The document discusses gender dimensions in research at UniCA. It provides data on the gender imbalance in career progression, decision making, and research content. Statistics are presented on publications, funding success rates, and projects showing imbalances favoring men. Next steps proposed include establishing a database to track gender data over time, training to encourage incorporating gender perspectives in research, and incentives for projects addressing gender dimensions. The document concludes that progress requires a collaborative effort given the complex, nested nature of causes.

2. Focus on Gender Dimension
in research at UniCA.
State of the art and perspectives
Prof. Luigi RAFFO
UniCA coordinator of SUPERA project
Rector’s Delegate for International Research Projects

3. The areas of action of SUPERA
Gender imbalance in career progression: The underlying causes of the gender
imbalance in women’s career progression are numerous and complex. Several
dimensions interplay at different levels and contribute to the horizontal and vertical
segregation of female researchers. For example, at a macro‐level, society dictates
gender roles which influence and restrict women’s and men’s choices. At a meso‐level,
organisational cultures and procedures can be gender‐biased (or even blind) which
constrains women’s career progression. At a micro‐level, female researchers may lack
role models, as well as incentives to achieve their full potential.
Gender imbalance in decision‐making: Women are largely absent in senior positions in
academia. The reasons for the current over‐representation of men in power and
decision‐making are not only structural and multifaceted, but are also grounded in
traditional gender roles. The still very masculine image of science, the way in which
formal networks continue to function in selection processes and the fact that the bulk of
high‐level positions remain occupied by men are just some of the elements that convey
the message that there is no place for women at the top.
Gender dimension in R&I content: The way scientific knowledge is produced, applied
and translated to the society is not free from the global and structural system that
produces gender inequalities based on organizing men and women in hierarchical
different roles.
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 3

4. http://www.here-research.it
The starting point
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 4

5. The She Figures 2018 presents the latest available official statistics on the
footprint of women in the research landscape. The data follow the
‘chronological journey’ of researchers, from graduating from higher education
programmes to acquiring decision-making roles, while considering their
working conditions and intellectual outputs. She Figures, first released in 2003 is
updated every three years since then.
The SheFigure handbook serves as a reference document and provides users
with the methods needed to calculate the indicators, so as to increase the
quality and consistency of gender-related indicators across countries and time
periods. First edition In 2015, second edition (European Commission, 2019) has
been produced to accompany the She Figures 2018
SHE FIGURES
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 5

6. Proportion (%) of men and women in a typical academic
career, students and academic staff, EU-28, 2013-2016
Source: SHE FIGURE 2018
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 6

7. Source: SHE FIGURE 2018
Country Education Arts and
humanities
Social sciences,
journalism and
information
Business,
administration
and law
Natural
sciences,
mathematics
and statistics
Information and
Communication
Technologies
Engineering,
manufacturing
and construction
Agriculture,
forestry,
fisheries and
veterinary
Health and
welfare
Services
EU-28 68 54 54 48 46 21 29 59 60 41
IT 81 58 60 51 53 25 37 59 64 -
Proportion (%) of women among doctoral graduates, by broad
field of study, 2016
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 7

8. Proportion (%) M/W in a typical academic career in science
and engineering, students and academic staff EU-28
Source: SHE FIGURE 2018
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 8

