Proportion of igh-level female technologists on a decline, survey

Female academicians at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering account for 5.6 percent of the total faculty, down from the 6.2 percent in 1978 when the first National Conference on Science was held. The expert panel for the National 863 plan has no female members, and only 4.6 percent of the chief scientists selected by National 973 Plan are women. In the kick-off meeting of the high-level female talent development survey and policy promotion program on January 29, Song Xiuyan, secretary of Party Leadership Group and first secretary of All-China Women's Federation, calls on the society to fully recognize the importance and urgency of female talent development in accordance with the implementation of the policy of rejuvenating China through education.

The lack of high-level female talent is not limited to technological fields. Li Weihong, vice minister of the Ministry of Education, revealed a set of data in the kick-off meeting which indicated that in the Thousand Talent Plan, only two out of 135 who were given preferential policies and returned to China were female, while in the Cheung Kong Scholars Program, over the past decade, only 75 of the 1152 participants who had returned to China from overseas were female, just 5 percent of the total.

"In technological study and research, regardless of IQ and working ability, there is no discrepancy between the two sexes, and particularly in the areas of imagination, patience and perseverance, women have an advantage in certain disciplines. However, due to child-birth and the subsequent raising of that child, there is no guarantee of knowledge accumulation and constant education updates, which make some females, who should have become top talents, gradually move further and further away from academic leadership positions." Li Sen, director of human resource department of China Association for Science and Technology, said that to fix the lack of high-level female technological personnel, we should provide a better platform for high-level, and specifically young, technological personnel in order to offer plenty of room for growth and development for high-level female technological personnel.

According to a female technological researcher who spoke on the condition of anonymity, she was once confused after ten years of working. Then she experienced a career dry-spell, and the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics sent her to study in a famous laboratory in the USA, which laid down a solid foundation for her academic growth and helped her break the stagnation. Another female researcher from China Academy of Science mentioned that, during key periods, she made rapid improvements with cooperation with and instruction from famous tutors. It is undeniable that famous tutors play important roles in talent development, and their guidance often spares unnecessary efforts and enables the students to enter the academic world.

Currently, it is essentially agreed that China is lacking high-level females in scientific and technological fields. In the high-level female talent development survey and policy promotion program launched by the Women's Studies Institute of ACWF in the second half of 2009, researchers found that the obstacles and difficulties that contribute to this problem lied in several things: a traditional view of women which impeded career development; difficulties imposed upon women by the distribution of faculty assignments and the forms of socializing in research management; the burdens that go along with the education of children and lack of social support, both of which also add extra pressure on women; besides, the inequality in funds for achievement publishing and retirement policy deprive women of the opportunity for creation.