WHIST Guidelines on Gender Diversity in S&T Organisations

Despite of over ten years of interventions geared at promoting equality among women and men in scientific research, in the European Union, as well as all around the world the gender gap remains wide. This entails an important waste of talents and a general risk for Member states and individual research organisations to lose competitiveness. Studies, measures and actions in this regard have been the object of intense debate which has gradually revealed the need for a new paradigm for policies to promote women in science. According to the European Commission, indeed, these policies should more and more aim at strengthening the research and innovation capacity of research institutions, through a structural change focused on the valorisation of all the different skills and competencies available. This is the strategic and political framework of the Supporting Action “Women’s careers hitting the target: gender management in scientific and technological research” (WHIST).