Etan-main text

Science policies in the European Union
Thirty such grants are available.  Successful applicants are promoted to
associate professor.  The idea behind the programme is that the pool from
which professors are selected should be enlarged. At the same time, the
quantity of women who apply for research projects is enhanced.
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In Canada, the University Faculty Awards program encourages
universities to appoint women to tenure-track positions in the natural
sciences and engineering by funding 15, three to five-year awards per
annum, plus a guaranteed minimum research grant.
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Also in Canada, 5 chairs were established for women in engineering.
Initially for five years, they can be renewed.
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In the US, the Clare Booth Luce Professor Program established five-year
tenure track appointments at the assistant or associate professor level in
fields such as physics, chemistry, biology, meteorology, engineering,
computer science, and mathematics.  So far, 68 awards have been made.
Higher Level Positions
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In Sweden, 31 posts at the full professor level were created specially for
women in 1995.  Men were allowed to apply but could only be given the
job if there was no suitable female candidate.  The difference that such a
programme can make can be illustrated by reference to the Royal
Institute of  Technology in Stockholm, which received three of these
positions.  The number of female professors was increased from three to
six (out of a total of 160) and one of the new appointees was made vice
chancellor in 1998.  It should be noted that currently there are more
than 1,700 professor posts in Sweden. (Jordansson, 1999)
•
In Germany, the Max Planck Society is providing nine, five-year
positions at the C3 or associate professor level to exceptional women
nominated by individual institutes and paid for from private sources.
When all are filled, this will double the number of women who occupy
such posts.
For returners
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The Daphne Jackson Programme in the UK supports women wanting to
return to a scientific career.
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In Germany contact stipends, re-entry stipends and work contracts have
been provided to enable scientists who interrupt their careers to return:
the overwhelming majority went to women.
•
Contact fellowships and childcare supplements to fellowships have also
been provided (see Appendix I for further details).
Grants made preferentially to women – The Freja Initiative
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The Danish Government provided 10.5 million Euro over a period of
four years starting in 1998 for the FREJA (Female Researchers in Joint
A
ction) Programme.  The aims of the Programme are to give the young
generation of researchers (particularly female researchers), an opportunity
to pursue innovative research goals in all scientific areas, to encourage
more young female researchers to pursue a research career, and to make
female researchers more visible in the research world.  In 1998, there
Websites
The rise in home computers
provides an opportunity for
women wanting to return from
career breaks to access
websites to assist them. In the
UK, the Association of Women
in Science and Engineering
(AWiSE) launched an Internet
site that includes a Personal
Development Planner. This is
designed to help women
identify their competencies and
so build their confidence.
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were 327 applications, 303 of which were from female applicants.  The
total amount of money requested by all applicants was 296 million
 euros.
16 researchers received grants from the programme (averaging 0.5 to 0.8
million euros) of which 15 were women.  The level of interest in the
FREJA programme in terms of the number of applications submitted is
unique in the Danish context and shows that there are highly qualified
female researchers within all scientific fields.
Other measures
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At the University of Amsterdam, the Stimulation Fund supports women
to do research abroad, or to free them from teaching so they can finish
their doctoral theses.  It is also possible to use this fund to promote
women from assistant professor to associate professor and from associate
professor to full professor positions if certain quality criteria are met and
if the faculty is prepared to continue the position after three years.  From
1994-1996, six women professors and three associate professors were so
appointed.  Recently, this programme was singled out as the only such
example of good practice in the Netherlands since its effect could be
measured in terms of a rise in the number of professors and associate
professors.
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In Germany, innovative pilot projects encouraging women to participate
in scientific and technical studies have been supported.  An example is
the ‘informatica feminale’, a summer university for women studying
computer science at Bremen University.  The International Women’s
University for Technology and Culture within the framework of the
EXPO 2000 is to provide 900 women researchers from all over the
world with the opportunity of exchanging experiences at an
interdisciplinary level for 100 days.
Essentially these projects address women’s disadvantage experienced as a
result of the failure of equal treatment to deliver equality.  Such positive
action measures are to be welcomed but like equal treatment, they are
limited in what they can achieve.  They assist small numbers of women to fit
into the status quo.  Sometimes they backfire and provoke accusations of
tokenism, or backlash.  To make a significant difference to the picture
outlined in Chapter 2, a transformative approach is needed to complement
equal treatment and positive action.
Mainstreaming
Mainstreaming is a long term strategy.  It focuses on transforming systems,
structures and cultures, on integrating equality into policies, programmes
and projects.  It is a massive agenda of organisational and cultural change
(Rees, 1998).  It is also of course EC policy and has been signed up to by
the Member States.
How might a mainstreaming approach affect women in scientific careers
and indeed science itself? The first step is to identify the subtle ways in
which the status quo in effect is designed with men in mind, the second is
then to open systems up to accommodate men and women equally.  For
example, as mentioned earlier in this section, the promotion system is
predicated upon a model of an uninterrupted career.  It is very difficult for
women who have had a career break to compete with men on an equal
Quality and fairness in scientific professions
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