Women scientists in Spain: a comparative study of the last 30 years

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3989/redc.2025.4.1767

Keywords:

Parity, Gender, Spanish science, Dimensions, Bibliometrics

Abstract


The main goal of this article is to analyse the evolution of gender parity in Spanish science (1990-2021), making an analysis by areas of knowledge and comparing the Spanish case internationally, with those countries that lead the Human Development Index. Using data from Dimensions and the United Nations, the WikiGenDex gender assignment algorithm and different data visualization and statistical techniques, we found that the situation of women researchers in Spain varies by area (reaching parity in areas such as Biomedicine and Health Sciences and being far from it in Mathematics and Computer Science). When comparing Spain internationally, we find that the percentage of women researchers in this country is higher than the world average, although the growth of this percentage is similar to that of the other countries studied. The article looks for the reasons for the results in the specificity of the Spanish scientific system and questions the use of gender parity as the only indicator of the situation of women in science.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Acker, J. (2006). Inequality Regimes: Gender, Class, and Race in Organizations. Gender y Society, 20(4), 441-464. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243206289499

Alers, M., van Leerdam, L., Dielissen, P., y Lagro-Janssen, A. (2014). Gendered specialities during medical education: A literature review. Perspectives on Medical Education, 3(3), 163-178. https://doi.org/10.1007/S40037-014-0132-1 PMid:24980516 PMCid:PMC4078047

Amrein, K., Langmann, A., Fahrleitner-Pammer, A., Pieber, T. R., y Zollner-Schwetz, I. (2011). Women Underrepresented on Editorial Boards of 60 Major Medical Journals. Gender Medicine, 8(6), 378-387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.genm.2011.10.007 PMid:22153882

Aramayona, J., Cruz Castro, L., Sanz Menéndez, L., y Timón García-Longoria, Á. A. (2022). La desafección por la carrera investigadora en matemáticas: Diferencias entre hombres y mujeres. La Gaceta de la Real Sociedad Matemática Española, 26(1), 63-86. Disponible en: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/285009. https://doi.org/10.63427/AEJF9585

Baas, J., Schotten, M., Plume, A., Côté, G., y Karimi, R. (2020). Scopus as a curated, high-quality bibliometric data source for academic research in quantitative science studies. Quantitative Science Studies, 1(1), 377-386. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00019

Bates, D. (2014). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.5823.

Bérubé, N., Ghiasi, G., Sainte-Marie, M., y Larivière, V. (2020). Wiki-Gendersort: Automatic gender detection using first names in Wikipedia. OSF. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/ezw7p

Boekhout, H., van der Weijden, I., y Waltman, L. (2021). Gender differences in scientific careers: A large-scale bibliometric analysis. arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.12624.

Cañibano, C., Fox, M. F., y Otamendi, F. J. (2015). Gender and patterns of temporary mobility among researchers. Science and Public Policy, 43(3), 320-331. https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scv042

Caplar, N., Tacchella, S., y Birrer, S. (2017). Quantitative Evaluation of Gender Bias in Astronomical Publications from Citation Counts. Nature Astronomy, 1(6), e0141. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-017-0141

Caron, E., y van Eck, N. J. (2014). Large scale author name disambiguation using rule-based scoring and clustering. En Proceedings of the 19th international conference on science and technology indicators,79-86. CWTS-Leiden University, Leiden.

Ceci, S. J., Ginther, D. K., Kahn, S., y Williams, W. M. (2014). Women in Academic Science: A Changing Landscape. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 15(3), 75-141. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100614541236 PMid:26172066

Chinchilla-Rodríguez, Z., Escabias, M., y Morillo, F. (2025). Meeting evaluation criteria based on authorship positions by gender, academic age, and research field: the Spanish case. Research Evaluation, 34, rvaf008. https://doi.org/10.1093/reseval/rvaf008

Comisión de Mujeres y Ciencia del CSIC. (2024). Informe Mujeres Investigadoras 2024. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Disponible en: https://digital.csic.es/handle/10261/364083.

