CSD-15 focus

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Thank you.
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