Oldal 11 [11]
INTRODUCTION
EMPIRICAL RESEARCH BEHIND THE CHAPTERS
A few words about the empirical research — the starting point
However eager we may be to believe that gender does not matter at all in the
scientific world, the numbers show otherwise. Looking at the membership of
the Hungarian Academy of Sciences [Magyar Tudomanyos Akadémia, referred
to henceforth as the MTA], we observe an immense disproportion in terms of
gender composition. In 2004, 96% of the ordinary and corresponding members
of the MTA were men. Looking at membership 10 years later, in 2014, the
change is almost non-existent: the same proportion dropped to 93.2%, mean¬
ing that the ratio of women holding a significant role in science rose by a mere
2.890."
In 2017, only 24 of the 334 ordinary and corresponding members of the MTA
were women. 26 men were elected as corresponding members during the 2016
member election process, and not a single woman, which resulted in the de¬
crease of the previously existing proportion of women of 7% to 6.7%. There are
only 418 women among the 2689 Doctors of Science in the MTA, which equals
a rate of 15.5%. The 2019 member election changed this ratio to 8.7%.
My research has rooted in the justified goal and requirement for the intel¬
lectual and scientific advancement of the female gender (which makes up more
than half of the populace) to rest on equal conditions. It has aimed to examine
the reasons for the gender inequality present in the ranks of the scientific elite,
and, as I have mentioned, looking for an explanation as to why the numbers
(6.7%) show such a significant disparity between the male and female members
of scientific society when there are no legal constraints making it difficult for
women to be represented equally in the MTA.
My assumption has been that the reason for women being represented in
such low numbers among the scientific elite is to be found in the social struc¬
ture, meaning that gender stereotypes are de facto still present in the solidified
habits and ideologies, just as they were a century ago. Despite not always being
direct and visible, these stereotypes represent an indirect, latent presence in
everyday practices. This results not only in just a handful of women achieving
the highest ranks in the world of science and top positions in institutions, but
also in the fact that they are further excluded from the redistribution process
of said positions, which in turn allows the reproduction of the status quo, along
with its gender-based hierarchic system.
As I mentioned before, my primary goal has been to introduce the career
arcs of female academicians and female DSc Doctors at the Academy, the
! See Illésné Lukács et al., Grébics, quoted in Hadas, M.: Az MTA és a férfiuralom, Magyar
Tudomäny 177, 2016, 1391. Translations from Hungarian texts, authors are all mine, unless
otherwise indicated.