The gender dimension in academic and research careers: some proposals towards inclusiveness

In the international debate, multiple reflections have recently been raised on the need to reform the selection and evaluation systems of male and female researchers (Wilsdon, 2017). The objective of these reflections is the enhancement of the diversification of human capital in research, whose potential for innovation and excellence is fundamental to addressing the current global challenges. In this new perspective moves the ongoing reworking of the principles of the European Charter for researchers, or the inclusion of the topic “research careers” in the agenda of the 2021 presidency of the European Union. Also, as announced by Jean Paquet DG for Research and Innovation of the European Commission, those institutions that do not have a Gender Equality Plan with dedicated objectives for achieving gender equality in careers will not be able to participate in Horizon Europe. Gender inequalities in academic and scientific careers are the subject of a large international literature, highlighting the existence of two main phenomena: 1) horizontal segregation, consisting of the underrepresentation of women in some areas of knowledge, in particular in STEM and 2) vertical segregation, that is, under-representation in the top positions of the academic career (glass ceiling) and overpopulation and stagnation in the lower ones (through the sticky floors - “floors that glue” which cause the professional advancement of women proceed more slowly). A phenomenon more recently highlighted (Picardi 2019, Gaiaschi and Musumeci, 2020) and peculiar to the Italian academy concerns the adverse selection of women entering the first structured positions, with the introduction, by the Law 240/2010, of the figure of the RTD and its differentiation in a position with tenure track and one without: in many disciplinary sectors among the recruited RTD-B women are less numerous than men compared to what happens among the RTD-A (Glass door, Picardi, 2019). Starting from the identification of the main existing barriers, this document aims to propose lines of action that can affect vertical segregation, indicating actions aimed at addressing the mechanisms that penalize female careers in academia and research. In fact, as Elisabetta Addis recalled, “excellence is not a variable given in nature, which only needs to be measured, and who are excellent men and women depends on the relationships between the sexes in the scientific community and in society. It is possible to work to change the judges, and above all to adopt different selection criteria and different parameters” (Addis, 2008).