ELSO’s Database
of Expert Women in the Molecular Life Sciences is now online and ready to
accept applications as well as to provide information about the work of
hundreds of European women scientists.
Dresden,
Germany (27 October 2005) – At the opening session of ELSO’s international life
science congress in Dresden last month, ELSO President Kai Simons unveiled the
organisation’s new Database of Expert Women in the Molecular Life Sciences, a
new device to improve the visibility of European women researchers in this
field. ELSO’s Career Development Committee came up with the idea, which has
been implemented by Committee member Karla Neugebauer, a Group Leader at the
Dresden Max Planck Institute of Cell Biology and Genetics. She says, ”Our
objective is to promote gender equality in Europe, by improving the visibility
of women accomplished in their fields, from senior postdocs to senior
independent scientists.”
Although women
make up around half of students and postdocs in the life sciences, when it
comes to the higher positions women are chronically under-represented. The same
is true at conferences – the number of women speakers rarely matches the 35%
target ELSO’s Career Development Committee would like to see as the norm.
“There are a
few truly remarkable women who are now routinely on the radar screen, but many
women doing good science still remain invisible compared to their male peer
group,” commented US biologist Susan Forsburg in an online article for Women In
Cell Biology. “This matters, because the exposure on the podium can
significantly affect careers by exposing the speaker to potential postdocs,
collaborators, job opportunities, or prizes – and, of course, further speaking
opportunities.”
ELSO hopes the
database will help organisations identify appropriately qualified women
scientists not only to speak at conferences and in seminar programmes, but also
as candidates for professorships and other positions; to participate in
advisory groups, on monitoring panels, committees and commissions; to review
manuscripts, to write commissioned reviews and to serve on the editorial boards
of journals.
” Some senior
women have told me they are reluctant to join the database, because they
already get a lot of invitations and feel over-burdened,” Neugebauer comments.
“This reflects the fact that women who are already visible are asked over and
over again. Paradoxically, senior women may actually receive fewer but more
appropriate invitations as a result of this database, and these women can also
use the database to help suggest alternatives when they cannot themselves
accept an invitation. Meanwhile, junior women will be happy to receive some of
the attention they deserve.”
The database
is open online for applications from qualified women and it already has over
280 of Europe’s top female molecular cell biologists listed. ELSO wants more
senior postdocs in the database, since these women may benefit most when the
database is used to solicit applications for faculty positions.
“From my point
of view, it is extremely useful for identifying women from outside my field as
speakers and to serve on committees,” comments Susan Gasser, Director of the
Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel (Switzerland), about the new database,
“It’s going to open the eyes of young women to just how many women are active
in research, and it will help us to build a community spirit among women
researchers who are often too few and far between,” she adds.
ELSO hopes
that with its new database the usual excuses for gender bias-- “There aren’t
any women in this field!” and, “We asked a woman, and she couldn’t come!” --
will be a thing of the past.
Further
information
ELSO was
established in 1999 by a group of prominent European scientists and based on
the example of American scientific societies, especially the American Society
for Cell Biology. ELSO was created to organise a large annual international
congress in Europe and also to promote the molecular life sciences in Europe
and to defend the interests of scientists in this discipline.
ELSO’s Career
Development Committee is working to improve the career opportunities for life
scientists in Europe both through activities at the annual ELSO congress and
through various projects running throughout the year. You can read about its
activities on the ELSO CDC web site.
Links
ELSO:
www.elso.org
ELSO Career
Development Committee: www.elso-cdc.org
ELSO Database
of Expert Women in the Molecular Life Sciences: http://www.rnk-it.de/cdc-db/members_meet.php
Contact
Ingeborg Fatscher,
ELSO Secretary
ELSO e. V.
Postfach 1151
69199
Sandhausen, Germany
Tel: +49 6224
925613
Fax: +49 6224
925610
e-mail:
i.fatscher@elso.org
Dr. Karla
Neugebauer
Group leader
Max Planck
Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
Pfotenhauerstrasse
108
01307 Dresden,
Germany
Tel:
+49-351-210-2589
e-mail:
women@elso.org
www.mpi-cbg.de
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