More women in the lab will help propel Hong Kong’s economy
Ivy Wong and Tjonnie Li say all highly developed economies have made investments in the sciences, so it is a shame that more local students – especially women – do not choose to study them
With the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education exams under way, high school students are about to finalise their choice of university studies. Historically, few high scorers have chosen science, and those who have are mostly boys. In February, media reports on the breakthrough detection of gravitational waves also lamented that students in Hong Kong are swayed from pursuing science because of the field’s perceived low earning potential.
Indeed, it is unfortunate that science in Hong Kong fails to attract more talent, because it is a catalyst for societal advancement. A recent study even found that science productivity, especially in the “hard sciences” (for example, physics and chemistry), predicts economic growth, and that no country without an investment in basic science has achieved high economic development. However, the “Stem” disciplines (science, technology, engineering and maths) have long been male-dominated. If more talent is needed for science, then the female population may be a valuable pool to tap into.
The male dominance of the Stem fields is clear. Of the 800 or so Nobel Prize winners, only 48 have been women, and only five of those won the prize for the “hard sciences”. Moreover, we tallied the regular professorial staff in the physics departments of the University of Hong Kong and Chinese University of Hong Kong, and found that female representation is less than 15 per cent. So, even today, the ratio of males to females at the top of the Stem career ladder is heavily biased.
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The pattern is similar at the more basic level. According to census data from 1996-97 to 2014-15, the gender ratio of students enrolled in sciences at government-funded tertiary institutions has remained stagnant (roughly 65 males to 35 females). Female representation in engineering and technology has improved, but still stands at less than a third.