Efficiency of scientific output of Venezuelan female researchers: Is parity the same as equality?

Gender equality policies currently in place in many countries have spurred significant progress in advancing women in the fields of science. Nonetheless, numerous of recent studies have sought to measure differences between the scientific activity of men and women. The aim of this paper is to ascertain possible differences in scientific productivity in certain scientific disciplines carried out by men versus women and to determine importance of professional standing with regard to these scientific outputs. To this end, a bibliometric analysis was conducted of the curricula vitae of 6015 Venezuelan researchers participating in the country’s Researcher Promotion Program up to 2009.Findings show that the Venezuelan research system has more female than male participants, but fewer women in the highest professional echelons. Women also proved to be less productive, with performance varying significantly from field to field.