Gender-based violence is widespread in every place, every culture, every geographical area, and every social class. The scientific and academic fields are not exempt from this phenomenon, and indeed, violence, marginalisation, discrimination and other forms of abuses against women are as frequent as elsewhere. A particular aspect of this violence is sexual harassment, which includes attitudes put in place in individual terms, suffered specifically by individuals, and operated by individuals or groups. These may be physical, moral, or social, although in the vast majority of cases these are attitudes, words, or actions done predominantly by single men on single women (single in the sense, unfortunately, of one at a time), and who are individually endured.
It is necessary to take steps forward that lead to quantification, awareness, and to the activation of a mechanism, especially social, which will finally bring a solution. It is a long journey, but in this historical moment, it is not only possible, but a duty, and almost ‘easy’ to start, following the example of many other women in several fields.
What do we know about harassment in other European countries? Most of the episodes reported in scientific journals refer to the USA. Do we want to believe that the situation is better in Europe? Or maybe in the old continent it is still preferable to keep the problem under wraps?
‘Prevention is better than cure’, this is why we need to know the terms of question we are facing, to put in place the right tools for prevention. Having a clear picture is also necessary to be able to say tomorrow that prevention has worked. But until prevention is sufficiently effective, we need to find ways to address the problem.
Date: 20 & 21 September 2018
Venue: Pisa, Italy
Program: http://www.donnescienza.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Program10.pdf (provisional)
Web-site: http://www.donnescienza.it/2018-wetooinscience/
Registration: Please download the registration form (in English or in Italian) and send it to donnescienza@gmail.com
Call for papers: The deadline for abstract submission is 15th July 2018. Abstracts (max. 500 words) must be uploaded via EasyChair:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=wetooinscience18
