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Femmes et Sciences

Learned society of France

  • 4 min read
  • 5 chapters

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One of the organisation's publications inspired the idea of adding women's names to the Eiffel Tower and the organisation chose the 72 women's names that are proposed to join the 72 men's names which Eiffel included.

History

At the end of the 20th century, women scientists and sociologists in France became alarmed by the lack of women undertaking scientific studies, despite their excellent performance in science baccalaureate exams. The work of Huguette Delavault addressed this subject in depth.

In April 1998, the European Commission organised "Women and Science" days, sponsored by the French Prime Minister Édith Cresson, to address representative disparities in science.

In 2000, an interministerial convention to transform gender relations in France emerged in the field of education, developing several initiatives including the Women and Science days.

The Femmes et Sciences association was created at the end of 2000 by Françoise Cyrot-Lackmann, mathematician Huguette Delavault, Françoise Gaspard, physicist Claudine Hermann, engineer Colette Kreder and the Femmes et Mathématiques association. Anthropologist Françoise Héritier, then a professor at the Collège de France, became an honorary member. Françoise Cyrot-Lackmann was appointed as the head of a French government office, Mission for Parity in Science and Technology, when it was created in September 2001. She said that 45% of biologists were women but only 15% of physicists were women.

Françoise Cyrot-Lackmann and Claudine Hermann have both written about the gender gap in science.

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