On Wednesday 24th Feb 2021 in the presence of the members of the women Council, a subgroup of the workgroup of the women in engineering sciences (WIS) of the Academy hosted a meeting on “Women and Scientific Association’s”. In this meeting, the secretary of the Scientific Associations commissions of Ministry of science, Research and Technology (SRT), one of the fellows of the academy, and a number of liaisons of the scientific Associations related to the STEM field had presentations.
Professor Tahereh Kaghazchi, head of the workgroup and the associated member of the Academy, presided over the meeting:
The meeting was one of the co-thinking meetings series to promote the role of women in science and technology and was held in line with one of the aims of the women council to benefit from the capacity of scientific Associations for empowerment of women in science and technology. A scientific association, as a formal, specialized, independent and reference institution, can be a platform for a more effective presence of women in decision making boards or top management positions.
The attendees discussed about the various possible developing strategies to increase the role of women in scientific associations in order to promote the status of the women in the field of science and technology. In this meeting, the head of the women’s committee of Mathematics Association talked about, how the women committee is founded in that association and its significant achievement. Later on, the liaisons of the scientific associations discussed their goals, programs and concerns briefly. The possibility of stablishing a women committee in associations and some guiding points have been raised.
Creating a database of women in STEM fields, using the capacities of scientific associations, the women council of the Academy, and the Ministry of Iran was approved. By creating this data base, in addition to providing a role model and motivating female students to continue their studies in STEM, a suitable platform will be provided to the strong network among activists in STEM.
At the end of this meeting, several suggestions were made. Identifying the challenges and opportunities, reviewing and analyzing the current status of the associations, reviewing the regulations between the scientific association and the office of the presidential women’s affair are proposed.
In addition, establishing the student branch within the associations, pursuing to founding women committee in the associations, by increasing the interaction and consensus among women and using the successful experiences of the women committees already established in few associations would be very important.
Finally hosting some webinars on women’s affair is strongly recommended.
