an analysis of the women's status in elite, scientific and professional institutions

this article investigates women's status in the nobel prize foundation between the periods 1901 to 2006 as well as twenty academies of sciences in twenty countries. the data obtained from the foundation and also the questionnaires used reveal that female elite scientists constituted a small portion of the elite societies so that during 1901 to 2006 almost four percent of the nobel laureates and on average about 10 percent of permanent members of 20 academies of sciences were women. despite many theoretical and empirical investigations on the status of female elite scientists in the elite societies, this research has tried to illustrate lack of women's presence in academies of twenty countries. the present work contains the following results as well: it illustrates the existing and available theoretical studies and suggests a multi-level model for social explanation into the status of women in science.