IUPAP International Conference on Women in Physics, Paris March 7-9, 2002

In March this year the first international conference on Women in Physics was held at the UNESCO head quarter in Paris. The conference was organized by the Working Group on Women in Physics of the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP).

The primary purpose of the conference was to understand the severe underrepresentation of women worldwide and to develop strategies to increase their participation in physics.

All information about the conference can be found at the home page of the
IUPAP Working Group on Women in Physics.
For a short report from the conference, see below.

A short report from the conference.

Delegations with 3-6 participants from 65 countries all around the world attended the conference, altogether more than 350 participants.

The Swedish team was:
Katarina Wilhelmsen Rolander (team leader)
Lotten Glans

Topic 5 working group: 
(see link Topics on the Conference home page):
Pia Thörngren Engblom (chair)
Karoline Wiesner
Ulla Tengblad  

Before the conference the IUPAP Working Group collected a lot of material from the different countries, statistics and reports on different issues concerning women in physics, as education and career attainment.
The results were presented in a report, ''Resources, Opportunities and Encouragement: Findings from the International Study of Women in Physics", at the conference. The Swedish contribution can be found here.

During the conference six different topics were discussed in smaller Discussion Groups:

 1.Attracting Girls into Physics 
 2.Launching a Successful Physics Career 
 3.Getting Women into the Physics Leadership 
   Structure Nationally and Internationally 
 4.Improving the Institutional Climate for Women in Physics
 5.Learning from Regional Differences 
 6.Balancing Family and Career 
 

The results and Recommendations from the Discussion Groups were presented in the Plenary Sessions. The report from Topic 5 is found here

The last item in the conference was presentation of and voting on the Conference Resolutions.

A lot of material from the different countries was presented in the Poster Session. The posters are available at the conference home site.
The Swedish poster can be found here.

The work and results of the conference will be followed up in many different ways. The main forum for continued contact between women physicists is the IUPAP Women in Physics home page. In the link Material for Presentations on the home page a list with the main steps for the follow up work is included. The list is presented below.
Observe in particular that all physicists are asked to send their name, contact information, and physics specialty to Marcia Barbosa, barbosa@if.ufrgs.br.

Follow up and Next Steps Participants                 - Spread the word   - Translate resolutions   - Drive change in their countries   - Post country posters on conference website   - Establish or strenghten networking Working Group   - Maintain & expand website   - Present resolutions for approval at IUPAP General Assembly in October 2002   - Publish proceedings by September You   - Network locally, regionally, nationally, internationally   - Send your name, contact information, and physics specialty to       barbosa@if.ufrgs.br   - Invite a US participant to talk in your neighborhood

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Last updated:April 30th 2002
ulla.tengblad@tsl.uu.se