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MEP ........................................................ Member of European Parliament
MIT ......................................................... Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MRC ...................................................... Medical Research Council
NASA .................................................... National Aeronautics and Space Administration (US)
NWO .................................................... Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research
NSERC .................................................. National Science and Engineering Research Council (Canada)
NSF ........................................................ National Science Foundation
NuPECC ............................................... Nuclear Physics European Collaborative Committee
PESC ...................................................... Physical and engineering sciences
POWRe ................................................. Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education (US)
SCH ....................................................... Humanities
SCSS ...................................................... Social sciences
SET ......................................................... Science, Engineering and Technology
S/T .......................................................... Science/Technology
TMR ....................................................... Training and Mobility of Researchers
TSER ...................................................... Targeted Socio-Economic Research (Framework Programme)
TSME ..................................................... Technology, Stimulatia and Measures for Small and Medium Size Enterprises
UCLA .................................................... University of California Los Angeles
UK .......................................................... United Kingdom
UN ......................................................... United Nations
UNESCO .............................................. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
US ........................................................... United States
WGL ...................................................... Association of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Institutes
WISE ...................................................... Women into Science and Engineering (UK)
WISE ...................................................... Women's International Studies Europe
Abbreviations
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Appendix 1
Issues and recommendations from previous
reports on women and science
1 EU LEVEL
Logue, H.A. and Talapessy, L.M (eds) Women in Science –
International Workshop 15th and 16th Feb 1993 Brussels, DGXII
Commission of the European Communities.
Summary
Participants in this small meeting came from Member States, the
Commission and the European Parliament. Political arithmetic exercises
show women to be poorly represented in science at all levels in all Member
States (although there are variations among them). There are very few
women at the top. Key points to emerge:
•
women do not have good access to decision-making and research
funding in science;
•
inflexibility in career structures and child-care issues are part of the
problem; and
•
there is a need for positive action and for integration of equal
opportunities policies in science and technology.
Recommendations (in abbreviated form)
1 Qualified women should be included on all committees that set policy
and control funds, including IRDAC, CODEST, and CREST, selection
committees and national committees.
2 The Commission should collect and compare statistical data from EU
programmes and Member States of relevance to women in science and
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Science policies in the European Union
technology (S/T). Data should include:
-
a gender breakdown of academic status in universities (overall and for
individual S/T disciplines);
-
a gender breakdown of staff in S/T research institutes;
-
funding by major national granting agencies in S/T research (%
female applicants compared with % female scientists that are funded),
and
-
a gender breakdown of membership of major national S/T policy and
funding committees.
3 The Commission should take the initiative in developing positive action
programmes for women in S/T research. Short-term, appropriate goals
should be set for countries and disciplines. Goals should use as a guide
the percentage of women occupying positions at the next lowest level.
4 Resources from the EC Structural Funds and Social Fund should be used
to support women in science and technology.
5 Future EC Programmes as well as the Fourth Framework Programme
should be used to promote equal opportunities for women in S/T
research.
6 The Task Force for Human Resources, Education, Training and Youth
(now DGXXII) and DGXII should strengthen their commitment to
improve the situation of women in S/T research by
-
funding networks (specifically for women in science or technology
both in the EC as well as in individual Member States);
-
supporting WITEC,  and
-
supporting Women’s Studies in science and technology.
7 The EC and the European Parliament should monitor programmes for
women in S/T research and suggests that:
-
an individual within the Commission should co-ordinate measures
designed to advance equal opportunities for women in S/T research;
-
the Commission should establish an ad hoc working group concerned
with this problem;
-
measures that are implemented should be monitored annually.
8 Finally, the workshop urged both the EC and the European Parliament
that if sufficient progress cannot be made using persuasion and the
measures suggested above, that further legal or financial pressures should
be used to enforce the process. A very effective measure would be to
require that all industrial firms and academic institutions set up and
document programmes to increase the representation of women in S/T
research at all levels, as a condition for receiving EC S/T Funds.
Reference was made to the 1964 Civil Rights Act in the US in this regard.
Response:
 the report was discussed with Prof. Paola Fasella, the head of
DGXII at the time. There was no official response from the Commission to
the recommendations. However, the report was distributed throughout
Europe and thus the recommendations were widely circulated.
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