Women and Science in Brazil: Successes and Remaining Challenges for Gender Equality in the Knowledge Society

<strong>Centre for the Study of Social Systems School of Social Sciences</strong> Seminar Notice <strong>Prof. Alice Rangel de Paiva Abreu </strong> (Professora Emérita, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro) a talk on <strong>Women and Science in Brazil:  Successes and Remaining Challenges for Gender Equality in the Knowledge Society</strong> Date :<strong> January 29, 2015</strong> Abstract: The conference will discuss the policies, factors and actors in the Brazilian national STI system which affects the participation of women and girls, based on a National Assessment on Gender and STI that used the Gender Equality – Knowledge Society (GE&amp;KS) indicator framework developed by WISAT. This framework expands the usual indicators on women and science, bringing together the gender sensitive data on key areas in the knowledge society (ICT, science, technology and innovation) with gender indicators of health, economic and social status to assess the barriers and opportunities for women. A pilot assessment of six countries and one region took place two years ago (Brazil, India, Indonesia, Korea, South Africa, USA and European Union). I will be presenting the case of Brazil, which was made with the collaboration of my colleagues at the Estate University of Campinas, M. C. Oliveira; J. M. Vieira and G. S. Marcondes.In the last decades, Brazil has advanced considerably towards addressing social issues and reducing social inequalities, although there are still many problems to be dealt with. Brazil is today a thriving democracy, with free universal elections and an active Congress. Women economic, political and social rights are guaranteed by the 1988 Constitution, which ensures complete legal equality between women and men in public and private life. So Brazil stands out well in the majority of indicators, including education, where women are the majority of graduates at all levels. Brazil is today one of the few countries in the world where women are the majority of PhDs' graduates, the result of a steady effort of capacity building in the last sixty years. However, when you look at the higher decision making positions of the STI system, women are still few in number, as they are in some of the natural sciences disciplines. The conference will attempt to understand why this is so and what are the steps needed to have women participating fully in the Brazilian knowledge society. Bio-Data: Alice R. de P. Abreu is Emeritus Professor of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Ph.D in Social Sciences from the University of São Paulo Brazil (1980), and M.Sc. in Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science of the University of London (1971). She also held a number of important positions within the academic community of Brazil and internationally, which included the Vice Presidency of the National Research Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) in the Ministry of Science and Technology of Brazil (1999-2002), and Director of the Office of Education, Science and Technology of the Organization of American States, in Washington D.C.(2003-2006). She is the former Director of the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Council for Science (ICSU), ending her mandate in December 2010. Professor Abreu is an active member of the International Sociological Association, having been a member of the Executive Committee for two consecutive mandates (2002- 2010) and President of RC30, Sociology of Work. Professor Abreu received the Ordem Nacional do Mérito Científico (Comendador) of the Science and Technology Ministry, Brazil in 2001; the Palmes Académiques (Officier), of the Ministère de la Jeunesse, de l'Éducation Nationale et de la Recherche. République Française, in 2003. She was awarded the "Florestan Fernandes Prize for Sociology" in 2009 and the "ANPOCS Award in Academic Excellence Antonio Flavio Pierucci Sociology" in 2013.