On 23-26 October 2017 the International Council for Science (ICSU) celebrated its 32nd ICSU General Assembly (GA), including a joint meeting with the International Social Science Council (ISSC) on 25-26 October 2017. These events are being hosted by the ICSU Scientific Member at the Academy of Sciences located in Taipei, Taiwan.
“A Global Approach to the Gender Gap in Mathematical, Computing, and Natural Sciences: how to measure it, how to reduce it?”, for which IMU is the lead applicant, and IUPAC, co-lead applicant, has been funded by the ICSU. This project involves 11 unions and organizations across different disciplines, namely, IMU, IUPAC, IUPAP, IAU, ICIAM, UNESCO, IUBS, IUHPST, GenderInSITE, OWSD, and ACM. The project supports UN Sustainable Development through Goal 5, “Gender Equality: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”. In particular, the study of the barriers for women in less developed countries will be an emphasis, targeting parents and teachers as major decision-makers for the career choices of girls.
A progress report for the Gender Gap project was presented by Mei-Hung Chiu (a IUPAC bureau member) and Marie-Francoise Roy (IMU) at the ICSU GA in Taipei, Taiwan, on October 24, 2017. Participants at the assembly provided useful input and positive comments to the project and recognized the values of carrying out such a study for the promotion of gender equity and equality in the world.
[Photo credit: Manuel de León.]
Gender Gap in Science 