9. Publications
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 9

10. <5
years
5-10
years
>10
years
<5
years
5-10
years
>10
years
<5
years
5-10
years
>10
years
<5
years
5-10
years
>10
years
<5
years
5-10
years
>10
years
<5
years
5-10
years
>10
years
WLD 0.9 0.8 0.8 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.9 0.9 0.8 1.0 0.9 0.9 1.0 0.9 0.9
EU-28 0.9 0.8 0.7 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.9 0.8 0.7 1.0 0.9 0.8 1.0 0.9 0.9 1.0 0.9 0.9
IT 0.9 0.7 0.7 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.9 0.8 0.7 1.0 0.8 0.8 1.0 0.9 0.9 0.9 1.0 1.0
Ratio of women to men average number of publications (all authorships), by field of R&D and
seniority level, 2013-2017
Source: Computed by Elsevier using Scopus data.
Natural Sciences Engineering and
technology
Medical sciences Agricultural
sciences
Social sciences Humanities and
arts
<5
years
5-10
years
>10
years
<5
years
5-10
years
>10
years
<5
years
5-10
years
>10
years
<5
years
5-10
years
>10
years
<5
years
5-10
years
>10
years
<5
years
5-10
years
>10
years
WLD 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.9 0.9 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.1
EU-28 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.9 0.9 1.0 0.9 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.1
IT 0.9 0.9 1.0 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 1.0 1.0 1.1 1.1 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.2 1.2
Ratio of women to men average FWCI of publications (all authorships), by field of R&D and
seniority level, 2013-2017
Source: Computed by Elsevier using Scopus data.
Natural Sciences Engineering and
technology
Medical sciences Agricultural
sciences
Social sciences Humanities and
arts
SHE FIGURES 2018
Number of publications and FWCI by field (W/M)
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 10

11. Country
2008-12 2013-17 2008-12 2013-17 2008-12 2013-17 2008-12 2013-17 2008-12 2013-17 2008-12 2013-17
WLD 0.69 0.73 0.13 0.14 3.61 3.59 2.37 2.41 2.92 2.99 2.19 2.26
EU-28 0.76 0.80 0.14 0.15 3.79 3.69 2.41 2.46 3.02 2.97 2.31 2.18
IT 0.69 0.68 0.12 0.12 3.12 3.05 1.82 1.97 2.16 2.29 1.41 1.33
Percentage of a country's publications with a sex or gender dimension in their research
content, by field of R&D, 2008-2012 and 2013-2017
Source: Computed by Elsevier using Scopus data.
Natural Sciences Engineering and
technology
Medical sciences Agricultural
sciences
Social sciences Humanities and
arts
Publications with a sex or gender dimension in their research content,
by field of R&D, 2008-2012 and 2013-2017
At UNICA 2.4% of the pubblications are gender-related, main area is Medicine.
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 11

12. At UniCA gender-sensitive research is performed in
several departments, but there is no specific
department with a specialization in gender studies.
The percentage of gender-related publications from
UNICA is growing, and can be considered relevant
(higher than the worldwide result) but not satisfactory,
and not guided by a specific policy or support.
The choice of gender-related topics lies with the
researcher’s sensitivity.
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 12

13. Distribution of the main research areas
covered by worldwide gender-related
publications in 2017 and 2018
Distribution of the main research areas
covered by gender-related publications by
researchers from UNICA in 2017 and 2018
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 13

14. https://www.brighamandwomens.org/assets/BWH/womens-health/pdfs/ConnorsReportFINAL.pdf
The science that informs medicine—including the
prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease—
routinely fails to consider the crucial impact of sex
and gender. This happens in the earliest stages of
research when females are excluded from animal
and human studies or the sex of the animals isn’t
stated in the published results. Once clinical trials
begin, researchers frequently do not enroll
adequate numbers of women or, when they do,
fail to analyze or report data separately by sex.
This hampers our ability to identify important
differences that could benefit the health of all.
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 14

15. Joy Buolamwini – MIT - Boston
We evaluate 3 commercial classification
systems using our dataset and show
that darker-skinned females are the
most misclassified group (with error
rates of up to 34.7%). The maximum
error rate for lighter-skinned males is
0.8%.
Artificial intelligence
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 15

16. Research Projects
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 16

17. Research funding success rate differences between women and men, by field of R&D, 2017
Country
Natural
sciences
Engineering
and
technology
Medical
sciences
Agricultural
sciences
Social
sciences
Humanities
and arts
Multi -
disciplinary
IT 0.6 -4.8 5.7 25.0 18.5 6.3 :
Difference in success rate
Source: WiS (Women in Science)
Research funding
Research funding success rate differences between women and men, 2017
Country Funding rate(W) Funding rate(M) Difference (M-W) Reference year
EU-28 32.2 35.2 3.0
IT 16.8 21.1 4.3 2016
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 17

