Let’s talk parity – What is the metaphor of the leaky pipe?

Let’s talk parity is a series of short articles on concepts relating to parity that the INSP’s Equality-Parity referents have decided to set up.

Part 2 : What is the metaphor of the leaky pipe?

This metaphor illustrates the loss of women over the course of a scientific career. While girls outnumber boys at the baccalaureate level, they are in the minority at PhD level, and their proportion continues to fall at CNRS and university recruitment and promotion, reaching 22% at lab management level.

This state of affairs has several causes, including gender bias in recruitment and promotion, the lack of attractiveness of scientific careers for women (late age of recruitment, difficulties in reconciling family and professional life), and the invisibilization of women in science.

Nevertheless, the situation is improving (slowly): at the CNRS, 39.4% of women have been recruited as research fellows between 2020 and 2022, and 31.7% of DR in 2022 are women.

Source : Actions 2021-2023, Mission pour la Place des Femmes, CNRS