Etan-main text

Looking at the numbers, it is clear that women are not well represented on
the top ESF Boards.  The highest participation of women is in EURESCO
conferences.
US and Canada
The proportion of women on the EU’s top scientific committees can be
compared to those for committees with similar responsibilities in the US or
Canada.  For instance, in 1994 the President’s Committee of Advisers on
Science and Technology in the US had 6 women out of 19 members (32%).
In 1998, the National Science Board had 8 women out of 24 (33%).  The
National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Biological Sciences
Advisory Committee (BIOAC) had 7 women out of 15 members (47%),
while on the NSF Biological Sciences Advisory Panels, 234 of the 696
panellists are female (34%).  In 1998 the Council of the National Sciences
and Engineering Research Council in Canada (NSERC) had 8/21 (38%)
female members.
Conclusion
The key figures in science in Europe are drawn from an extremely narrow
social base in terms of age, gender and ethnic origin.  White men over 50
overwhelmingly dominate senior scientific committees that award research
funds, grants and prizes.  Recipients tend to be in the same demographic
category.  This will inevitably affect the shaping of the scientific agenda.
The exclusion of women from top decision-making positions in science is
of particular concern.
The lack of women in key decision-making positions is not just a matter of
equity and gender balance however.  It may affect what areas of research are
invested in.  It may affect the extent to which the gender dimension is
treated seriously in research itself.  The spin-off from male dominated
science is far reaching, and self-perpetuating, feeding back into media
images, education and pedagogy.  This is the focus of Chapter 6.
Policy points
•
Fairer gender balance in important scientific committees that set
policy.
•
Examination of criteria and mechanisms for joining elite scientific
bodies.
•
Framework Programme Monitoring Panels should include gender
mainstreaming in their monitoring activities.
•
Increase women in A1-A3 (top grades) in the Research
Directorate-General (in line with other Directorates).
•
Calls from the European Commission to Member States for
nominees for important committees should contain a request to
ensure a reasonable number of women are included.
Shaping scientific policy
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6
Educating scientists,
desterotyping science
‘I’d like to be a vet but I expect I’ll be a mother’
(8 year old girl)
To ensure that public money invested in training women to become
scientists is not wasted by mechanisms that exclude them from developing
their careers, some long-term strategies are needed to remove indirect forms
of discrimination.  These strategies will also help to ensure that we do not
continue to lose scientists irrevocably as a result of career breaks.  The
question has to be posed, if universities, research institutes and other
employers of scientists are not prepared to address the issue of retaining and
attracting women back into science, is there any point in educating them to
become scientists in the first place? Why not just ban them?  Similarly, we
educate many boys in science who are not suited to it and drop out,
representing a considerable waste of resource.  We need to ensure the
education system produces, retains and attracts back people suited to
scientific careers, be they men or women.
This chapter looks at the position of women studying science, technology
and engineering in schools and higher education.  Girls have been doing
much better at school generally than in the past and more are moving into
science subjects but few persevere with science careers.  There are country
and subject differences.  We are concerned with matters of curriculum and
pedagogy, and the gendered dimension of the experience of learning about
science.  What are the exclusionary mechanisms that inhibit women from
choosing science subjects? What initiatives have there been to attract
women into, or back to science and how successful have they been? What
refresher courses or updating schemes are there for women who take career
breaks – or are they lost to science forever? Could careers guidance help?
What about the stereotypical images of science as a male domain: how
could these be challenged?  Experiences from the Member States show us
that initiatives and projects designed to tackle these issues, while useful in
making it easier for determined young women to pursue science, and
determined older women to return to science, are like a drop in the ocean.
Far more strategic long-term approaches, and serious investment in
resources, thinking and innovative ways of organising educational
institutions are necessary to ensure potential scientists are not lost because of
their sex.
‘“Oh, I thought you were a
man” was the astonished
exclamation of the famous
physicist Ernest Rutherford
when he first met Lise Meitner
(1878-1969), the woman who
played a major role in the
discovery of nuclear fission.’
Goncalves, R. (1999) ‘Attracting
Women to Science’ Ecite Bulletin, no 39,
p 10 (European collaborative for
Science, Industry and Technology
Exhibitions).
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