Women in science, engineering and technology: What do scientific publications point to?

Abstract:

This research presents the state of the art of the last fifty years on the topic "women in science, engineering and technology". Scientific and technological competencies are fundamental for economic development of a society, but once observing the female participation in these attributes, historically, there is a gender disparity. Despite the growing debates on the issue, the current bibliometric study is justified due to the lack of quantitative studies and evaluation of publication trends. To this end, descriptive analyses and knowledge structure analyses of articles selected from the Scopus and Web of Science were conducted. The results show that the most productive period is recent, being the United States the country with the highest number of publications and "Women and science careers: leaky pipeline or gender filter?" the most cited article. The knowledge structure was understood by identifying seminal authors and articles, trends in study topics, and the worldwide scientific collaboration network. Low average annual citations per article and reduced collaboration between countries indicate the need for further studies, as well as international integration for better development of the topic. In addition to raising accurate and relevant data, we also propose research suggestions for addressing challenges on gender inequality in science, engineering and technology.

Keywords:
women; STEM; bibliometrics; descriptive analysis; knowledge structure