In the session Workplace Harassment, a short testimony on a video and a psychologist talk were followed by EPWS President Claudine Hermann’s presentation of the European Parliament 2018 report on sexual harassment and of some recent French ministerial initiatives on this difficult problem. The session ended by a speech on HeForShe, the UN Women Solidarity Movement for Gender Equality, evidencing the link between the current masculinity and a culture of violence and consequently the need for a positive masculinity. A lively discussion followed, this session should be the starting point for further MCAA actions on this topic, since the concern on harassment among Alumni and Alumnae seems to be important.

The session Mind the Gap: Equality and Diversity for leadership in the Research/Academic environment was organised by the MCAA GEMS (Gender Equality for Mobile Researchers in Science) Working Group, an EPWS full member. It began with gendered statistics on the women success rates in funding applications, presented by members from Lund University, Sweden. The authors recommended that:

-all funding agencies should implement unconscious bias training for their evaluators;

-a focus should be made in the applications on the proposed science and not on the CV;

– funding institutions should publicise gender-disaggregated statistics about success rates;

– real studies should be performed on the underrepresentation of women in applications.

A paper was then presented on “Acceptance without exception of the LGBT community”, in particular in STEM and several British initiatives in this perspective were described. Finally a woman postdoc made a lively presentation on her career difficulties.

Claudine Hermann