W-STEM AICCSA 2020

This page is a working page with elements discussed in the W-STEM special session at the conference AICCSA 2020.

The Women in Computer Science & STEM session highlights concrete opportunities female have to carry on successful careers in Computer Science and STEM in general. The aim is to bring together junior and senior women computer scientists/STEM encourages collaboration through formal and informal discussion and provides a perfect opportunity for young researchers to discuss their research and get valuable feedback in an open and friendly environment. Besides, this event promotes networking opportunities and a support network comprising role models, mentors, and peers. The event is devoted to all scientists – male & female – it includes talks by distinguished women speakers from industry and academia who will share their experiences with the participants. Together with young computer science engineers working in the industry, senior speakers will share a panel where they will exchange their experiences and vision of their professional careers, and how the “new normal” in the pandemic era has had an impact on their activities.

Panel Teasing Questions

1. Has pandemic changed the way you organise your professional strategies and the type of perspectives you envision for your career evolution? Do you have a positive perspective about the evolution of your career and the effort you should put to make your projects happen in the “new normality”? Share a personal experience or an example from other colleagues.
2. Which actions can be taken by the professional female community to transform pandemic times into a source of opportunities?
   • Are we inevitably condemned as a minority in STEM to set back to years female careers because of crisis?
   • If not, how can you in your professional environment, open opportunities or promote opportunities for your female co-workers?
3. Which characteristics reputed as “feminine” like multi-tasking capacities or engagement can be a valuable tool to display yourself as a “more valuable” player in this time of “new normality”?
4. Solidarity and sisterhood seem to be more than ever necessary to prevent people from struggling in adverse working conditions to be productive. We need at least a computer per inhabitant in a house to work, to be educated and even for leisure time; we need comfortable working spaces, connectivity, etc.
   • Do women play a role in the way home and the notion of personal vs professional life should be re-designed for facing “new normality”? Discuss and give an example of the female roles in “new normality” evolution.
   • How can the female community activate male community into solidarity for seeking for better home office weeks, homeschooling activities? Give an example related to your professional context.
   • Is this the role of women? Do men care about these issues in a supportive way? How can men and women work together to mitigate gender impact on the productive arena? Give an example of an action run in your context that seeks this objective work as a society to achieve gender balance in professional life?.

Give a message about an action that should be taken to empower STEM mighty women.

Interesting documents

1. Are women publishing less during the pandemic? Here’s what the data say, Giuliana Viglione
2. COVID-19 will set female leaders in STEM back for years, Meeta Shah and Dayle Davenport
3. The pandemic and the female academic, Alessandra Minello
4. Data Feminism,  Catherine D’Ignazio and  Lauren F. Klein

Panellists (AICCSA 2020)