According to the conclusion of research performed by a female behavior scientist of the Vrije Universiteit for the FOM Foundation, incentive funding for female scientists is damaging to the image of women.
More women are needed in physics. Both male and female scientists agree on that. That is why most of them are happy that incentive funding programs exist for female scientists. Nonetheless, VU researcher Lineke Stobbe found that women do not like using these programs. Female scientists generally feel that they should be judged exclusively on their research skills. Those hired with incentive funding try to forget that as soon possible.
However, Stobbe thinks women miss the fact that men do accept help from other men. To them, networking and helping friends are normal career instruments. `Women often feel that they should do everything on their own,' Stobbe says.
Women are still largely a minority in physics. Only a quarter of PhD students is female. In higher academic positions that ratio drops to five percent. Female physicists are disadvantaged by the requirements of an academic career: scientists are expected to work more than full-time and to work as a postgraduate in another country. Stobbe points out, `These demands are difficult to combine with the young children that women often have in that stage of their life.'
Consequently, she urges universities and subsidizers like FOM to be less stringent on these issues.
Source: Ad Valvas. Trans. Jeroen Latour
