Institute day by day

An eternal topic - family and science

Last autumn, a meeting-discussion "Women in science" was held in the JINR Scientists' Club. The reason for this meeting was the participation of JINR representatives in the IV Eurasian Women's Forum and watching the film "Science of the female kind" by the FTSC filmmakers' association. This evening was memorable for the lively discussion, many remarks, observations, ideas, advice - something that in general gives knowledge about the world around us, emphasizes problems and offers solutions. On the eve of International Women's Day, we will recall the autumn discussion.

At the beginning of the meeting, telling about the Women's Forum, the membership of participants, sections and speeches, Head of International Cooperation Department of JINR Otilia-Ana Culicov also presented ideas for discussion on this topic. Thanks to the heritage of ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Rome and the Celts, our worldview was developed. The women Isis, Athena (Minerva), Brigita were the patronesses of sciences, crafts, knowledge, wisdom, warriors, advocating creation and prosperity. For example, Athena was the inventor of the state, shipbuilding, chariots, flute, plow. For thousands of years, women have been the guardians of the hearth and family warmth, the guarantors of traditions and the cohesion of their communities. And of course, in the modern world, women still make every effort to keep the flame of good and creation alive. "In order for a woman scientist to be heard by society, she needs to pass a difficult path in science and achieve authority and recognition. And that is her initial assignment. The famous Marie Curie said that you cannot hope to build a better world without improving people. And to that end, each of us should work for our own betterment and at the same time share responsibility for all of humanity. I am personally convinced that even today, the public role of women scientists is to advocate confidently and consistently for the preservation of goodness, humanity and the maintenance of communication bridges of scientific communities around the world," Otilia Culicov highlighted.

The second participant in the Women's Forum, DLNP senior researcher Catherine Steger Diaz was born in Cuba, educated there and worked at CERN. At the Forum, she presented a paper "The importance of international S&T cooperation as a career driver for women scientists in Cuba". She said that despite economic difficulties, Cuba has an intellectual potential that has been built up through public policies aimed at making education accessible to all citizens with different levels of education. Women scientists therefore play an important role in the development of economic and social life in Cuba. They account for just over half of the staff in the fields of science, technology and innovation and occupy more than 40 percent of scientific positions. In the Cuban Academy of Sciences, women make up 34 percent of the total membership. Women's participation in the Board of Directors of the Academy is more than 60 percent. This is one of the highest rates for similar institutions worldwide.

However, limited resources do not allow Cuban scientists to carry out their research timely. For this reason, many of them have to defend their PhD theses after the age of 40 that significantly slows down the development of their scientific careers. In this situation, women are particularly vulnerable, losing their most productive years waiting for access to scientific infrastructure. It is particularly important for them to start their career paths before they have a family, so that they can effectively unite their academic careers with child-rearing. International scientific and technological cooperation programmes are developed to start and succeed in academic careers as early as possible, along with starting a family and raising children. In two years, Cuba will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its membership in JINR. Over the years, more than 20 Cuban scientists have participated in educational programmes and since 2014, students have participated on a permanent basis in the Institute's programmes. Of these, 50 percent are young women.

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The meeting was attended by the representatives of the Women's Information and Education Centre "Stimula". The Centre was officially registered in 1995, yet the organization has been functioning since 1982 as part of the Women's Council of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, so it can be considered a successor and continuer of this area. Chairwoman of "Stimula" Tamara Ivashkevich and Head of the Anti-Violence Section Svetlana Chubakova told about international women's forums held in Dubna, numerous topical seminars and participation in similar events in other countries.

"There is no female and male science," S.Chubakova emphasized "but all the difficulties arise for several reasons. The first is that women have been involved in social production for only a hundred years, while men have been involved for more than a millennium. Women were confined in the family that was very important for the continuation of life and the family. Some women can balance and some can't. It depends on the personality. For example, a journalist, very active that had seven children, came to our Forum. She arrived pregnant, with a baby in her arms and the rest of her children waiting at home. But in general, women had no access to education for a long time, for example, the genius Sophia Kovalevskaya could not study in Russia and had to go to the Sorbonne. Therefore, women do not need to compare themselves with men. They need to improve themselves and share their experience.

Thus, the discussion, despite the small number of participants, was still heated and even the photographer actively joined it, stating that for example, women prevail at the parallel conference of radiobiologists held at JINR at that moment. Moreover, this meeting took the form of a meeting of the organizing committee, at which both topics for discussion and quite specific actions were voiced. A clinical psychologist noted that there is a difference between men and women in terms of biological structure and perception of reality and it cannot be discounted. A researcher from Kazakhstan that is on maternity leave, emphasized the importance of such meetings and expressed her wish to invite those that will help to cope with the workload of women scientists to implement master classes. Tamara Ivashkevich suggested organizing a series of workshops on specific topics, including improving women's self-esteem. Doctor of Physics and Mathematics Elena Kokoulina that has vast experience in working with student practitioners, highlighted that Marie Curie's two daughters also became famous personalities and their mother's selfless work became an example for them rather than an obstacle to their upbringing.

Deputy Chairman of the AYSS Council Alexander Nezvanov made interesting remarks: "It seems that in the scientific world there is no separation between female and male scientists. I found a slide from JINR Director's report about the distribution of salaries, ages, others". Directorate also believes that there is no separation because salaries are not divided into male and female. These quantitative estimations may be, as they say, from the evil one. In many organizations of the Soviet Union there were many women workers that were considered women in science, but were engaged in routine work. And it would be interesting to know about the distribution of salaries at the Institute. If there is no difference, then there is no separation and if there is, we need to understand why this difference arose and how to get rid of it... And the second thing. Nobel Week has recently been held and the following statistics were reported: the main scientific discoveries were made between 30-35 years of age, with an average age of 33. Mostly, of course, the winners were men, for at 33 especially for today's girls, the issue of family and children has a higher priority than science. And perhaps we could ask the question - what programmes could the Institute offer to make it easier for women to balance family and scientific activity at this golden age, when it is possible to make scientific discoveries".

Before proceeding to watching the film "Science of the female kind", the initiator and organizer of the meeting, JINR Assistant Chief Scientific Secretary Varvara Fufaeva highlighted, "Back in summer, I had an idea that we could hold festivals of scientific cinema at our sites. In the list of films, I was interested in several ones, including "Science of the feminine kind". And I thought - how will it be perceived in our city, in the Institute? It would be interesting to know the attitude of JINR staff to the stories told in the film about aspirations to break through the thorns to the stars - to science and research. Perhaps, the chosen heroines are a relevant sample, like the average temperature in a hospital and this is not the case with us. In addition, our colleagues just went to the Eurasian Women's Forum and it seemed to me that it would be ideal to coincide all this, to make a fusion of the two events. I perceive JINR as a unique organization - it has a different mentality, rules, attitude to many things. And I would like to get an answer to the question: how women scientists of JINR differ from others, how favorable the JINR atmosphere is for their career, what they could advise other women and how to facilitate the path in science for young researchers."

One thing can be stated: the trial ball, released to check the information field and that there is interest, not that it hit the hole but as they say in billiards, broke the pyramid, revealing both interest and experience and the desire to make the scientific environment for women even more favorable.

Join us, suggest, express your opinion - e-mail of the organizer fufaeva@jinr.ru.

Galina MYALKOVSKAYA,
photo by Igor LAPENKO