Post on 29-May-2018
Gender issues in the EU : howBrussels is moving towards
gender equality
Giulia Pancheri INFN - FrascatiGiulia Pancheri INFN - Frascati
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From New Orleans FIP session
From New Orleans FIP session
Einstein’s quote, “ Science is not a high statusactivity except as an admission card into thecommunity of modern countries “
I would say therefore that
for women to be left out of science means to beleft out of the modern world.
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0utline
1. The EU Commission
2. EU gender trends in S&T
3. What is happening in EU
4. Examples from high energy physics
EU glossaryEU glossary
• European Community(EC) :– the Member States (MS)
• European Union (EU) :– MS + Community Institutions
• European Council sets the politicalguidelines:– EU heads of State + President of the EU
Comission
• Institutions of the European Community
EC InstitutionsEC Institutions
• EU Council of Ministers :
overall governance designated by Member States (MS) Governments withpresidency rotating through MS every 6 months
• EU Parlament : consultation and co-decision with the Council of Minister
selected by people in each MS
• EU Commission : designated by MS, is theexecutive body, and normally lasts 5 years
• Court of justice
• Court of Auditors
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The EU ComMissionThe EU ComMission
• Is the effectively the governing body,proposes policy, responsible forimplementing and managingCommunity programs
• The Commissioners are 27, one foreach MS and each commissioner isresponsible for a Directorate-General oran area of work
• Directorates are managed by a DirectorGeneral, which is a permanent staff
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The European commissionThe European commission
• The Commission– 27 Commissioners
for all facets of EUlife
– 9 of them are women
– Commissioner forScience andresearch
DG Research
EU Commissioners
men67%
women33%
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Unit 5 of the DG-research andthe Helsinki group
Unit 5 of the DG-research andthe Helsinki group
• During the last year of Edith Cresson’s mandate asa Commissioner of Science and Research in 1999,the spotlight was focused on women in science anda special unit was started, unit 5 of the ResearchDirectorate General, DG-XII
• A group of EU statistical correspondents andscientists held their first meeting in Helsinki
• The ETAN (European Technology AssessmentNetwork ) report on Women and Science wasprepared by the Helsinki Group and published inearly 2000
• In FP7(2007-2013) the mandate is covered by theScience and Society Unit and EUROSTAT
Why more women in s&T?Why more women in s&T?
• The rationale at theCommission level isthat Humanresources in S&T(HRST) can sustainand increaseEuropecompetiveness inS&T
• Women wereidentified ashuman potentialfor furtherdevelopment
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The EU Science and Societylink
http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/index.cfm?fuseaction=public.topic&id=27
She figures 2006 executivesummary
She figures 2006 executivesummary
• Across EU 29% of researchers are women
• Only 18% of researchers in Business &Enterprise Sector are women
• In higher education only 18% of highestacademic grade are women
• In engineering and technology at the top only5.8% are women
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Focus on Easterncountries
• The Enwise countriesare– Bulgaria– Czek Republic– Estonia– Hungary– Latvia– Lituania– Poland– Romania– Slovakia– Slovenia
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S&T statistics EmploymentEmployment
% of womenTotalemployment
Scientists&Engineers
PhD professionals or technicians
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PhD graduates in PhysicalScience&Engineering
• Italy at 45% in physics• Portugal more than 50% in physics• Lituania highest in Engineers
Proportion of femal PhD, 2003
0
0,1
0,2
0,3
0,4
0,5
0,6
EU-2
5 USIta
ly
Portu
ga(h
ighe
st)
Lithu
ania
Physical Sciences Enginnering
Proportion of femal PhD, 2003
0
0,1
0,2
0,3
0,4
0,5
0,6
EU-2
5 USIta
ly
Portu
ga(h
ighe
st)
Lithu
ania
Physical Sciences Enginnering
Education in S&T
Proportion of female PhD, 2003
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
EU-25
US
Italy
Portugal
Math&statEngineeringPhysical Sciences
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PHD Employment in Natural Sciences in the EU
Proportion of women in Natural Sciences, GOV and
0,31
0,291
0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8
GOV
HES
Portugal(highest)
EU-25
• Natural Sciences include life sciences, Math, Chemistry and Physics
• Highest numbers in Portugal
• Details are not available for all countries
• Source : eurostat S&T, DG research for EU-25
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Seniority in S&T, 2004Proportion of female Grade A staff
0
0,05
0,1
0,15
0,2
0,25
0,3
EU-25 Italy Portugal(highest)
Turkey
Natural SciencesEngineeringHumanities
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The EU funded researchThe EU funded research
• The EU funds evaluate a large number ofproposals in all fields of science and hasbecome a very important funding source
• Among the type of projects there are– Individual grants and fellowships (Marie Curie)
– Prizes
– Research and Training Network grants - astructure “invented” by Bruxelles
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The Research andTraining networksThe Research and
Training networks• Networks of researchers, at least 3
different member states• Typically 10-12 institutions from 5-8
different countries• Average budget 4 Meuro for a 4 year
period• Chosen through an evaluation process
resulting in a 10 % success rate
EU recommendation :Goal of40% women in all scientific
panels
EU recommendation :Goal of40% women in all scientific
panels
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What The EU is doing to empowermore women in S&T
What The EU is doing to empowermore women in S&T
• Aim to 40% presence of women in scientific panels• Presently roughly 30%, even in physics• Vademecum for project officers
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Evaluation panels
• Women are well represented at theevaluation level even in hard sciences, likephysics
• Evaluation panels have a typical 30-40 %women presence
• Evaluators are chosen among a very largerpool where women are well represented :Europe is very large with many Governmentresearch Institutions and prestigiousuniversities -> the pool is large
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Is it difficult to reach a30% women presence?
�
• Not difficult since the independentexpert evaluators are chosen among alarge pool of scientists mostly fromEurope, both universities and industry,and there are many excellent women
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Is this policy effective?Is this policy effective?• In general, the evaluation process, once
launched, is gender-blind except thatone of the evaluation criteria - typically impact
or added value - includes a concern withequal opportunity
• In principle it could be used to promoteprojects which have women in prominentnetwork positions, like node-scientists ormembers of Executive Committees
• it does help to focus on the existence ofexcellence among women scientists
Two examples of Genderdistribution in High
energy physics
Two examples of Genderdistribution in High
energy physics
• CERN– DELPHI experiment at LEP
– ATLAS experiment at LHC
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High Energy physics in aWorld-wide experiment
• ATLAS is a Large hadron Collider experiment withover 2000 high energy phycisists from everywhere inthe world and its gender composition sheds light onhow different countries are represented in proportionof women scientists
•
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High Energy physics : The ATLAS experiment
https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/Atlas/AtlasWomenPage?
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US vs EU in ATLAS 2008
• Women from EU are present in largerproportion than from US
• Possibly also because of need to commutefrom US to Europe (family is a problem)