(first published on YL 9/2019)
For a long time I believed that fighting for gender equality in science and technology was a matter of access and equal opportunities. In reality, the issue is way deeper and more dramatic. Why is it crucial to have gender balance in STEM?

The first reason links with economic equality. Positions in the field of technology, science, and software development are on the rise and they are prestigious and well-paying jobs. If women will be cut out of these roles, the result will be a spread economic inequality. Financial independence is a necessary step for gender equality. Nowadays in Finland only 29% of STEM professionals are women (EU average is 41% and Finland is placed third to last).

Another important factor is that lack of diversity among creators of technology and science produces dangerous realities. For example, research in medicine focuses especially - sometime exclusively - on male subjects, as female hormones are seen as a complication. The exclusion of women from creating tech exacerbates gender inequality; we are left with vocal assistants (always female) that laugh off sexual or verbal harassment; self-declaring all-inclusive health apps that have no function to track the menstrual cycle; predictive keyboards that show only male emojis when the user types "doctor" or "CEO"; vocal assistants that respond better to male voices; women systematically under attack on social media. Women become second-class users and consumers.

Science and technology have been modelling the world we live in for decades and their influence on our lives will only grow. Women need to have a role in progress or they will be excluded from the future.

Picture by McKaela Lee on Unsplash.

L'articolo Tech & Gender Equality - my column on Yliopisto-Lehti sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

Now, if you have ever read my blog entries, you are very well aware this is not one of my issues. However, I cannot take all credit for it. Truth is, my husband and I made a conscious decision to move from Italy to Finland exactly to pursue our dream life, enjoying the Nordic work-life balance atmosphere. Being a mother is part of my life purpose, but even when I was 20 I was very well aware I had some non-negotiable terms when it came to having a family or not. Coming from a retrograde country in terms of gender equality and in work-life balance, I was attracted to the Nordic working culture. In one of my first working experiences, I was also fortunate enough to end up in an environment that encouraged its employees to take good care of their family. This positive experience, along with the contrast of other people's experiences abroad, left me wondering what concrete elements influenced positively my work-life balance and what advice I can draw for others to recreate this great mojo.

Policies

Finland's great family policies hugely contributed to draw an excellent baseline. I am talking of long parental leave for both mothers and fathers, single parents' support systems, child benefits, right to cut on working hours. On top of that, unions are so powerful that no employer can even dream of making pressure on someone's potential to exercise their rights in this context. No matter their location, single companies can adopt several of these policies and create a favourable environment for their employees. It can seem a scary investment, but one that greatly pays off in terms of attracting and retaining talent. Some examples:

• Paid parental leave, for both mothers and fathers, biological or adopted children.
• Flexitime and possibility to work from home. Here in Finland many employers even pay for the home internet connection, a small contribution yet a clear statement that working from home is acceptable.
• Paid short leaves (2-3 days) if a child is sick and cannot attend school or daycare.

Managers leading by example

Leaders set the example. The company should encourage and create favourable conditions for managers (of both genders) to take parental leaves and holidays. One of the most powerful examples for me was witnessing my supervisor at the time, the company's CTO, taking a long paternity leave and then cutting his working hours to part-time to spend more time with his newborn children. That sets the bar, doesn't it. In the same company, many top-rank managers took long parental leaves. In the same way, they often mentioned their children in conversations, maybe dropped a funny family pic in their presentation slides, rescheduled meetings with the official reason they had a school recital to attend, or delegated tasks because it was affecting family commitments. When I leaded my own team, I was extremely mindful of this. I did the very same. I made sure to rarely reply to emails at unholy hours. I tried to spread the gospel that having a life outside of work was normal, acceptable, due.

