JST & La Recherche: Women in Science Panel

EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) Proposal, Leiden, The Netherlands 13 – 16 July, 2022
https://www.esof.eu
17h15 – 18h30, Thursday 14 July, 2022: Online Session.

Abstract:

As of 2020, women represent less than 30% of researchers worldwide, with well-documented bias built-in to a STEM career, top positions often beyond their reach and pay gaps, particularly for women of colour. Women have won only 5.4% of Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine, 3.8% in chemistry, and 1.9% in physics. Even in fields with greater gender-balance, the pipeline ‘leaks’ as women leave and more men reach the top.

Multiple barriers stymie the careers of women, particularly those that decide to have children. These include everyday work-place sexism, role stereotyping, devaluing, appearance judging, micro-aggressions and harassment dressed up as banter. The disappearance of older women at work is a visible trend. And in today’s pandemic, women are impacted the most, citing forced unemployment and negative impacts in mental and physical well-being and work/life balance.

This panel spotlights five truly inspiring women revealing their specific journeys in the world of science-related work. Interviewed by an award-winning French journalist and champion of mentoring ‘global south’ science communicators, we unravel their personal and career anecdotes, while distilling their best advice.

We hear from a Japanese science diplomat navigating the corridors of power and trade in Washington D.C. and a former Mozambican science minister, now directing UNESCO’s Southern Africa region from Harare, Zimbabwe. On the flipside, we meet a Belarusian bench scientist researching environmental pollution’s potential links to autism at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and a former major journal’s press officer now balancing child-minding and freelance consultancy. We also experience the life of a science diplomat, the former Bulgarian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Director-General of UNESCO.

We experience how these remarkable women have zigzagged around the world. They moved abroad for education, work and love. They raised families while leaving others behind. They won promotions and demotions, awards and slap-downs in equal measure. They just keep going. With no slides nor corporate logos, only unflinching honesty, we learn about these conscious choices made.

The common thread is that each, in her own way, has overcome and continues to overcome the seen and unseen challenges of gender discrimination and lack of recognition in what remains a who-you-know, male-dominated world. Some women pull the ladder up after them too! These challenges equally apply to science journalism and communication, business and the not-for-profit, academia and the direct and indirect civil service. The common objective of our ‘mompreneurs’ and ‘sheroes’ is to accentuate the positive. These five straight-talking, role-models want to engage and encourage today’s ESOF generation of young researchers, YouTubers and feisty feminists!

		Panel Curator: {modal index.php/aidan-gilligan-ceo-scicom-making-sense-of-science}Aidan Gilligan{/modal} (IRL): CEO, SciCom – Making Sense of Science.
		Organiser & Moderator: Dominique Leglu (France): Scientist & Journalist, Editor-in-Chief of Sciences et Avenir and La Recherche; Former Chair & Member of multiple ESOF Media & Marketing Committees (IMMC).
		Speaker & Co-organiser: Yuko Tsuda (Japan): Deputy Director of the Japanese Science & Technology Agency’s (JST), Washington D.C. Office.
		Speaker: Irena Bokova (Bulgaria): Co-chair of the Global Commission on Science Missions for Sustainability, International Science Council (ISC); former Director-General of UNESCO (2009 – 2017); former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bulgaria.
		Speaker: Prof. Lidia Brito (Mozambique): Head of UNESCO’s Southern African Regional Office, Former Mozambiquan Minister for Higher Education, Science & Technology, Founder of Foro CILAC.
		Speaker: Ruth Francis (United Kingdom): Communications Consultant Freelance, Former Nature Press Officer & Springer Comms Executive, Former Member of multiple ESOF Media & Marketing Committees (IMMC).
		Speaker: Dr. Lena Smirnova (Belarus): Head of the Education Program at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT).