Academic Careers and Gender Inequality: Leaky Pipeline and Interrelated Phenomena in Seven European Countries

The literature on “gender and science” underlines how much careers in science and academia are still subject to discrimination according to the sex. This becomes visible in the famous scissor-shaped curve, where one can observe a progressive “evaporation” or disappearance of women as they advance in the career; an occurence, which is called the “leaky pipeline” phenomenon. This report is aimed at inquiring into the Leaky Pipeline phenomenon with reference to the organization of scientific and academic careers taking into account singular national and institutional contexts involved in the GARCIA research project. The aim is to depict the map of women and men in scientific/academic careers in several countries (Austria, Belgium, Iceland, Italy, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Switzerland) and institutes (SSH and STEM fields). It provides a transversal analysis of national and organizational data in terms of the leaky pipeline in each studied context. Finally, it suggests some recommendations for tools or implementations that could help in improving the situations described.