The place of women in scientific production in Tunisia

Women in the scientific community play an essential role in the development of various scientific and technical fields and innovation within those fields. Despite women being increasingly present in higher education and research, they remain largely underrepresented in the top scientific careers in Tunisia. Scientific output, as represented by scientific publications, reflects the imbalance between the sexes. Although the proportion of women among the authors of scientific publications has increased in recent years, men tend to have a long publication history, while women often have a short publication history. This discrepancy is reflected in the fact that men outnumber women among the latest authors and corresponding authors, two signs of seniority in most scientific fields. Notably, the female-to-male author ratio is lowest in physics and highest in life and health sciences. Many efforts are being made to improve women’s participation in research and scientific work.