106th SIF National Congress 2020 – Equal Opportunity Committee Actions

The Equal Opportunity Committee of the Italian Physical Society (SIF) carried out two activities on the occasion of the annual National Congress of the Society that, due to the pandemic, has been held this year via online streaming from 14 to 18 September.

The two activities were respectively titled “The Women Scientist of the Sections” and “The modified time during the COVID19 period”.

The Women Scientist of the Sections

In this activity, related to the problem of the gender equality in physics, each traditional scientific section of the Congress has been represented by a woman scientist, selected specifically in the field of physics of that section.

This activity can be considered in the framework of the so-called “mentoring action”, that helps to create a “leading figure”, which is so important especially for young people when the future choices have to be made. Here, we proposed some examples of women who have excelled in a field of physics, and that can be a model to emulate for the new generations. We selected in particular women scientist that had great difficulties to come out on top, just for a gender question, that is for the sole reason that they were women. Beautiful revisited pictures and biographic cards were prepared, see here.

The modified time during the COVID19 period

In this activity, related to the study of gender difference in particular social situations, we have realized short interviews to male and female, junior and senior, staff and temporary, researchers in physics. The subject concerned how the lockdown period during the pandemic modified the time and the way to live in connection with one’s own scientific activity. The aim was to highlight gender differences or inequalities, and if any, to search for the reasons, the motivations, the stereotypes and the social conditioning for this. You can see the videos of the interviews here.

Equal Opportunity Committee - SIF
Anna Di Ciaccio, Maria Rosaria Masullo, Sara Pirrone, Massimiliano Rinaldi, Paolo Rossi, Silvia Soria