ISLAMABAD: Women remain under-represented in most disciplines of science and technology, and are not well represented at the most senior levels in all disciplines. Many women and girls are excluded from participation in S&T activities due to poverty and lack of education at all levels, or by aspects of their legal, institutional, political and cultural environments.
“Job options for women remain limited to agriculture, services (domestic) and small scale industries”, Chairperson Pakistan council for Science and Technology (PCST) Dr Mudasar Asrar said this while talking to APP.
She said PCST has launched a project to collect data on statistics of women representation in all sectors especially in Science and Technology.
PCST is working for gender mainstreaming to empower Pakistani women, who play a role in the development and socio-economic uplift of the country and participate in the decision making at all levels.
“We invite the women working in all sectors especially in science from private and government sectors to join the gender mainstreaming in Pakistan, so that we may bring all women of Pakistan at a single forum and work for the betterment of Pakistani women”. PCST has chalked out a plan to carry out Gender mainstreaming studies in Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I) to provide an evidence base for research and policy development.
Gender statistics have an important role in improving the whole statistical system, pushing it to describe more accurately and fully the activities and characteristics of the whole population, she said.
She said the gender dimension of science and technology (S&T) has become an increasingly important issue worldwide, adding, in the drive to strengthen knowledge-based societies and technological advancements, policy makers are looking to ensure that their countries have an adequate supply of researchers.
According to the data available,the percentage of female researchers jumped from 23pc to 27pc in recent years, that exceeds Asia average (17pc) and equals to international average.
