Wednesday, 10 June 2020

More women in panels: the advantages of diversity

The University of Trento adopted guidelines to promote gender equality and diversity in its events

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All-male conferences, panels, seminars, with women in secondary positions, are too often the norm, but the University of Trento wants to make a difference: with these simple guidelines, it aims to ensure that women are represented in these settings, and to give visibility to their competencies, experience and abilities in public events.

A cultural change, but with no obligations attached: the guidelines serve as recommendations for members of the academic community who organize seminars, congresses, round tables and public meetings.

They will also be useful when designating the members of scientific committees and panels, where there still appears to be a significant gender asymmetry.

The guidelines, that will be forwarded to the academic community in the next days, were drafted by the Diversity management division and Rector's delegates for equality and diversity policies based on the fact that there are significant gender inequalities in some discipline areas, an issue that has no simple solution given that the representatives of the less represented gender are often overloaded with work. 

The press release includes the comments of Rector Paolo Collini and the six points that make up the new University guidelines.