State of Women in Academia: Extent of Supportive Environment for Female Researchers

Abstract

Abstract While women’s rights activists and advocates fight for equality in the professions, the state of women in academic research is not very impressive. Fewer women are actively undertaking major doctoral studies and research. Although the number increases at a very low rate, women’s participation, specifically in science, technology, engineering, and information technology research at academic levels or for doctoral purposes, is minimal. In this situation, many acclaimed authors have reasoned that womanhood itself and gender-specific attributions cause low participation in academia. A few have referred to motherhood as well. At this juncture, this literature review explores whether environmental support and facilitation are more responsible for this situation than gender attributes are by approaching the topic from the viewpoint of the extent of environmental support for women researchers.