CERN voices, for International Women's Day

Tomorrow, 8 March, is International Women's Day, an occasion that has been observed since the early 1900s to inspire change for the equal rights and treatment of women in society.

A statement on the International Women's Day website puts it thus:

Women's equality has made positive gains but the world is still unequal. International Women's Day celebrates the social, political and economic achievements of women while focusing world attention on areas requiring further action.

One aim of the day is to draw attention to the struggle for equal rights and representation for women in the workforce. A part of this year's theme – Inspiring change – is to "inspire change for more women in science, engineering and technology". So to mark International Women's Day, we asked voices from the CERN community to express their opinions on gender, diversity and collaboration at CERN.

Director-General Rolf Heuer reflects on how far we've has come over recent years in promoting gender equality at CERN, and President of CERN Council Agnieska Zalewska enthuses about collaboration at the laboratory.

CERN's Life Sciences advisor Manjit Dosanjh gives a personal view of how mothers can guide their daughters to a positive view of science and technology, and Giulia Fornaro, a postdoctoral student at CERN, gives her account of an inspirational female role model in physics.

In addition, the Diversity Programme have organized a networking event to celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, including round-table discussions on "Women in Science, Technology and Engineering”.

For more about diversity at CERN, check out the Diversity programme website, or take a look at the video below from CERN's Human Resources Department.

CERN voices speak about diversity at the laboratory (Video: CERN Human Resources Deparment)

ORIGINAL: CERN
By Cian O'Luanaigh 
7 Mar 2014