Diverse STEM Teams ‘Do’ Better Science — Yet Only 30% of Scientists Are Women, Study Finds

It's no surprise that, regardless of the industry, diversity is good for business. Despite that common knowledge, however, women only make up 30 percent of scientists.

With almost four decades of research published between 1980 and 2016 in the fields of biomedical research, clinical medicine and public health, a team of North American researchers came to a simple finding: Diverse science teams produce both more rigorous and effective science, especially when it comes to reporting sex-based differences in subjects. While sex-related reporting is generally increasing across publications, papers that boast female first and last authors are more likely to cover sex-based differences, which allows for robust replication in science and is particularly critical when translating findings from pre-clinical to applied health settings.

Still, however, researchers are grappling with the aforementioned discrepancy with regards to the underrepresentation of female scientists. Despite a number of proposed diversity policies and action plans, the efforts of the top 15 global universities for social sciences and public health in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom still beget a number of gender disparities. While women outnumber men at junior levels, that representation declines each level up the academic hierarchy, especially for ethnic-minority women.

Likewise,  more expansive initiatives such as the National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE and the Athena Scientific Women’s Academic Network (SWAN)  continue to advocate for gender diversity and inclusion across the United States and the United Kingdom, respectively. But international research suggests that it's difficult to attribute any tangible progress to their efforts alone. Moreover, few men are involved in such initiatives, though research suggests time and time again that, in order to achieve systematic, sustainable equality among the genders, all genders must work together. Otherwise, women bear the burden of fighting inequality alone, which consumes ever more time and energy they could expend elsewhere — such as in their STEM careers.

The Lancet recently published its #LancetWomen report, a 118-page issue with over 300 submissions from more than 40 countries, that unpacks everything from implicit bias to the best practices to address gender inequality. The report offers peer-reviewed evidence for the institutional and systemic barriers that continue to impact (and, frankly, stall) women’s progress in science, medicine and global health.

Here are three actionable ways companies can do a better job of tackling the gender imbalance in STEM and finding, recruiting and promoting female talent within their organizations, according to the #LancetWomen report.

1. Celebrate female scientists' achievements (not their gender).

2. Give female scientists the credit they deserve.

3. Encourage women to study STEM.

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