Although there has been progress toward gender balance in some areas — for example, the share of women serving as Institute Directors reached 37.9% in 2024 — the proportion of women in the highest scientific ranks remains low, with only 26.6% of Professors of Research (PI) being women.

Scissors plot of the Materials Science area by career stage 2024 | CMyC 2025 report

In the Materials Science field, women represent 40.5% of the research staff, a figure above the overall CSIC Materia (Matter) area average (35.1%). Within the different career stages, women are 47.4% of Tenured Scientists (CT), 29.9% of Research Scientists (IC) and 40,0 % of Research Professors. 

In the early career stages, women represent 37% of predoctoral researchers (PhD fellows) in Materials Science and Technology, compared to 34.7% in the overall Materia area, and 42.5% of postdoctoral researchers, compared to 33.4% in Materia. While these figures are higher than the area average, the relatively low representation of women at these key stages is a source of concern for the future of gender balance in these disciplines, highlighting the need to ensure that the next generation of researchers includes a strong and diverse female presence.

Distribution of research staff by career stage and sex (women/men) | CMyC 2025 report

The global CSIC representation of women among the research staff is 38.2%, well above that of Physics, Mathematics, Robotics and Computing (23.1%). The highest representation of women is found in the Food Science field (58.1%).

Women in Science report 2025 | CMyC

Glass Ceiling Index

The Glass Ceiling Index for the Materia area stands at 1.28 in 2024, compared to 1.44 for CSIC overall, and 0.674 for ICMAB (excluding ICREA researchers) in 2023 — where values closer to 1 indicate gender equality. This shows that while progress is being made, there is still work ahead to achieve full parity across research categories.

The report also notes a continued increase in the participation of women in management, supervision, and knowledge transfer activities across the CSIC. For instance, women now direct over 48% of PhD theses and appear as inventors in 40% of patent applications, reflecting growing involvement in leadership and innovation.

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You can read the full report here: Informe Mujeres Investigadoras 2025 | DIGITAL.CSIC