Iraqi Women and Science: Past, Present and Future

Some people would think that in 2016 women had it all, that they have conquered all obstacles; they may, also, think that the issue of gender is no longer a serious problem the way it used to be during the 1960s. While this can be considered a fact for some developed countries and in relation to some careers; however, women are still struggling against patriarchal cultures all over most of the world. One of the careers that are still formidable to women is working in science. Unfortunately, when it comes to women having career in science, developed and developing countries stand on the same level. One simple check of the prestigious Nobel Prize winners since its establishment in 1901 will show that among the 49 female recipients of prize, only 17 of them won the prize for scientific contributions. Among these, 14 female winners shared the prize with male colleagues. Also 12 of these prizes were in the field of medicine or physiology, while only 2 in physics and 4 in chemistry. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that these small numbers of female Nobel Laureates doesn’t mean equally small number of female scientists worldwide, but it indicates that only few women can dedicate their lives to scientific research and come up with recognized contributions....