It is a widely known fact that women are underrepresented in science. The ratio of female researchers versus male researchers becomes especially small when measured for senior academic positions, leadership of research teams or institutional and financial responsibility. In the field of string theory, the presence of women is estimated in a percentage that is scandalously low: less than 10%. Although these numbers speak for themselves, they have to be framed in the context of a society that, until very recently, treated women and men very differently. Fortunately, laws have changed and in western societies few people will nowadays question that women and men should have the same rights and obligations. One cannot expect, though, that habits, mentality, upbringing and, in general, social considerations will evolve as fast as laws have developed in the last decades. Moreover, obvious physiological differences, mainly associated with childbirth and enfant care, still have a disproportionate impact on the advance of women in many professional areas. This is not different in science.
Our focus is on scientific excellence, and we take it for granted that excellence is gender-blind.

Rather than being obsessed with achieving an arithmetic equality, we intend to contribute to change the way in which women are perceived, as researchers and managers, by the scientific community and by the whole society. One of the directions in which this COST action will work is in improving the visibility of the work done by women, making sure that there will be a fair gender representation at all levels: from the administration of the action, to the selection of candidates for postdoc positions, the organization of events and the selection of speakers at conferences.

Perhaps more importantly, we would like to involve all women working in the field in this common task. One fact that we have repeatedly observed is that although practically all women share the same kind of sad and unfair experiences since the beginning of their scientific career, very often they feel isolated and even blame themselves for the outcome. The result of an, even subtle, discrimination in the everyday normal exchange among colleagues has a dramatic impact on the statistics, mainly in a career that is extremely competitive and where assertiveness and self-reliance are invaluable psychological traits. This problem does not only affect women: many social and character differences can give rise to the same unnatural selection among scientists. Awareness of these issues by both senior and junior scientists, male and female, can make all the difference.
It is our priority to address young women and other vulnerable groups in order to empower and support them in the crucial first stages of their careers. In this way, we would actively work in promoting the emergence of young talent.

Scientific research is not something remote, boring or inaccessible. It is a lively and fascinating intellectual experience whose outcome may improve everyone’s life. As Albert Einstein wrote, it is “directed toward ennobling human's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom”. We think that it is our obligation to convey this message to the public and to inform them about our research.  In fact, we know that many young people are interested in learning more about science, given the usual success that outreach activities have among these sectors.  This is why we plan to hold outreach activities at every event, in high schools, universities, and public spaces in general, and to offer personalized mentoring for Ph.D. students with the aim of motivating their active participation in these activities.

Activities of WG5:

"Corollaries" - the String Universe comedy on gender.

3rd Workshop on String Theory and Gender, Southhampton, March 2017:  Summary 

General gender survey for the action Survey

Silvia Penati and Yolanda Lozano (chair and vice-chair of the Action) attended the “Gender Summit 2015”, held in Berlin in November 6,7. They presented the gender initiatives of the Action through a Action through a poster..

Michela Petrini (WG2 leader) attended the “Gender Summit 2014”, held in Brussels in June 30, July 1. She  presented the gender and outreach initiatives of the Action through the brochure of the Action Brochure of COST Action 'The String theory Universe' MP1210 

Anna Ceresole (WG5 member) and Maria A. Lledó (WG5 leader) attended the 'Gender Summit 2016', held in Brussels on November 8, 9, representing the Action. M. A. Lledó gave a talk on our experience with gender issues in the Action that was very well received by gender experts. The slides of the talk.

Reaction of the participants of the Second Workshop on String Theory and Gender. of the participants of the Second Workshop on String Theory and Gender. Positive outcome and many interesting suggestioms. 90% of the participants think that we should keep orginizing events like this.

On Gender, Science and all that - Talk given at the 2nd COST MP1210 Meeting and 20th European Workshop on String Theory, Mainz September 2014,  by M. A. Lledó.

'Soft Skills and Emotional Intelligence' - Talk given by Isabel Gonçalves (GATu) and Beatriz Silva (DEM) from the Pedagogical Council at the Summer School on "String Theory and Holography",  Lisbon/Porto, 14 - 26, July, 2014

Brochure of COST Action 'The String theory Universe' MP1210

Initiative on gender and science in high school

The viceleader of the action, Yolanda Lozano, presented it at the ‘Career Development Workshop for Women in Physics’, held at the ICTP, Trieste, on September 2013

Links to external resources and articles:

1. Article of interest - "Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?"
2. Article of interest - "Academic scattering"
3. Artilce of interest: 'Academia Ignores a Major Issue for Women', from APS. 
4. Professor Gina Rippon, neuroscientist at Aston University, gives a couple of talks on the false dichotomy of male/female brain and the plasticity and permeability of the brain. Prof. Rippon was one of the gender experts of the First and Second Workshops on String Theory and Gender (Valencia 2015 and Paris 2016, respectively).
   Video 1
   Video 2