While men and women rate themselves as equally competent in research and planning-related skills, the two groups diverge when it comes to their competencies in communication and leadership
There does seem to be a real difference in the way men and women perceive their abilities when it comes to being a scientist. These results are taken from the just released report, the Science Advisory Board's employment overview survey of the life sciences: a window into the scientist's and allied health professional's workplace.
While men and women rate themselves as equally competent in research and planning-related skills, the two groups diverge when it comes to their competencies in communication and leadership skills.
It is provocative to speculate whether these differences translate into two very different, gender-based styles of science.
From this study, women tend to emphasise their attention to detail, organizational skills and levels of observation.
In contrast, men stress their abilities to introduce and communicate concepts and their facility to synthesise information.
While it is pointless and even dangerous to generalise such differences into the 'female' and 'male' approaches to research, at the very least these results reaffirm that there are many recipes for achieving success in one's scientific career. The report is a frank assessment of the different elements that constitute life science careers based upon both qualitative and quantitative data.
These data were collected from the responses to an online questionnaire fielded by nearly 1700 individuals employed in various sectors of the life sciences.
Two-thirds of the respondents were male and one-third of the respondents were female, ranging in age from just 21 years old to greater than 65 years old.
However, the majority of participants were between 31 and 50 years old.
The Science Advisory Board was interested in determining how well these life science professionals' jobs relate to their education, training, and professional experiences.
Members of the board were asked to share their opinions as to what fundamentals are necessary to succeed in the life sciences workplace.
Along with these insights, the study also examined job-related responsibilities and their effects on job satisfaction and frustration levels.
In addition to getting a feel for such intangibles as recognition and appreciation, the study explored more concrete measures of work-place contentment such as compensation, benefits, and access to resources.
