Gender equality
Promoting professional equality between women and men
The ‘gender stereotype’, ‘glass ceiling’, ‘sticky floor’, ‘Matilda effect’, ‘Mathieu effect’, ‘Boys’ Club effect’, “unequal distribution of academic domestic tasks”, “invisibilisation”, “imposter syndrome”, are all phenomena that contribute to gender inequality in terms of careers in research. Combating these phenomena to establish professional equality between women and men is a major objective for our societies.
In Europe, and consequently in France, legislation and case law are helping to reinforce this principle and its application. Each of the organisations to which the IGF belongs (CNRS, Inserm, University of Montpellier) has set up its own structured action plan to promote professional equality.
This plan is based on four major actions and responds to Axis 5 of the law on the transformation of the civil service (Strengthening professional equality in the civil service):
• Assessment of the institutional situation
• Promotion of conditions ensuring equal access to responsibilities and career development
• Improving work-life balance and supporting parenthood
• Combating discrimination, sexism and sexual violence (including LGBT Q+).
IGF is actively involved in implementing these plans to work towards transforming our practices.
/ IGF situation in 2024
Here are a few simple steps you can take to help bring about change:
- (Re)recognise that inequalities currently exist in the workplace, particularly in terms of career development
- Become aware of your own biases, which are often unconscious
- Communicate without gender bias
- Be vigilant about respecting gender parity and the absence of bias in our recruitment, assessment, support and invitation processes (seminars, conferences)
- Take the gender factor into account in its experiments (including in vitro experiments) / study its working hypotheses on both sexes
- Report any discriminatory inequalities, attitudes or comments that you witness.
