The Delegation for Women’s Rights of the French National Assembly (Parliament) is currently pursuing hearings on the topic “Women and Science”: EPWS members femmes et mathématiques (Women and Mathematics) and Femmes Ingénieurs (Women Engineers) participated in December 2017, Femmes & Sciences (F&S) (Women and Science) together with the European Platform of Women Scientists EPWS on January 24th, the  French  National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in February, etc.

At the January hearing, a computer science woman student having created an association to encourage girls in coding, and a French woman active in IT in the US, participated together with EPWS and F&S.

The Delegation Members, members of the French Parliament (MP) from different political parties, wanted to have information on the status quo of girls and women in science and to collect practical suggestions to improve the situation. When questioning EPWS, the MEPs were particularly interested in European good practices on Women in Science and on their costs.

The EPWS President stressed the importance of the European Union in the creation in France of the units dedicated to the Women and Science issue, at the French ministry of Research and at CNRS in 2001.

The European interest of the French women scientists associations can be evidenced from the 7 French EPWS full members, the largest number in a European country. Claudine Hermann also insisted upon the difficulty of European associations funding, due to the lack of law on international sponsorship.

This hearing atmosphere was particularly hearty and EPWS hopes that it will bring fruitful results.