EWL concerned by potential closing down of gender sector in EU research services
(Brussels 14 May) On the 13 May, the EWL wrote to Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, whose portfolio responsibilities are for Research, Innovation and Science within the European Commission, to express our concerns regarding the status of the Gender Sector within European Commission services dealing with research, while these services are being reorganized.
The EWL stressed that science and research are areas where equality between women and men is still far from being achieved. For example, while 59 % of EU graduate students in 2010 were female, only 20 % of EU senior academics were women and in 2009, women in research remained a minority,accounting for only 33% of researchers in the EU-27.
The existence of specific institutional mechanisms to ensure the full implementation of a gender equality policy in this area is therefore essential in order for the European Commission to be able deliver on its commitment to gender equality in research and innovation.