Family-friendly office

Making small changes in the office life can send a powerful message. One of my husband's workplaces made a point of extending the invitation to selected office parties to the whole family and even planned children activities for the young guests. Another idea was having a "take your child to work"-day every year. I regularly witnessed colleagues bringing their kids to the office, as daycare was closed or simply because they wanted to have a special day with mommy or daddy. I fondly remember my 5 year old daughter visiting my office. I put her to "work" asking her to copy a page of text on a laptop. She felt so important! Cute.
Do you have a global chat or Workplace? Set up channels to share family news, events, or information. In one my past workplaces, it was customary to announce a birth or adoption in the global channel. We also had a specific flow for family topics, where we would ask advice, exchange tips, sell or lend each other baby items. There are plenty of simple ways to integrate employees' family life into working life.
Would you rather have burnt out employees who live under the awful pressure of hiding a second life, or happy balanced people who feel appreciated, accepted, and whole?

Self-commitment

Last but not least, it's a personal commitment. Despite all the favourable conditions, the impostor sindrome is out there to get me and I regularly find myself struggling to balance the two worlds. We are often guilty of putting pressure on ourselves - men and women alike. I have assessed long ago what my own priorities are, yet it's a beneficial exercise to remind myself on a regular basis. Prioritisation helps me a lot. When I get an invitation to a meeting that overlaps with daycare pick-up, I immediately start questioning what's the best action. I take a deep breath and evaluate if I can reschedule it to a more favourable time. Sometime it's simply not possible, but 95% of the times is. I rarely have encountered shock or reprisal when I took a stand, and when I did I reminded myself that people come with a different set of motivations and expectations. I grew so bold in my conviction that I have started choosing my workplaces based on how their family policies are (a luxury not everyone has, I know).

There is plenty of evidence out there that productivity is boosted by a good work-life balance. Beside being the right thing to do, I strongly believe this is a smart long-term investment for businesses. What do you think about this, and what will you change in your workplace or attitude? Leave me a comment below.

L'articolo Secret Parenting: My Positive Experience And Tips To Improve Work-Life Balance sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

Academia is an ecosystem of its own. Your field is a small community and your reputation is global: if someone powerful puts you in the wrong light, there's no turning back. Academia has a strongly hierarchical structure and mostly "old guard" male management. It ticks all the boxes to be a favourable environment for sexual harassment to flourish.

That being said, it didn't shock me when I spotted this thread on my Twitter feed.

Now, the comments are the interesting part. While men mostly report fun or annoying incidents ("Having to sit in silence in a 'networking' lunch at Oxford because some random guy that no one knew was giving a retirement speech [...] which also ran on so long it cut all the sessions too short" or "Someone spitting taco and cheese all over me because she insists to not stop eating her lunch while talking to me at my poster."), women have a whole lot else to say. The thread is a collection of stories of sexual harassment and even multiple accounts of assault. Men stroll into academic conferences with the fear of being ridiculed at worst, but women walk into them like in a minefield, expecting inappropriate comments at best, traumatic experiences at worst.

A gallery of examples:

Harassment at conferences is a real issue. People behave at their worst when they do not feel the pressure of accountability of their usual habitat. On the other hand, imagine being a victim to something like this while you are on a work trip, far from home and your support network. Not fun. Yet little to no conference organisers even tackle the issue. Having a policy statement and appropriate instructions on the conference website and appointing a contact person to report incidents are seen as useless overhead.

You know what I'd like to see? For researchers of both genders, especially young ones, to take a strong stand.

Quit going to conferences that do not provide tools for gender inclusion.

Write to the organisers that since you cannot find any stand or guidelines on harassment on their website, you decided not to attend. Invite colleagues to do the same. Tweet about it. Conferences need you as attendants and supporters more than you need to sit half-asleep on a chair listening to content that is or soon will be public.

I cannot wait to see the day when most women will comment with fun episodes to a thread like that.

***
Edit. Further readings. Universities have spent 90M pounds in the past 2 years to settle harassment claims.
Edit. 20.5.2019 13.59. Clarification in the final part.

L'articolo This Twitter Thread Shows Why Academia Is Yet Not Safe For Women sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

Before commenting on the matter, I want to downsize the news titles. I found a video with the exact declaration of the Ministry, which I will translate here:

VF: This is the law, I believe parents need to be aware of it. Choices of school directors are simply based on Italian laws.

