Women in Science & Technology in Asia

The status of women in modern human societies has been of great concern for decades globally. Globally, the extent of involvement of women scientists, including mathematicians and engineers is far from satisfactory. The international organizations of science, IAP, ICSU and IAC have been deeply concerned about the low level of participation of women scientists in research, development and education in science and technology. The InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) has identified Women in Science as an important theme and all the four Regional Networks of IAP, including the Association of Academies and Societies of Sciences in Asia (AASSA) have been actively engaged on deliberations relevant to their regions. AASSA places great importance and emphasis on this problem. Therefore, the need for understanding current status in our region and trends and policy initiatives by governments, science organizations and national science academies is of great value. In the recent past AASSA sponsored Workshops on this topic have been organized at Baku, New Delhi and Izmir. These deliberations underlined the point that in spite of great variations in social, political, and S&T infrastructure, the overall situation of women was remarkably similar across countries. Therefore, there is a need for continuous deliberations to develop innovative strategies to improve the situation. It will take strong sustained efforts, time and adequate resources but it is do-able.

AASSA has published a report on "Women in Science & Technology in Asia". The report is based on the analysis of the results of a survey of the current situation of women in science in AASSA member countries and has received funds from IAP.