THE GENDER REVOLUTION IN SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
Henry Etzkowitz, Namrata Gupta
and Carol Kemelgor
The confluence between the gender and information technology (IT) revolutions has the
potential to create a new development paradigm. Tlie transition from an industrial to
a knowledge society opens up new opportunities for women in the emerging technology
transfer, innovation and entrepreneurship (TIE) fields that avoid some of the negative
eonsequenccs of aeademie science. The spread of information and communication tech-
nologies (ICTs) in developing countries empowers women by upgrading skills, enhaneing
employment opportunities, ereating income for reinvestment and political strength. This
artiele addresses the consequenees of gender inequalities in depressing the eontribution of
women and the growing opportunities for them to use technology in order to take economic
and soeial advancement into their own hands.
T
he gender revolution in science and technology (S&T) is uneven but not
stalled.' It moves in fits and starts in a positive direction, with exceptions such
as the downward trend in computer science education.^ In a broad range of disci-
plines, women in both the developed and advanced developing worlds (e.g., Brazil,
Chile, Argentina and South Africa) are moving to parity in access to higher educa-
tion in S&T. Recently, women have attained top leadership positions in science and
technology at major universities (including Harvard University, the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), Princeton University, Cambridge University,
the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich and Chalmers University of
Technology, Cothenberg), suggesting a gender breakthrough.^
The gender digital divide is also waning, with women's access to computers and
Henry Etzkowitz is a visiting seholar at Stanford University and a visiting professor at Edinburgh
University Business Sehool's Centre for Entrepreneurship Researeh. Namrata Gupta is a freelance
researeher with a PhD in Soeiology from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India. Carol
Kemelgor is a psychotherapist and psyehoanalyst in private praetiee in North Salem, New York.
Journal of ¡niernational Affairs, Fall/Winter 2010, Vol. 64, No. 1. FALL/WINTER 2010 | 83
© The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York