[Wigsat-l] IANAS Establishes a “Women for Science” Working Group

[Sophia Huyer]

8 May 2010

For immediate release

The InterAmerican Network of Academies of Sciences Establishes a “Women for Science” Working Group

 The Women for Science Working Group (WfS-WG) of the InterAmerican Network of Academies of Science (IANAS) will be officially launched at its first meeting on 11 June 2010 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in conjunction with the VII Meeting of the National Focal Points of the IANAS Science Education Program.

The Working Group was established to aid IANAS in implementing the recommendations of the InterAcademy Council (IAC) Advisory Report on Women for Science (http://www.interacademycouncil.net/?id=11278), which argues that national science and technology (S&T) capacity building requires the full engagement of women, from the top decision-making levels all the way down to the grassroots. The WfS-WG is sponsored by the InterAcademy Panel (IAP), the global network of science academies, which has adopted the IAC report for implementation.

The mandate of the IANAS “Women for Science” Working Group is to advise IANAS and its member academies on fostering a climate in the sciences that is welcoming to women, and to alert IANAS and its academies to the gender aspects and issues encountered in their work and programs. The IANAS Women for Science Symposium sponsored by IAP and hosted by the Mexican Academy of Sciences in Mexico in April 2009 (http://www.ianas.com/mexico_en.asp), was the first step towards creating the Working Group.

 In collaboration with the Third World Organization for Women in Science (TWOWS, www.twows.org), the Gender Advisory Board of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (GAB, http://.gab.wigsat.org), and the UNESCO Chair on Women in S&T in Latin America (www.catunescomujer.org) the WfS-WG will develop a Plan of Action for the IANAS member academies to strengthen participation of girls and women in S&T in the following key areas:

·      	•	 building an inclusive institutional culture in S&T organizations, including science academies;

·      	•	 promoting education in S&T for girls and women;

·     		•	  increasing the visibility of women scientists/engineers;

·     		•	 supporting networking, leadership training and mentoring for women in science.

 

Areas of focus will be:

·     		*  recognition and elimination of barriers to women’s careers in science;

·       	*networking – establishment of an interactive web site with the following purposes:

		* ending the isolation experienced by women scientists and engineers;

	* enabling academies to exchange information on measures of proven effectiveness;
	* developing and assembling online resources and databases;

	* collecting and analyzing sex-disaggregated data;

	* promoting partnerships with relevant organizations in the IANAS region.

 

Members of the Working Group, nominated by IANAS member academies, are:

·       Johanna (Anneke) Levelt Sengers, National Academy of Sciences, USA, Chair

·       Juan Pedro Laclette, Former President, Mexican Academy of Sciences

·       Beatriz Leonor Silveira Barbuy, Brazilian Academy of Sciences

·       Maria del Carmen Samayoa, President, Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences of Guatemala

·       Patricia Taboada-Serrano, delegate of the National Academy of Sciences of Bolivia

·       Sophia Huyer, Third World Organization for Women in Science (TWOWS)

 

Focal points, appointed by the IANAS Academies, act as liaisons with the Working Group.  They are:

Argentina:  Norma E. Sbarbati de Nudelman
Brazil: Beatriz Leonor Silveira Barbuy
Canada: Barbara Sherwood Lollar
Bolivia: Patricia Taboada-Serrano
Chile: Patricio Luis Felmer Aichele / Substitute: Maria Cecilia Hidalgo Tapia
Colombia: Margarita Perea Dallos / Substitute: Ángela Camacho Bletrán
Costa Rica: Carla Pérez Odio
Cuba: Lilliam Margarita Alvarez Díaz
Dominican Republic: Venecia Álvarez de Vanderhorst
Guatemala: Maria Carlota Monroy
Mexico: Rosaura Ruiz Gutiérrez
Peru: Nicole Bernex de Falen
USA: Dolores R. Piperno
 

 
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