NETWORK ON ETHNICITY AND WOMEN SCIENTISTS

Transcription

1 FREE UNIVERSITY OF BRUSSELS INSTITUTE OF SOCIOLOGY Interdisciplinary Research Group on Gender and Migration (GEM) NETWORK ON ETHNICITY AND WOMEN SCIENTISTS NEWS project Nouria OUALI Avenue Jeanne, 44 B Brussels Tel: Fax: nouali@ulb.ac.be Coordinator

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3 1. What is NEWS? NEWS is the acronym of network on ethnicity and women scientists. It is a project which aims at investigating the situation of foreign women scientists and those from foreign origin (migrants or ethnic minorities) pursuing scientific careers in 7 European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, The Netherlands, United Kingdom) and one Eastern European candidate country for the EU entry (Bulgaria). If gender scholarship shows that the level of gender awareness among scientists is rather uneven in Europe, there is still little knowledge on how the combined discriminatory effect of gender and ethnicity operates in the scientific community. For what gender and ethnicity is concerned, does the old image of ivory towers hold true? Do academic institutions and scientific communities practice equal opportunities and equal treatment in employment regardless of gender and ethnic belonging? The NEWS project does not pretend to answer thoroughly such difficult questions, which deserve in depth-research, but it will consist in a first attempt to collect information on the issue in 8 countries in a view to raise the attention on the reality faced by women scientists from ethnic minorities working in institutions of 7 EU countries and Bulgaria. The global objective of the NEWS project is to boost gender equality in the field of science and technology in EU member states through stimulating the participation of foreign women scientists and women scientists from foreign origin (migrant and ethnic minorities) in the European research workforce, both within the public and the private sectors. The creation of a specific network on ethnicity and women scientists will indeed not only make this reality more visible but will encourage a better integration of foreign women scientists and those from foreign origin in all existing scientific networks. The NEWS project wants to contribute to an increase of the knowledge base on women in science through: Assessing the participation and the position of foreign women scientists and those from ethnic minorities in the existing European research workforce as well as the potential they represent for the full realisation of the European Research Area; Highlighting their contribution to European science and technology development; Looking at the way gender and ethnic diversity is taken into account for the increasing of the European research workforce and for the improvement of the quality of European science. The NEWS project aims at raising attention on possible existence of gender and ethnic discrimination in science and its negative effects on science development because of a loss of talents, of competence and of knowledge. On a social level, the NEWS project also contributes to challenge the still popular vision of scientists being white 40 years old males. 3

4 NEWS is intended to enrich the work of the Helsinki group by bringing new insights on the way to promote gender equality in research and science policies. The project results may serve as a channel for the Helsinki group to enlarge its understanding on women in science by taking into consideration the specific position of foreign women scientists and women scientists from ethnic minorities. 2. Who are the targeted women scientists? The NEWS project propose to examine the situation of three targeted women scientists: migrant women, refugee women and women from ethnic minorities. Migrant women are foreign women admitted in the framework of a bilateral agreement of workforce, as workers or in the family reunion process. They are usually called the first generation of migrants. Refugee women are those who migrated in the Geneva s Convention framework and obtained a refugee legal status. Women from ethnic minorities are foreign women naturalized (migrants and refugees), foreign or naturalized descents of migrants (usually called second and third generations), and national citizens coming from old colonies (France, UK). In the Bulgarian case, these categorie refers also to women from national ethnic minorities. The NEWS project will not take into account the question relating to mobility of European women scientists working inside the European Union like, for example, Italian or Spanish women scientists working in Ireland or foreign women students from all origins on a grant. 3. The NEWS tasks The strategic objective of the NEWS project is both to step up the science/society dialogue and to address the role of women in science through the promotion of gender and ethnic diversity in European science. For this objective to be achieved, the NEWS project aims at investigating the position of foreign women scientists and of women scientists from ethnic minorities both in terms of educational attainment and professional career in 7 EU member states and one European candidate, Bulgaria, building a network of women scientists covering as many scientific fields as possible in these countries and linking it with existing networks of women scientists as well as with the newly established European Platform of Women Scientists, and promoting a public debate at national and European level on the issue of gender and ethnic diversity in science. The project aims are: Establishing a state of the art on gender and ethnic diversity in science careers in 8 European countries and at the EU level and produce a policy paper to be addressed to the European commission and to the national policy makers; Mobilising the foreign women scientists and those from ethnic minorities in order to produce a lasting impact in each country concerned around the issues of increasing their participation in science, improving their working conditions, ensuring equal opportunities and reinforcing the realisation of gender and ethnic diversity in science; 4

5 Building and developing a network on ethnicity and women scientists in the countries under investigation and connecting it to established national, European and international networks of women scientists; Promoting exchange of experiences, good practices and policies in such a way that national and European research policies can be reinforced; Disseminating information on the role played by foreign women scientists and those from ethnic minorities in the development of European science and diffuse the project s main results. 4. The NEWS Members Height universities are members of the network: -Belgium: Interdisciplinary Research Group on «Gender and Migration», Institute of Sociology, Free University of Brussels, Nouria Ouali (coordinator of the NEWS) -France: Simone-SAGESSE, University of Toulouse-le-Mirail, Pr. Judith Ezekiel -Germany: Institute of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, (LS für Betriebs-und Organisationspsychologie) Institut für Psycholgie der RWTH Aachen University, Aachen. Dr. Parminder Kaur Bakshi-Hamm -Bulgaria: Centre of European Refugees, Migration and Ethnic Studies (CERMES), Department of Political Sciences, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Pr. Anna Krasteva -Italy: Department of Work and Industrial Relations, University of Bari, Pr. Emma Corigliano -The Netherlands: European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations (ERCOMER), Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht University, Dr. Karen Phalet -Portugal: Institute of Social Sciences, University of Minho, Braga, Pr. Maria Engrácia Leandro -United Kingdom: Policy Studies Institute, University of Westminster, London, Dr. Maria Hudson 5. Finance and duration The sixth framework programme of the European Commission, Science and Society, finances the NEWS project wich started in January Its duration is 24 months. 5