I: Could the Ministry take a stand on the matter?

VF: The Ministry doesn’t have this duty nor this function. We are here talking of laws, related to the well-being of and the responsibilities over children, established by the current law. We need to be careful not to make it become a chance not to abide by the law.

I: What’s your personal opinion? Would you allow your child or grandchild to go home on her own when she’s below 14 years old?

VF: By personal values, I respect rules and laws. One can allow kids to experiment with autonomy at home, and not necessarily in the school-home relationship.

I: So you grandchildren…

VF: (laughs) Well they’ll come home with the grandparents, for now they are too young. Can I add it’s a great pleasure for grandparents to pick up their grandchildren? I think it’s a great thing, I wish I could do that.

[ENG: "SURE, since we are all housewives or with healthy grandparents, happy to babysit for free. 2017 in #Italy]

.@valeriafedeli si ascolti quando parla.
Sono inorridita che queste parole vengano da una donna che lavora (?). https://t.co/8qFouLPFja

— Paola Elefante (@PaolaElefante) 27 ottobre 2017

[ENG: .@valeriafedeli listen to yourself. I'm horrified these words come from a working (?) woman]

Dear Ministry Fedeli, after listening to your actual words, I want to publicly apologise for my reaction. You didn't say what the newspapers wrote and that was what inflamed my reaction towards you. However, I would like to comment on this law and on the Ministry's responsibility.

This law is a disaster. It's idiotic, not aligned with the reality of current times, and incredibly damaging to the country and women's rights. We cannot build a society on the assumption that the grandparents will take care of the public services we are missing. Most families have a double income and these tasks always fall on the shoulders of women, virtually making it impossible for them to work full-time, let alone have a career. ISTAT has found out that less than 50% women in Italy work, this means we have approximately 25% of the Italian working-age population not working, not paying taxes, not contributing to the pension system, and with no welfare guarantees for their later years. If the pension system is in crisis now, think in 20 years.

I understand school directors, they are doing the right thing. I don't understand you, though. You are the same person who demanded to be called Ministra, as the word Ministro (Ministry) was male-gendered in Italian. I would expect you to be an advocate for gender equality and still you were so cold when commenting the matter. It sounded like "It's not my problem". But wait, are we sure it isn't? When you have millions of educated women who are put in the conditions to choose family or work (guess what they choose) because of wrong State policies, isn't that a problem for the Ministry of Education? Isn't that wasting all efforts the Ministry puts into investing resources in education? Beside that, aren't you in an excellent position to advocate for a change and have a positive influence?

This law sums up with several other failing policies to ostracise women into their working career. It makes it impossible to work. Dear Ministry, this is the reason why I left Italy. Even ten years ago I knew I could either be a mother or a woman with a career, and I didn't want to choose. Please don't force any more Italian woman to.

L'articolo Being a working mother in Italy? My open letter to Ministry Valeria Fedeli sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

I've been silently following the Weinstein scandal lately, but it got too personal to shut up.

The narcissistic powerful man who feels he can play with women. The community which silently witnesses and does nothing about it. Until a victim speaks out, then everyone is suddenly full of disgust and ready to condemn act with zero tolerance.

Funny, that's a movie I've seen before. You see, I have been harassed for years by a disgusting old pig. It was under everyone's eyes and no one spoke out. Especially the mid-management (all men in my experience). Those who still have something to earn and too much to lose already. Like Ben Affleck, who just took the chance to surf the wave of indignation, and climbed on the corpses of Rose Mc Gowan and all the other women he never found courage to speak out for. Not convenient at the time. But hey, now it's time to ride with the winners.

I had my Ben Afflecks when it happened to me. Those same people which were turning their heads when it was happening under their eyes. The very same people who tried to minimise all the inappropriate "jokes". I guess asking a six-month pregnant woman to sleep with you in your hotel room stands as a joke. What a jolly bloke.

Please, don't talk to the press. It's to protect the victims' identities. What an idiot I've been to believe that.

