Women in Science: What Are the Barriers for Women in Senior Career Positions

Abstract

For several years, many governmental and non-governmental agencies, as well as researchers have made great efforts in addressing issues related to the factors that prevent women from pursuing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers. These efforts resulted in better representation of women in these fields both in the Arab countries as well as in other developed countries. However, in these countries, women remain under-represented in senior career positions, e.g., ministers, members of the parliament, heads of state institutions. Here, we try to identify the most important barriers that women are facing and suggest some recommendations to overcome them.