WISIDEX (Women in Science in Indonesia Index)
Data Descriptions – 365 Universities Sample (5317 faculty members)
STEM Academics in Indonesia by Gender
G1: Our sample consisted of 5,317 academics from 365 public and private universities in Indonesia offering undergraduate programs in Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, and Civil Engineering. The largest proportion of academics in our dataset came from Civil Engineering (2,272 individuals), followed by Biology (883), Chemistry (806), Mathematics (714), and Physics (642). Regarding the distribution within each program, the majority of academics were concentrated in the Assistant Professor tenure group. Biology, Chemistry, and Mathematics showed roughly equal or higher percentages of women across tenure levels, indicating good representation. Conversely, Physics—and particularly Civil Engineering—had a significantly lower percentage of women academics.
Share of Women Academics in STEM Fields in Indonesia
G2: Among the STEM programs, Biology has the highest proportion of women, with 62.06% of academics being female. This is followed by Mathematics (53.64%), Chemistry (53.60%), and, at the lowest end, Civil Engineering (36.92%). Breaking the data down further by tenure level, Biology not only has a high average percentage of women academics but also shows little variation across tenure levels, suggesting a low barrier for women advancing through academic ranks. Civil Engineering, despite having a lower overall percentage of women, also exhibits minimal variation across tenure levels. Chemistry and Mathematics display moderate variation in the representation of women as tenure levels increase. In contrast, Physics shows the steepest decline, with women accounting for 45.20% of Lecturers but only 14.29% of Professors.
SINTA Overall Score for STEM Academics in Indonesia
G3: Examining the SINTA scores for all samples, only a few discernible patterns emerge from the boxplots. No significant differences in SINTA scores are evident across programs or between sexes due to the large standard deviation. The only consistent trend is that faculty members with higher academic ranks tend to achieve higher SINTA scores in both gender groups. However, this does not imply an absence of differences in the average SINTA scores between male and female academics. For instance, female Biology lecturers, on average, score 70.99 points lower than their male counterparts. The disparity is even larger among Chemistry lecturers, where women score an average of 244.96 points less than men.
Published Article in Scopus for STEM Academics in Indonesia
G5: When examining Scopus articles published, the differences across groups become more apparent. This chart represents the percentage of articles published by women academics relative to the total articles in each program. The pattern closely mirrors the distribution of academics, suggesting that women are keeping pace with their male counterparts in research productivity. For instance, in Civil Engineering, women make up 18% of Assistant Professors and contribute 19% of the program’s total published articles. Similarly, in Physics, female Assistant Professors account for 18.2% of the academic workforce and produce 15.4% of the total published articles.
Cited Article in Scopus for STEM Academics in Indonesia
G6: Women face greater underrepresentation when it comes to article citations. Using the same approach, we found that across all programs and tenure levels, male academics consistently receive a larger share of citations, with the sole exception being Biology Professors, where the gap is a narrow 0.3 percentage points. This underrepresentation is evident even in fields where women dominate, such as Biology. For example, while female Biology Assistant Professors contribute 24.3% of the published articles in their field, they receive only 18.3% of the total citations in Biology.
Total Research Grant for STEM Academics in Indonesia
G7A: Another measure of research performance we considered is the amount of research grants obtained by academics. Over the past five years (2019–2024), academics in Chemistry secured the largest total research funding, amounting to 423 billion rupiah, followed by Civil Engineering (412 billion), Physics (311 billion), Biology (279 billion), and Mathematics (150 billion). Overall, the distribution of grants aligns closely with the distribution of academics across programs. In Biology, women academics received a larger share of research grants, reflecting their higher representation in the field. Conversely, in Physics, women received a smaller share of grants, consistent with their lower representation among academics in the program.
Total Service Grant for STEM Academics in Indonesia
G8A: For community service funding, a similar pattern emerged. Chemistry secured the highest amount of grants at 315 billion rupiah, followed by Civil Engineering (299 billion), Biology (229 billion), Physics (224 billion), and Mathematics (124 billion). However, the gender gap remains evident in Physics, Civil Engineering, and Chemistry, where women received a smaller proportion of the funding compared to men.
