A survey conducted by popular social networking site LinkedIn to mark the International Women's Week this year says that more women want work-life balance than higher salaries at workplace. Another finding, MasterCard's latest Index of Women's Advancement, says women still face barriers to leadership positions in the government and private sector across the Asia Pacific region.

Also read: Sociological Profile of Biotech Women in India

New Zealand ranked first (77.8 Index Score), followed by Australia (76), the Philippines (70.5), Singapore (67.5) and Taiwan (64.7). At the other end of spectrum, India (38), Japan (48.1) and Korea (49.7) had Index scores indicating that much more can be done to achieve gender parity in these countries. The scores were indexed to 100 indicate how close or how far women in each market are to achieving socio-economic parity with men.

So where do women in bioscience stand in the Asia Pacific region? BioSpectrum Asia's gender parity survey, conducted online for over a week, reveals the mindset of male and female employees working in this industry in the APAC region. More than 73 percent of the respondents, from various Asia Pacific countries, said there was no discrimination in the bioscience industry.

Of the total number of respondents, 47.7 percent were women. While this paints a positive picture of the industry, the fact remains that the number of women employed in the field of science and technology, which includes biosciences, is alarmingly low in the world's leading economies.

A recent survey conducted by Elseiver highlights that the number of women in the science, technology and innovation fields is actually on the decline in many countries, including the US. The survey picture is even more gloomy for India where less than 15 percent women have access to their own bank accounts, and females hold less than a third of available administrative and managerial positions.