The female underclass
Maxine Clarke
Thursday, 21 May 2009 08:14 UTC
I’ve just posted in the Nature Opinion forum an extract from one of our Editorials in today’s issue of Nature, about under-representation of women in the scientific profession across Europe in the light of a recent report, and what might be done about it. We welcome your views on the points made in the Editorial (which is free to access online, as are all Nature Editorials). The editors regularly check the Nature Opinion forum and consider contributions there for the Correspondence (“letter to the Editor”) section of the journal – or if you want to submit a Correspondence directly about the Editorial (or anything else relevant to readers), please email to correspondence@nature.com.
Here is the link to the Nature Opinion forum entry. Of course, please also feel free to continue the discussion here.
Updated 22 May 2009 07:03 UTC
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Replies
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Thanks Maxine. Interesting – in the light of the quota discussion in this forum – to see that one of the reports says ’All decision-making bodies of funding organisations should have gender balance, with at least 40 % of each gender" (page 72).
They have some very practical recommendations, like these to increase funding applications from women researchers:
- Women should be especially encouraged to apply in the funding calls.
- Training and advice in writing funding applications should be actively proposed.
- Measures to improve and facilitate work-life balance should be integrated in all funding forms. Mobility grant schemes should take into account and compensate for additional costs for mobile researchers with family obligations.
- Biological age should be replaced by career age (time from completion of doctorate) when assessing career phase of applicants.
- Maternity and parental leave should be taken into account by counting off at least one year by child when assessing career age.What do people think?
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