18. Number of projects by type of funding, sex and
ERC field of the person in charge at UNICA
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 18

19. • Analysis of a female presence among the coordinators
of research projects shows a clear unbalance in favor
of the male component at UniCA. Such data are
certainly affected by the unbalance in the gender of
researchers in areas more involved in research
projects.
• The huge gap is also confirmed by a third figure,
related to the female presence in the teams of
research projects with industrial partners, at least
according to the most recent data for the past 3 years,
showing that out of a sample of 97 projects the
principal investigator is male in 84% of cases.
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 19

20. Technology Transfer
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 20

21. Country
Female
alone
Females-
only team
Team with at
least 60% of
females
Mixed team
Team with at
least 60% of
males
Males-only
team
Male alone
EU-28 1.67 0.69 1.62 5.15 10.99 47.20 32.68
IT 2.44 0.57 1.85 4.49 7.99 37.84 44.83
Distribution of patent application by sex composition of the inventors’ team (%),
2013–2016
Inventors’ team
Men only Women only
UNICASHE FIGURES
Considering the number of inventors of patents registered since 2000 at UNICA
119 are males and 47 females (28%).
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 21

22. • The number of female researchers in university spin-
off and startup teams is very low since the
participants of UNICA spin-off teams are 76 males
and 16 females (17%).
• In startup teams founded within the Contamination
Lab, where 41 team members are males and only 15
females (23% despite the inclusive rule concerning
the initial team formation);
Spin-off/Startups
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 22

23. Next steps and conclusions
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 23

24. The start point for any action is to have
reference data always updated. At the moment
this is not the case.
At European and Italian level there is a big
effort to build automatic instruments to help in
gender analysis (e.g. Elsevier) and standard
(e.g. Italian CRUI Gender Balance)
FORESEEN ACTION
Setup of a database/dashboard to keep the
UniCA gender «picture» always updated.
Database/Dashboard
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 24

25. The number of research publications of UniCA
with a gender dimension is in line with the rest
of Italy and Europe, but not satisfactory.
FORESEEN ACTION
Training measures encouraging research staff
to use tools and theoretical frameworks
adding a gender perspective in their analyses.
Gender Dimension
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 25

26. Research projects
Female presence, the number of publications
and projects with a gender dimension, the
success rate in research projects at UniCA are
not different from the rest of Italy and in line with
numbers in Europe, but not satisfactory.
FORESEEN ACTION
Incentives for research projects including a
gender dimension (to be discussed with RAS and
all stakeholders).
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 26

27. Areas of action of SUPERA are nested and it is very
difficult to classify causes and effects. For this reason,
it is difficult to implement strategies to solve the
problem. Some causes are outside of the university
and research and are difficult to be influenced.
This topic is at the top of all political agendas in
Europe and it is now discussed with reliable numbers
at hand.
We are here today to work together to make real
steps forward.
Conclusions
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 27

28. SUPERA UniCA core team
Paola CARBONI
Direzione per la Ricerca e il Territorio
Francesco MOLA
Dip. Sci. Economiche e Aziendali
Presidente CUG, Prorettore vicario
Luigi RAFFO
Dip. Ing. Elettrica Elettronica
Delegato Prog. Ric. Internazionali
Simona SCALAS
Direzione per la Ricerca e il Territorio
Settore Supporto Progetti EU/USA
Silvia BALIA
Dip. Scienze Economiche e Aziendali
Cristina CABRAS
Dip. Pedagogia, Psicologia, Filosofia
Giovanni SULIS
Dip. Scienze Economiche e Aziendali
Paola FADDA
Dip.Scienze Biomediche
CUG- Comitato Unico di Garanzia
Barbara BARBIERI
Dip. Scienze Sociali e delle Istituzioni
Ester COIS
Dip. Scienze Sociali e delle Istituzioni
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 28

29. www.superaproject.eu
info@superaproject.eu
@superaproject
#SuperaH2020
This project has received funding from the
European Union's Horizon 2020 research and
innovation programme under grant agreement
No. 787829.
28/10/2019 Luigi Raffo - raffo@unica.it 29