Dimensions. (2023). A Guide to the Dimensions Data Approach.

Doran, H., Bates, D., Bliese, P., y Dowling, M. (2007). Estimating the multilevel Rasch model: With the lme4 package. Journal of Statistical software, 20, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v020.i02

Eaton, A. A., Saunders, J. F., Jacobson, R. K., y West, K. (2020). How Gender and Race Stereotypes Impact the Advancement of Scholars in STEM: Professors' Biased Evaluations of Physics and Biology Post-Doctoral Candidates. Sex Roles, 82(3-4), 127-141. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-019-01052-w

El-Ouahi, J., y Larivière, V. (2023). On the lack of women researchers in the Middle East and North Africa. Scientometrics, 128(8), 4321-4348. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-023-04768-5

European Commission. (2024). She figures 2024: Gender in research and innovation: statistics and indicators. Publications Office. Disponible en: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/7646222f-e82b-11ef-b5e9-01aa75ed71a1/language-en

Fox, M. F. (2006). Gender, Hierarchy, and Science. Enn J. S. Chafetz (ed.), Handbook of the Sociology of Gender, 441-457. Springer US. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-36218-5_20

Fundación Conocimiento y Desarrollo. (2023). Informe CYD 2023. Disponible en: https://www.fundacioncyd.org/publicaciones-cyd/informe-cyd-2023/

González Sala, F., y Osca Lluch, J. (2016). Análisis de las publicaciones españolas en la categoría Psychology Educational de la Web of Science durante el periodo 2004-2013. Aula Abierta, 44(1), 46-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aula.2015.07.001

González-Sala, F., Osca-Lluch, J., y Ortega, M. P. (2023). Análisis de género de la producción científica española en psicología clínica (1971-2020). Revista Española de Documentación Científica, 46(4). https://doi.org/10.3989/redc.2023.4.2010

González-Salmón, E., Chinchilla-Rodríguez, Z., y Robinson-Garcia, N. (2025). The woman's researcher tale: A Review of Bibliometric Methods and Results for Studying Gender in Science. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 76(9), 1188-1209. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.25012

González-Salmón, E., y Robinson-García, N. (2024). WikiGenDex: Un nuevo algoritmo de identificación de género basado en fuentes abiertas. Infonomy, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.3145/infonomy.24.010

Gunnarsson, Å., Schratzenstaller, M., y Spangenberg, U. (2017). Gender equality and taxation in the European Union: Study for the FEMM Committee. European Parliament.

Haba-Osca, J., Osca-Lluch, J., y González-Sala, F. (2019). Producción científica española en literatura desde una perspectiva de género a través de Web of Science (1975-2017). Investigación Bibliotecológica: archivonomía, bibliotecología e información, 33(79). https://doi.org/10.22201/iibi.24488321xe.2019.79.57996

Haghani, M., Abbasi, A., Zwack, C.C., Shahhoseini, Z., y Haslam, N. (2022) Trends of research productivity across author gender and research fields: A multidisciplinary and multi-country observational study. PLoS ONE, 17(8): e0271998. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271998 PMid:35947579 PMCid:PMC9365186

Holman, L., Stuart-Fox, D., y Hauser, C. E. (2018). The gender gap in science: How long until women are equally represented? PLOS Biology, 16(4), e2004956. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2004956 PMid:29672508 PMCid:PMC5908072

Hook, D. W., Porter, S. J., y Herzog, C. (2018). Dimensions: Building Context for Search and Evaluation. Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics, 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/frma.2018.00023

Huang, J., Gates, A. J., Sinatra, R., y Barabása, A. L. (2020). Historical comparison of gender inequality in scientific careers across countries and disciplines. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(9), 4609-4616. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1914221117 PMid:32071248 PMCid:PMC7060730

Jamali, H. R., y Abbasi, A. (2023). Gender gaps in Australian research publishing, citation and co-authorship. Scientometrics, 128(5), 2879-2893. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-023-04685-7 PMid:37101972 PMCid:PMC10028753

Jefatura del Estado, Gobierno de España. (1976). Ley 16/1976, de 8 de abril, de Relaciones Laborales. Boletín Oficial del Estado, 96, de 21 de abril de 1976. Disponible en: https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-1976-8373.

