GenderTime at the EPWS Annual Conference in Paris

On June 11thAnne-Sophie Godfroy (UPEC) presented the project GenderTime at the EPWS annual conference in Paris, during a round table monitored by Yvonne Pourrat (ECEPIE) including  other four projects : INTEGER, GENOVATE, STAGES and EGERA. André Béraud (ECEPIE) was in charge for the conclusion of the conference. 

 

New Perspectives for Women Scientists Careers in Europe

EPWS Conference at the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research,

11 June 2014

 

The conference, organized by the European Platform of Women Scientists (EPWS), was attended by over 80 delegates, from 17 EU countries, Armenia and the USA, representing numerous organisations working to overcome the issues for women in science today.

The conference had been organised by Claudine Hermann, the Vice President of the EPWS, and Yvonne Pourrat, of the French EPWS member association ECEPIE and coordinator of GenderTime EU project

The programme began with a message from the French Minister of Higher Education and Research, who welcomed delegates warmly.

Yvonne Pourrat, chaired the morning session, which focussed on ‘Gender in the new European Framework Programme Horizon 2020’ and began with a video message from Elisabeth Morin-Chartier, a Member of the European Parliament and President of the European Union of Women, who thanked the EPWS for their important role, emphasising there is still a lot of work to be done, but she will do everything she can as a member of the EU parliament to further this work.

A valuable up-date of how the preoccupation with gender is present in Horizon 2020 had done by Viviane Willis-Mazzichi, the Head of Sector “Gender”, European Commission, DG Research and Innovation, and Nadine Heller-Genath, of FiF Bonn, provided interesting information on German experience of a National Contact Point on Women in research.

Then a round table presented five current EU funded projects dealing with gender equality in scientific careers: INTEGER, EGERA, GenderTIME, GENOVATE and STAGES. The presentations was focussed on the results and impacts of each project.

From right to left: Marino Di Nardo (STAGES), Maxime Forest (EGERA), Anne Pepin (INTEGER), Anne-Sophie Godfroy (GenderTIME) and Ilenia Picardi (GENOVATE).

 

 

 

 

 

 

The afternoon session focussed on ‘Up-skilling Women Scientists Careers - European and French perspectives’. A Keynote speech of Professor Nicky Le Feuvre, from University of Lausanne, gave a personal view of modern sexism. Two round tables, one on Human Resources Management in R&D in both the private sector and in public research institutions and a second on mentoring experiences in private and public organisations in Europe and in France, completed the programme.

 

The afternoon was drawn to a conclusion by André Béraud, of ECEPIE, who was impressed by the positive messages from the talks which raise hopes for the future. However he did caution that, although we now understand the problems more clearly, the next step is the implementation and the evaluation of implemented programs.