The issues women in science face are not new. Solutions borrowed from the corporate world or the field of politics such as quota could be a solution. There are also many more options to try and move the line between genders. EuroScientist would like to know what its readers think about quota. Could they challenge the quality of academic work? Read more [...]
Gender imbalance has been the object of many debates over the years. In this podcast, EuroScientist
asks four Nobel Laureates about their opinion on women in science. It gives an interesting perspective on
the matter. Find out more... Read more [...]
Gender bias, whether conscious or unconscious affects women at each level of academia. In this exploratory piece, EuroScientist explore the factors driving such bias and looks for solutions to remedy them. Find out more by reading the view of experts from across Europe and decide for yourself about the type of interventions that have been implemented to fight gender bias. Read more [...]
The Irish funding agency, Science Foundation Ireland, is at the forefront of progressive policies designed to improve gender balance in the research they fund. These policies have gradually been introduced to respond to a need to ensure that excellence--and not whether they are having children--is the only criteria determining women's chance of being funded. In this opinion piece, SFI's Fiona Blighe explains how the various schemes in place work. Read more [...]
In this opinion piece, Polish entrepreneurship expert Agnieszka Klucznik-Törő shares her view on how female entrepreneurship is changing across Europe. She argues that understanding it better is paramount in devising suitable support mechanisms for women involved. She refers to the on-line resource developed under the EU-funded WINGS project as an example of suitable solutions to help women entrepreneurs tackle typical challenges they face. Read more [...]
The League of European Research Universities, LERU , launches today, 16th September 2015, a new report showing how Gendered Research and Innovation (GRI) can foster new knowledge and solutions to global challenges. And such challenges are not minor. Indeed, research failing to account for sex and gender specificities can put lives at risk and be costly. Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, Engineering, and Environment is a US/EU initiative whose goal is to explore how gender analysis can open doors to discovery. Meanwhile, international, collaborations supported by the European Commission and the US National Science Foundation developed state-of-the art methods for sex and gender research. Read more [...]
The title of this article may sound like a self-help book. Yet, mentoring takes place spontaneously as part of the scientific process. Indeed, the concept of mentoring is as old as science itself as mentoring plays a very important role in the hierarchic scientific system. There, scientists are recommended by reputation. Yet evaluation procedures designed to be neutral are sometimes still overshadowed by the influence of the so-called “old boys' networks”. So what needs to happen? Read more [...]
Never thought of being gender biased when performing evaluations? Scientists often consider themselves to be rational and objective. But a growing batch of literature suggests the opposite. Particularly, when it comes to evaluating research. Male and female scientists alike tend to implicitly undervalue women’s scientific accomplishments. A 2012 EU-report, identifies unconscious bias in assessing excellence as one of the major problems women face in science. Read more [...]
Promoting excellence is an explicit goal in European and national research systems. As a result, various excellence-marked initiatives have been established across Europe. However, recent empirical studies and monitoring exercises outlined below show that these excellence initiatives have been more beneficial for male than female researchers. Moreover, this applies to excellence initiatives from organisations or countries with gender equality plans and monitoring practices in place. It even applies in countries with long-term gender equality interventions backed up by political will, such as countries in the Nordic region. Read more [...]
Examples of men who are really interested beyond professional boundaries in one of their – often clearly younger – female colleagues are widespread. Typically, the men do not want to accept these women’s refusals and start harassing them. Often, the trouble is that the harassment is underhand. One difficulty is that there is a fine line between providing compliments and harassing someone, often due to cultural differences. Although women are mostly affected, men are also victims of sexual harassment. Read more [...]
Achieving a work-life balance is a challenge for many people working today. Yet, the idea of a shorter working week is undergoing something of a revival. Part-time work can, in principle, contribute to calming down the ‘rush hour of life’. However, it is not always a possible. This is particularly the case for people in management positions. The proportion of managers working part-time varies considerably across countries. Our multilevel analyses show that it is cultural factors and normative expectations rather than legal regulations, which explain these differences. Read more [...]
According to a new doctoral thesis by Anne Grethe Solberg, there is no difference in the leadership styles of men and women. In groups comprised of both genders, an androgynous leadership style was found to be the best for creating a climate for innovation. Her study shows that women’s and men’s leadership styles are only marginally different. Read more [...]
European science conversations by the community, for the community
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