Event
Practising Gender Equality
in Science
|
 download poster |
For more information please email Anna Bagnoli (ab247@cam.ac.uk)
Programme
| 10.00 – 10.30 |
Registration
and
coffee |
| 10.30 – 10.45 | Welcome and Introduction Prof Lyn Davidson and Dr Sandra Fielden (Manchester Business School) Prof Jackie Scott (University of Cambridge) Serenella Martini (Italian Equal Opportunities Department) |
| 10.45 – 11.15 | Introductory lecture on the UK and SET
(presentation) Dr Wendy Faulkner (University of Edinburgh) Title: What's the problem? The need for culture change in science and engineering |
| 11.15 – 12.00 | Presentation of the PRAGES Guidelines (presentation) Marina Cacace (ASDO, Assembly of Women for Development and the Struggle against Social Exclusion, Rome) |
| 12.00 – 12.15 | Discussant: (presentation) Annette Williams (UKRC, UK Resource Centre for Women in SET) |
| 12.15 – 13.00 | Panel discussion and Questions and Answers
session |
| 13.00 |
Lunch and departure |
Conference aims
The workshop will present the Guidelines
developed by the project PRAGES, Practising Gender Equality in Science,
for the promotion of women to senior and decision-making positions in
universities and public research institutes. The Guidelines were the
product of a work of collection, evaluation, and identification of good
practices amongst the positive action schemes implemented in different
countries with regards to gender and science. Our aim is to discuss
these Guidelines in the light of the current situation for women in
Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) in the UK. Our audience will
include academics, policy makers, and practitioners who are concerned
about the current marginalisation of women in the world of SET.
Background
In the last few years the overall number
of women pursuing a scientific career has increased, yet in some
disciplines, like physics, women remain very under-represented, and
only a small proportion do actually get to achieve top positions in the
world of SET. Despite the good educational results they achieve, girls
and women drop out from every stage of a scientific career at a much
higher rate than men, in a phenomenon known as the ‘leaky pipeline’. In
economic terms such trends are problematic, since the under-utilisation
of women’s talents and the absence of diversity in the SET workforce
may be severely limiting the advancement of a knowledge-based economy
in terms of innovation and quality. In recent years a variety of
initiatives have been taken in different countries in order to increase
the participation of women in SET.
The project PRAGES, Practising Gender Equality in Science, was funded
by the European Commission – DG Research under the 7th Framework
Programme for Research and Technological Development. It is a
Coordination Action involving 11 institutions from 6 different
countries (Australia, Denmark, Italy, United Kingdom, United States,
and Hungary). The aims of PRAGES were collecting information on the
positive action schemes implemented with regards to gender and science
in European and non-European countries, evaluating such practices, and
then drawing up the Guidelines, as a tool for the support and promotion
of women scientists, particularly those in leadership roles.
Participants & Audience
This workshop will bring together
academics, policy makers and practitioners who are interested in
enhancing women’s participation in SET and their role in research
decision-making to discuss the findings from the PRAGES project in view
of the current UK picture for women in SET. The purpose of the workshop
is to help identify the best strategies with which positive action
schemes may be designed in order to achieve greater gender equality in
science.
Organised by Dr Jackie Scott and Dr Anna Bagnoli, Faculty of Politics, Psychology, Sociology and International Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3RQ.