So, dear Ben Afflecks of my life, you're welcome that I and a bunch of women put out the trash for you. Only ruined our careers and mental health, but hey, you are still exactly where you were, so I guess it was worth it.

Dear fellow women who are being harassed on the workplace. Take no shit. Speak out. Talk to each other, because rarely predators have one victim only. Find support and do it. And when you do, don't make my mistake, and be ready also for the hypocritical shit which comes afterwards.

L'articolo Dear Ben Afflecks of my life sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

L'articolo More than a mother sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

Why you should do it

I can give you plenty of reasons why. First of all, I personally find it weird that in today's academia, where a lot a mobility is required, we still avoid to acknowledge that most people have kids. Many of us - myself included - have children and it's crazy hard to fulfill parenting responsibilities - which require routine and stability - with all the travelling academia demands. All the trips and visiting periods (not to mention moving for a temporary position!) throw a great burden onto families and a lot of hard decisions must be taken. Offering childcare at conference does not solve all problems, but it certainly offers some practical help.

My first point was completely gender-free, but some situations occur more frequently or exclusively to women. Notice that for women the most popular (and better from fertility point of view) age to have kids coincides with the years of your PhD studies or your postdocs. In other words, the years when you are supposed to travel the most to present your work and network. Also, consider breastfeeding: OMS suggests to breastfeed for one year, and many people now go on even further. This is a long period to give up travelling, career-wise.

And what if one is a single parent and has to bring kids along? Or if both parents work in the same academic field?

We should keep it professional and not have kids around

I understand this worry, but I am convinced you are being pessimistic. Few people choose to travel with kids anyway. Taking the family along is stressful and expensive for everyone and people will try to avoid it every time they can. As an example, during AIP2015 we welcomed families and with about 500 guests, less than 10 kids came along with their family. There were spouses looking after them and they did not interfere with the conference at all. In the "worst case scenario" when one comes along with a small baby and the baby starts crying, it sounds implausible that they will not take the baby out, doesn't it? As any change, this also may bring some bad surprises, but it will mostly be positive to participants.

How can you do it

I am practical person, so I will now give practical guidelines on how you can help.

First of all, name a responsible person or group. One needs also to be the contact person on-site during the conference, so that child-carers know who to contact in case of difficulties or in search for advice. Also, make sure you choose the conference venue, the excursion and the conference dinner restaurant accordingly with the fact that someone may bring kids along (in particular, consider the "stroller-friendly" aspect).

Low-budget initiatives

• Info page on the conference website (cost: only time). Make visible all information about the childcare services you will offer. Will there be grants?A nursing room? Also, make a section with useful information: emergency numbers, pediatric clinics nearby; children-friendly restaurants near the venue; kids facilities at the location (amusement parks, outdoor and indoor parks, libraries, ...); information on where to rent a stroller/carseat/baby items; highlight the children-friendly hotels; contact details of babysitting agencies or similar; the contact details of the responsible person you nominated.
• Nursing and childcare room(s) (cost: the rent of a room at your venue). Mothers who are breastfeeding may need a quiet, private place that is close to the conference rooms. Provide a comfortable chair (make sure she can rest her arms, not having to hold the baby up air). Other important things are: a microwave oven to heat up toddler's food; a changing table (this can be arranged in the toilets as well); a couple of highchairs; a potty in the toilets (both genders!). You may borrow many of these things from colleagues. Bonus items: extra nappies; extra babyfood; care products (soap, creams); table, chairs, some pictures to color (find them free online if you don't want to buy books) and pencils; if most participants are local, books for kids in the local language. Bonus premium item: some screen from which the parent can follow in streaming the conference talks she/he is missing.
• Offer a suitable registration fee for accompanying spouse and kids (cost: none). The fact that you are considering that family comes along brings already relief to a family. Make sure to specify how much the registration fee is for spouse and kids.
• Free lunch for kids (cost: depends on the cafeteria, estimate 15 euros/kid during the whole conference. In my experience you can expect 1-2 kids every 50 participants). This is a little something that sends a really positive message.
• Offer web-streaming of all events (cost: low). You don't have to do this for free! You can offer the option of paying a special fee and follow all events in web-streaming. This is good not only for people who have family limitations, but also for scientists from developing countries or junior researchers with limited travelling funds. It's good for organisers who get further fees and speakers who get more visibility. Going in person will always be better, because you can ask questions and network with other people, but this can be a good plan B for parents and not only.