Jefatura del Estado, Gobierno de España. (1983). Ley 16/1983, de 24 de octubre, de creación del Organismo Autónomo Instituto de la Mujer. Boletín Oficial del Estado, 256, de 26 de octubre de 1983. Disponible en: https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-1983-28126.

Jiménez-Contreras, E., de Moya Anegón, F., y López-Cózar, E. D. (2003). The evolution of research activity in Spain: The impact of the National Commission for the Evaluation of Research Activity (CNEAI). Research Policy, 32(1), 123-142. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0048-7333(02)00008-2

Kozlowski, D., Larivière, V., Sugimoto, C. R., y Monroe-White, T. (2022). Intersectional inequalities in science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(2), e2113067119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2113067119 PMid:34983876 PMCid:PMC8764684

Larivière, V., Ni, C., Gingras, Y., Cronin, B., y Sugimoto, C. R. (2013). Bibliometrics: Global gender disparities in science. Nature, 504(7479). https://doi.org/10.1038/504211a PMid:24350369

Larregue, J., y Nielsen, M. W. (2024). Knowledge Hierarchies and Gender Disparities in Social Science Funding. Sociology, 58(1), 45-65. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385231163071

Martín-Martín, A., Thelwall, M., Orduna-Malea, E., y Delgado López-Cózar, E. (2021). Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, Scopus, Dimensions, Web of Science, and OpenCitations' COCI: A multidisciplinary comparison of coverage via citations. Scientometrics, 126(1), 871-906. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03690-4 PMid:32981987 PMCid:PMC7505221

Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. (2023). Científicas en Cifras. Unidad Mujeres y Ciencia. Disponible en: https://www.ciencia.gob.es/Secc-Servicios/Igualdad/CientificasCifras.html.

Morillo, F., Escabias-Machuca, M., y Chinchilla-Rodríguez, Z. (2024). Are women under-represented in two important types of co-authored publications? DIGITAL.CSIC.

Mulders, A. M., Hofstra, B., y Tolsma, J. (2024). A matter of time? Gender and ethnic inequality in the academic publishing careers of Dutch Ph. Ds. Quantitative Science Studies, 5(3), 487-515. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00306

Narasimhan, S. (2021). Participation of women in science in the developed and developing worlds: inverted U of feminization of the scientific workforce, gender equity and retention. Pure and Applied Chemistry, 93(8), 913-925. https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2021-0101

Nederhof, A. J. (2006). Bibliometric monitoring of research performance in the Social Sciences and the Humanities: A Review. Scientometrics, 66(1), 81-100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-006-0007-2 PMCid:PMC8031415

O'Connor, P., e Irvine, G. (2020). Multi-Level State Interventions and Gender Equality in Higher Education Institutions: The Irish Case. Administrative Sciences, 10(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci10040098

Ostner, I. (1991). Ideas, Institutions, Traditions: The Experience of West German Women, 1945-1990. German Politics y Society, 24/25, 87-99.

Raffo, J. (2021). WGND 2.0. Harvard Dataverse.

Robinson-Garcia, N., Corona-Sobrino, C., Chinchilla-Rodriguez, Z., Torres-Salinas, D., y Costas, R. (2025). The use of informetric methods to study diversity in the scientific workforce: A literature review. Quantitative Science Studies, 6, 652-685. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00367

Rubio, C. H. (2007). La inversión en I+ D+ i en España: un análisis comparativo. Anuario jurídico y económico escurialense, 40, 569-590.

