Online media project

Monitoring the presence and representation of women in SET occupations in UK-based online media

In 2010, The UKRC commissioned research into the representation of women working within the fields of science, engineering, technology and the built environment (SET) in online media. The report was published in November 2010. Download a copy.

The UKRC has published a short, practical toolkit based on the research (called Making Women Visible Online), to help people involved in websites, blogs and social media improve gender equality.

You can listen to Heather Mendick talking about women in science and blogging at the 3rd Science Blogging Talkfest, held on Monday 4th April 2011 at Charles Darwin House, London.

Speakers: Hannah Devlin, Heather Mendick, Jenny Rohn and Martin Robbins. Chaired by Alice Bell.

Outline of the project
There is a persistent pattern of under-representation of women in SET within the UK. Another pattern of occupational segregation is the concentration of women in the less prestigious and rewarded SET occupations (the so-called 'glass ceiling').

Through this study, the researchers supported the objective of the UKRC to tackle these patterns of segregation by providing systematic evidence on gender differences in the representations of women in SET within UK based online media.

They studyied both the quantity and the quality of these differences and explore the views of people within the overlapping categories of the producers and consumers of online media. On the basis of this work they developed recommendations for creating images that challenge discriminatory patterns and stereotypes.

The researchers were Heather Mendick, of Goldsmiths, University of London, and Marie-Pierre Moreau of the University of Bedfordshire. The adminstrator is Arani Ilakuberan.