Medium-to-high-budget initiatives

• Childcare on site (cost: depends on various factors). If you offer this, you definitely go in my hall of fame with honours. For this service you need to find a suitable space and some caregivers. If the conference is held during the school period, you can expect only kids under 7. If the conference is during the summer, that may be a different story. First of all, make sure people state clearly if they are bringing their kids and/or spouse during the registration process. Ask for the age of the children.
  You can decide along with the caregivers how to arrange the groups, according to the ages. If a professional agency is a too expensive option, get creative. Many countries offer ways to pay occasional workers and you may find students or young people who may want to have the job (many have previous babysitting experience, being it a popular side-job for young people).
• Grants (cost: depends, but you can set a maximum easily). Offer childcare grants to pay for care of the kids one leaves at home or for the expenses derived from taking a caregiver and the kids along. I never handles the bureaucracy of grants, but you may ask some advice from people who do (check my hall of fame). The hall of fame is good to check also to find the monetary source of such grants, since associations may offer grants to your organising boards or direct you to third parties. You have some choices to make regarding how much you offer. Is it better to give a grant to more people or fewer heavier grants? It's up to you.

Good luck with the planning!

(*) See my hall of fame of institutions and events and a previous post on the topic.

L'articolo Childcare at conferences: guidelines sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

Why all this? Women are severely underrepresented in mathematics, especially in Scandinavian countries, even though they top charts for gender equality. Recently EWM collected data from the country coordinators to describe the single situations and filed a report. The situation in Nordic countries is too extreme to ignore:

L'articolo Women in Mathematics in Finland: Amal Attouchi sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

When I read the headline, I felt annoyed, without getting why at first. Was there something in the figurines? Nope, it was the title. The father "doesn't work". That is not the meaning of stay-at-home parent at all. I am sure whoever wrote this entry had the best intentions, in fact I could not find trace of the piece of news on other major Italian newspapers. It didn't make it as a minor article in any other newspaper in Italy, meaning that there's someone at La Repubblica who really cares about showing this small victory towards gender equality. However, words are powerful and can help bias spread out. Here words were chosen unwisely.

First of all, daddy is carrying an infant, still drinking from a bottle. This makes it more likely that daddy is taking some time off from work, while mommy chose to go back to work. This is the movement we're trying to start in our civil society. We want fathers to feel parental leave as their right, as a safe and socially acceptable choice. Sure, I also want dads to feel safe choosing to be a stay-at-home parent and make it their full-time job, as well, but this is a choice that today middle-class families rarely can afford to make.

Second thought, from my personal experience. My job and my technical skills are a fundamental part of my identity. I studied and worked a lot to be able to do what I like, I invested and still am investing a big portion of my time. When my daughter was born, I took almost one year off, during which I went to several social meetings with other parents ( 99% mothers). After few months of meeting all these new people at playdates and such, I noticed we never ever asked each other about our professional lives. We were just moms. I love being a mother and my daughter is the most beautiful thing I created (sorry, MatLab scripts), but I am much more than an uterus with legs. Even though this feeling accompanied me for the rest of the parental leave, I tried to be rational and kept repeating myself that I was just overreacting. Until when my husband took his parental leave. People always asked about the job that was waiting for him.

There is nothing wrong or bad being a full-time stay-at-home parent, I admire people who are. It's an hard choice and a heavy job made out of love for family. It is also an extreme choice that few people want or can afford to do. This is why parental leave found his way in many countries, not to force people to make the painful choice between work and family, and guarantee infants the best care. Because of pay-gaps, social pressure and even natural conditions (breastfeeding), often mothers feel forced to take all or most of the allowed time-off. On the other hand, in many countries fathers feel an awful social pressure and do not take their rightful time-off, as it is seen the same as taking a vacation (you are seen as lazy). If an headline like the one above underlines that a stay-at-home dad is not working, there's a strong risk to send a wrong and counterproductive message. Let's stress instead this father is doing a great job taking care of his family.

