Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-21-Speech-3-253"
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"en.20080521.20.3-253"2
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".
Britta Thomsen’s report notes that female researchers are in a minority in the EU. They have inferior financial security and in their professional careers, and they are penalised to an increasing extent by their family responsibilities. This is serious, both on grounds of principle and as regards practical consequences. Modern economies – and democracies – cannot afford to give negative special treatment to persons of academic eminence. I therefore voted for the report.
Nevertheless I would point out that parts of the report were not put to the vote and I find it difficult to see how that is reasonable. Paragraph 7 asks that age be taken into account as a criterion of excellence together with family situation, including the number of the researcher’s dependents. I think that would be difficult to apply in practice and might even be counter-productive. There is always a risk in simplifying the gender roles and speaking of ‘qualities that tend to be more prevalent in women scientists’ or creating absolute standards to measure the performance of researchers.
On the other hand, I wholeheartedly support the recommendation to introduce non-binding targets requiring that both genders be represented by at least 40% each in scientific committees of various kinds. I also agree with the criticism that the EU sometimes aims short when it comes to equality. The policy of presence must not be underestimated – although it should not be turned into a religion."@en1
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