STEM Academics in Indonesia by Gender
R1: Examining the distribution of academics from a regional perspective reveals that the regional disparity is as concerning as the gender gap. Java hosts the largest share of academics, with 2,495 individuals—nearly half of the total sample—followed by Sumatra (1,380), Kalimantan and Sulawesi combined (913), and Eastern Indonesia, including Bali, Maluku, Nusa Tenggara, and Papua, with only 529 academics. Across all regions, men generally outnumber women. The sole exception is among Assistant Professors in Sumatra, where women constitute 25.3% of the total academics in that group, compared to 23.1% for men.
Share of Women Academics in STEM Fields in Indonesia
R2: No region mirrors Biology’s trend of a higher percentage of women academics with little variation across tenure levels. Among the regions, Java shows the least variation in the proportion of women across academic ranks, with the overall proportion of women academics in each rank roughly equal to that of men. Sumatra exhibits a unique pattern: while men and women are equally represented among Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, and Lecturers, the proportion of women significantly drops at the Professor level, where only 32.1% are female. In the rest of Indonesia, the trend shows a narrowing percentage of women as academic rank increases. In Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Eastern Indonesia, less than half of Lecturers are women, and this percentage drops further to approximately one-fourth at the Professor level.
SINTA Overall Score for STEM Academics in Indonesia
R3: Examining the SINTA scores for all samples, only a few discernible patterns emerge from the boxplots. No significant differences in SINTA scores are evident across regions or between sexes due to the large standard deviation. Faculty members with higher academic ranks tend to achieve higher SINTA scores in both gender groups. However, this does not imply an absence of differences in the average SINTA scores between male and female academics. Furthermore, in Java and Sumatera where most researchers are concentrated, many of them also are publishing less, resulting in a low SINTA score.
Published Article in Scopus for STEM Academics in Indonesia
R5: The concentration of researchers has directly contributed to a concentration of publications. Universities in Java produced a total of 27 thousand STEM articles, whereas Eastern Indonesia with just around 2.3 thousand articles. In Java, the most significant gap occurs among Assistant Professors, where men contributed 26.4% of the articles, while women accounted for only 19.1%. In Eastern Indonesia, the disparity is most evident at the Associate Professor level, with men producing 19.7% of the articles—13% points higher than their female counterparts. Interestingly, in Sumatra, women published as much as men across most tenure levels, with the exceptions being Professors and Lecturers, where disparities persist.
Cited Article Scopus for STEM Academics in Indonesia
R6: In terms of citation, there is still a regional disparity, with academics in Java gaining most of the citations and Eastern Indonesia the least, and gender disparity is even wider. Every group presented displays gender disparity where publications made by women are undercited. In Java, the highest gap between men and women’s share of citation came from the Assistant Professors (13% points difference). The similar amount of gap is also experienced by Associate Professors at Kalimantan and Sulawesi. In Eastern Indonesia, it can be as high as 16% points difference, as in their Associate Professors.
Total Research Grant for STEM Academics in Indonesia
R7A: The regional and gender disparities are evident when examining the total research grants. Approximately 60% of the total funding went to academics in Java, while only about 10% was allocated to Eastern Indonesia. In most groups, women received a smaller percentage of the funding. For example, women Assistant Professors in Java secured 18.4% of the funding, compared to 28.2% secured by their male counterparts in the same group. However, in some regions, women performed on par with their male counterparts as in the case for Associate and Assistant Professors in Sumatera, Assistant Professors in Kalimantan and Sulawesi, and Assistant Professors in Eastern Indonesia.
Total Service Grant for STEM Academics in Indonesia
R8A: Similar to research grants, service grants also show a pattern of inequality. The majority of the funding was allocated to Java, with the least going to Eastern Indonesia. In both Java, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi, men secured higher amounts of funding across all tenure levels. However, female Assistant Professors in Sumatera and Eastern Indonesia were able to secure higher amounts of funding, with each group receiving 26.2% and 39.1% of the total funding, compared to the same group of men (19.8% and 23.2%) in their respective regions.