L'articolo Lego stay-at-home dad: a reflection on role and hidden bias sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.

Since January 1st, 2016, the Helsinki Institute of Physics has a new appointed director, Prof. Paula Eerola from University of Helsinki. Paula is the 4th director of the Institute since its start of operations in 1996 and the first woman to be appointed. She has a rich research background in particle physics and an academic career which made her travel to Switzerland and Sweden, before coming back to her home university in Helsinki in 2008.

Congratulations for the great achievement! Can you tell me something more about HIP?

Thank you. The Helsinki Institute of Physics is a joint research institute operated by five Finnish universities: University of Helsinki, Aalto University, University of Jyväskylä, Tampere University of Technology and Lappeenranta University of Technology. Its board consists of representatives of the five universities and a scientific advisory board. Formally the Institute belongs to the Faculty of Science in University of Helsinki.

What are you main responsibilities as director?

I am a sort of CEO of the Institute. I supervise scientific operations, take care of personnel issues, make budget plans, and operate under the national mandate HIP was granted to manage all Finnish research at CERN. Soon we will take part also to FAIR research projects, a new center for subatomic research currently under construction in Germany. HIP also helps the Finnish “CERN co-operation high school network”, which allows high school (“lukio”) classes to visit the CERN facilities. Our researchers act as lecturers and guides during the visits. About 80% of all Finnish high schools take part in this educational project, which involves a long preparation and several school subjects: physics, of course, but also English language - since the visit is in English - and Finnish language class. The students usually write an article in the local Finnish newspaper about the trip. I once asked to first-year physics students in Helsinki how many of them took part in such a programme and many raised their hands. I think this kind of inspiration is very important for younger people, to understand what they want to do.

Can you disclose some cool physics HIP does at CERN?

HIP is involved in experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is the biggest and highest energy particle accelerator in the world. The experiments at the LHC we are contributing to are called CMS, ALICE and TOTEM. CMS is one of the two experiments which discovered the Higgs Boson. I used to be leader of the Finnish team of CMS and becoming director of HIP felt like a natural continuation of this path.

Do you have any career advice for aspiring or young scientists?

I think the basis of everything is your own interest and motivation. Do not hesitate and calculate too much which job you will end up doing. The academic career is not deterministic, you need strong faith and you have to accept uncertain conditions.

One obstacle in particular in Finland is that people tend to work too much alone, too afraid of asking questions or discussing their work. They tend to go home, make their calculations alone and come the day after with an answer. However, science doesn’t work like this, it requires constant interaction, not working in a sort of “vacuum”, it asks for cooperation and feedback. If you truly collaborate with someone, the final entity will be greater than the sum of two single parts. I think this scientist ideology should be revised. I advice not to be afraid to ask or to look stupid.

What is your perspective on women in physics? Any advice?

I think it is still harder for women physicists to be considered in a non-biased way, compared to male colleagues. I have been member of Nordic Women in Physics (NorWiP) for many years and I even took part in a focused training for women in leadership at Lund University, in Sweden. Sometimes younger people don’t acknowledge the issue until it hits them hard. At the same time, we need not to make girls depressed. They simply need to be aware and alert, so that if something happens, they can react. I have made my career as a single parent, it often has been hard to plan and organise everything. External baby-sitting help has been mandatory.

Did you have to travel or live abroad a lot?

Yes, I lived for six years in Geneva. Then, I was a researcher and later a professor in Sweden, at Lund University. My son was three when I was offered the first position in Sweden. It was a hard decision to take, moving to a new place without any social network.

Thank you again to Paula for sharing her story and point of view, and, again, congratulations!

Picture: Linda Tammisto.

L'articolo Paula Eerola, coordinating Finnish physics research at CERN sembra essere il primo su Paola Elefante.