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One of the policy objectives of the new Federal Government in Germany is equal opportunities for women. It is to be a guiding principle in all programmes and projects in education and research, and it is to be understood as a means to improve quality and performance and to make more efficient use of existing potential. This paradigm shift requires rethinking by all those responsible in politics and industry, as well as in science and research.
Lydia Makkubu reflects on the socio-cultural dimensions at work in the Third-World that affect the numbers of women scientists, and introduces interventions that may help improve the situation.
Increasing attention has been drawn to the problems faced by women in science, engineering and technology (SET). Women are unequally represented in science and their career progression is not comparable to their male colleagues. The growing interest in this topic may partly be because of the growing awareness of the huge untapped economic potential that women represent.
In Germany, 6.8% of the male students who finished their biology degree between 1977 and 1979 reached a "habilitation" within the ten following years (more exactly: 1986 to 1988). Only 0.8% of the women who finished their biology degree between 1977 and 1979 received a "habilitation" within the ten following years1. Habilitation is the German entry ticket to tenured professorship.