Ryan, M. K., y Haslam, S. A. (2005). The Glass Cliff: Evidence that Women are Over‐Represented in Precarious Leadership Positions. British Journal of Management, 16(2), 81-90. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2005.00433.x

Sá, C., Cowley, S., Martinez, M., Kachynska, N., y Sabzalieva, E. (2020). Gender gaps in research productivity and recognition among elite scientists in the U.S., Canada, and South Africa. PLOS ONE, 15(10), e0240903. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240903 PMid:33119671 PMCid:PMC7595278

Sánchez-Jiménez, R., Guerrero-Castillo, P., Guerrero-Bote, V. P., Halevi, G., y De-Moya-Anegón, F. (2024). Analysis of the distribution of authorship by gender in scientific output: A global perspective. Journal of Informetrics, 18(3), e101556. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2024.101556

Stoet, G., y Geary, D. C. (2018). The Gender-Equality Paradox in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education. Psychological Science, 29(4), 581-593. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617741719 PMid:29442575

Sugimoto, C. R., y Larivière, V. (2023). Equity for Women in Science: Dismantling Systemic Barriers to Advancement. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674292918

Teich, E. G., Kim, J. Z., Lynn, C. W., Simon, S. C., Klishin, A. A., Szymula, K. P., Srivastava, P., Bassett, L. C., Zurn, P., Dworkin, J. D., y Bassett, D. S. (2022). Citation inequity and gendered citation practices in contemporary physics. Nature Physics, 18(10), 1161-1170. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01770-1

Thelwall, M., y Mas-Bleda, A. (2020). A gender equality paradox in academic publishing: Countries with a higher proportion of female first-authored journal articles have larger first-author gender disparities between fields. Quantitative Science Studies, 1(3), 1260-1282. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00050

Torres-Salinas, D., Muñoz-Muñoz, A. M., y Jiménez-Contreras, E. (2011). Análisis bibliométrico de la situación de las mujeres investigadoras de Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas en España. Revista Española de Documentación Científica, 34(1). https://doi.org/10.3989/redc.2011.1.794

UNdata (2022). UNdata: a world of information. Disponible en: https://data.un.org/.

UNDP. (2025a). Gender Inequality Index (GII). UNDP. Disponible en: https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/thematic-composite-indices/gender-inequality-index#/indicies/GII.

UNDP. (2025b). Human Development Index (HDI). UNDP. Disponible en: https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/human-development-index#/indicies/HDI.

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). (1978). Pregnancy Discrimination Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e. DOI: https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/pregnancy-discrimination-act-1978.

Van der Linden, N., Roberge, G., y Malkov, D. (2024). Gender Equality in Research y Innovation - 2024 Review. Elsevier Data Repository, 1.

Velasco, J., Vilariño, M., Amado, B. G., y Fariña, F. (2014). Análisis bibliométrico de la investigación española en psicología desde una perspectiva de género. Revista Iberoamericana de Psicología y Salud, 5(2), 105-118. https://doi.org/10.70478/rips.2014.05.06

Visser, M., Van Eck, N. J., y Waltman, L. (2021). Large-scale comparison of bibliographic data sources: Scopus, Web of Science, Dimensions, Crossref, and Microsoft Academic. Quantitative Science Studies, 2(1), 20-41. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00112

Waltman, L., y van Eck, N. J. (2012). A new methodology for constructing a publication-level classification system of science. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63(12), 2378-2392. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.22748

Yang, Y., Zhang, C., Xu, H., Bu, Y., Liu, M., y Ding, Y. (2024). Unveiling the loss of exceptional women in science. Information Processing y Management, 61(6), e103829. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2024.103829

Zhang, L., Shang, Y., Huang, Y., y Sivertsen, G. (2022). Gender differences among active reviewers: An investigation based on publons. Scientometrics, 127(1), 145-179 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04209-1

Published

2025-12-30

How to Cite

González-Salmón, E., & Robinson-Garcia, N. . (2025). Women scientists in Spain: a comparative study of the last 30 years. Revista Española De Documentación Científica, 48(4), 1767. https://doi.org/10.3989/redc.2025.4.1767

Issue

Section

Studies

Funding data

Ministerio de Universidades
Grant numbers FPU2021/02320

Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Grant numbers PID2020-117007RA-I00;RYC2019-027886-I