March 8th celebrates our commitment and the challenge that women put on daily basis.
Dr. Antonella Bongiovanni is principal investigator, leading the “Cellular Dynamics Lab” at the Institute of Biomedical Research and Innovation of the National Research Council of Italy in Palermo and coordinator of this project gave us some important points on this marked day.
Antonella explained that for a woman it is quite easy to access the science environment because there is not too much competition with men for a PhD or PostDoc position; probably because the salary is not high compared with other careers.
Women can make the difference in the scientific community, however, reaching the top-level position is different, not many research institute or project directors are female. In VES4US, we are proud to have Katharina Landfester, excellent director of the prestigious Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and for the gender (un)balanced consortium, with excellent young and senior scientists: VES4US has 4 female PhD (over 4), 7 female PostDoc (over 9) and 4 female WP leader (over 7).
“I think that as women it is not obvious that we can reach excellence, we’re pushed to demonstrate our value. I think that an effective and genuine female leadership should not be bossy, but it should be based on empathy, networking, inclusion and sharing; all capabilities that women naturally have. I am a woman scientist from deep-south Europe and a coordinator of an interdisciplinary and ambitious project, involving several partners across Europe. As such, I am pushed twice in working hard to reach the scientific goals and committed to include and stimulate the full expression of whoever is under-represented in science, including women”, expressed Bongiovanni.
From VES4US we want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all the female researchers for their contributions to scientific research!