Mari Georges of ILOG, France wrote:
Statement
I regret to say that I find that the initiative is off on the wrong track, treating the symptom & not the cause. This is at least partially reflected by the statement in
MONITORING PROGRESS TOWARDS GENDER EQUALITY IN THE 6TH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME Tender ref.: INFSO 2004/S 31-026918:
"The under-representation of women in all the relevant IST collectives – as project coordinators, external evaluators, or in the own DG INFSO structure - can be traced to the poor attractive that technological careers has had for women until the last years. Although this situation has changed, [...]"
The situation has only slightly evolved, & therein lies the problem. Women are simply not massively nor even proportionally present in the IT & technological areas addressed by the Framework Programmes. So of course they're not present as project coordinators, external evaluators, reviewers or even CEU 'responsibles'. :-(
The quote above goes on to say: "this explains especially the absence of women in decision-making senior positions. [...]"
Unfortunately, no. This does not explain the absence of women there.
The underlying problems are:
- to attract women to the passionate areas of IT & technology
- to remove the barriers ('glass ceilings') for those who are already there.
Both of these are cultural issues - & neither can be addressed at the level of Framework Programmes, rather at educational, governmental, cultural (cinematographic, literary, ...), marketing, etc. levels.
I will not be attending the seminar, but I will be interested to know if there are reactions similar to mine. As such, I have answered 'yes' to the question of receiving relevant information.
Thank you again for your invitation.
Date 9 Mar'06 Signature Mari Georges
Commission européenne, B-1049 Bruxelles / Europese Commissie, B-1049 Brussel - Belgium. Telephone: (32-2) 299 11 11.
Office: BU31 3/66. Telephone: direct line (32-2) 29 63 483. Fax: (32-2) 29 92 865.
E-mail: nancy.pascall@cec.eu.int
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