Norway has highest share of women scientists and engineers in Europe
Throughout Europe, stark differences persist in the participation level of women in science and engineering
According to a recent study, Norway has the most number of female scientists and engineers in Europe. 55 % of all scientists and engineers in the country last year were women.
Only four other European countries had female majorities in science and engineering: Lithuania - just under 55%, Latvia - 52.7%, Denmark 51.7% and Bulgaria with just over 50% in 2019, reported the multimedium web portal Big Think.
Throughout Europe, stark differences persist in the participation level of women in science and engineering.
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Countries with the least number of women in science were Luxembourg - just below 28%, Finland - 30.5%, Hungary - 32.6% and Germany - 33.3%. But Germany contains both the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where the number goes up to 45.6%, well above the EU average; and Baden-Wurttemberg where it is 29.1%.
In 2002, the first year for which figures are available for the entirety of the current 27-member European Union, women scientists and engineers represented 30.3% of the total.
Last year, after 17 years of steady rise, that figure had reached 41.1%. That represents 6.3 million women scientists and engineers, versus 9.1 million men working in those fields - adding up to a total of 15.4 million scientists and engineers in the EU.
Switzerland, where the share of women scientists and engineers increased by 30.6% over 20 years, from just 10.7% in 1999 to 41.3% in 2019.
Denmark, which saw its share rise by 26.9% points over the same period, from 24.8%.
Norway, where the share rose by 19.8%, from just 35.3% in 1999.
France saw a 17.2% increase from 28.9% in 1999 to 46.1% in 2019.
However, increases were not the norm everywhere. In some countries, the share of women in science and engineering actually went down.
Nowhere more than in Finland, where women had a slight majority in 1999 (50.9%) but fell back by 20.4% to less than a third - 30.5% in 2019.
Estonian women also lost their majority in science and engineering, dropping from 52.4% in 1999 to 43.6 in 2019.
In Hungary, women lost 5.9% points over two decades, falling from 38.5% to 32.6%. In Belgium, the female share of scientists and engineers fell back from 47.9% in 1999 to 44.8% in 2019.
