INVESTIGADORES
FRECHERO Marisa Alejandra
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
AN UPDATE ON THE SITUATION OF WOMEN IN PHYSICIS IN ARGENTINA.
Autor/es:
VERA BRUDNY; CECILIA LAGORIO; MARISA FRECHERO; FRANCISCO TAMARIT
Lugar:
Western Cape, South Africa
Reunión:
Conferencia; 4th IUPAP International Conference on Women in Physics.; 2011
Institución organizadora:
Conference Proceedings
Resumen:
At the previous three IUPAP ICWIP conferences we reported on the situation of women in physics in Argentina. We attempted to relate the patterns found in the representation of women at different positions and career stages to trends in the socioeconomic development of our country, as well as to more global trends in scientific careers. In the past seven years Argentina has undergone significant improvement in the opportunities for scientists in general, which have gone alongside with a general improvement in the economy and social welfare of the country. Generally speaking, since 2003 we have witnessed a significant increase in the overall science and technology budget, which turns into better salaries, more available positions at universities and research institutions, more scholarships, better infrastructure and more and larger research grants. At the same time a great effort is being made to generate an innovative and/or  technology based industry.  All this has contributed to science being perceived as a more attractive activity than it was ten years ago. It is not clear whether or how the overall changes in the Argentinian scientific scenario have affected the situation of women in science, in general, and specially of women in physics. A certainly remarkable improvement is the  fact that key  decision positions at governmental organizations such as the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation or CONICET (the Argentine national research council which is similar to the French CNRS) are presently held by women. However, it is difficult to tell whether this fact reflects a change in the previous trends that is reasonably established and accompanied by  deeper changes. In an attempt to clarify this we have collected data concerning the situation of women in physics at different career stages from scientific institutions and universities and have compared them with those collected in 2001-2002.  We believe that the scientific and physics community is more aware of gender issues than it was ten years before and more sensitive to them. However, we feel that strong cultural changes are still needed and that specific issues still need to be addressed.