Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-20-Speech-2-475"
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"en.20080520.34.2-475"2
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"Mr President, gender equality is a value and objective of the European Union. However, although much has been written about it, discrimination occurs on a daily basis.
Sadly, perceived equality also exists in science. We know that more girls than boys leave secondary school with higher education entrance qualifications, and more young women than young men have a tertiary qualification. Women are therefore very well educated, but they hit the glass ceiling upon graduating from university. The figures are sobering: only 15% of all professors are female. Only 15% of the top positions are occupied by women, even though the majority of university graduates and half of all those completing a doctorate are women.
Wage discrimination also occurs in science: the committees that make decisions about research projects comprise fewer than 20% women. One could almost hypothesize that the greater the amount of money spent on a research project, the less likely it is that women will be involved.
What we need, then, if we are to do more than simply pay lip service to equality, are quotas – but they must be ambitious quotas, so that they really achieve something. Gender equality must apply in all areas of science, and this equality should apply to at least 40% of the underrepresented sex, i.e. women, and not merely to 25%. Therefore, for change to happen, we must set ourselves precisely this ambitious goal.
To close, let me to mention another matter close to my heart: we know that by 2010, the European Union will be short of 700 000 researchers. We must therefore make every effort to prevent the European Union becoming a scientific wasteland. Yet highly gifted girls are being overlooked very early on. Encouraging highly talented young women is a matter that is very close to my heart and I would ask the rapporteur to place more emphasis on this."@en1
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