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The Third International Conference on Women in Physics
At the 1999 IUPAP General Assembly,
the concern was raised that women are greatly under-represented in the
field of physics in most countries.
Recognizing that all fields of science progress most rapidly when they
draw from the complete available pool of talented people, the participants
of the General Assembly passed a resolution to form an
IUPAP Working Group on Women in Physics.
The Working Group planned a three day
International Conference on Women in
Physics that was held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, from March 7 to 9,
2002. The results of this conference were presented at the IUPAP General Assembly
in October 2002. The IUPAP International Conference on Women in Physics brought
together more than 300 participants, about 15 percent of them men, from 65 countries
to review data, discuss barriers, share success stories, propose ways to improve
participation globally, develop resolutions for action by the IUPAP General Assembly,
and help international teams develop appropriate strategies to improve the status
of women in physics in their home countries.
Since 2005 is the International Year of Physics, the IUPAP working group together
with Prof. Elisa Saitovitch, former president of the Brazilian Physical Society,
decided to organize with the support of the IUPAP Working Group on Women in Physics
a
Second International Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The main purpose of this conference
was to analyze the international progress made in the 3 years since the first Conference
and to learn about most successful strategies in bringing and keeping women in physics.
Addition of a scientific session for sharing research among the Conference participants
further stimulated interaction among the attendees, which opened new opportunities for
development of international collaborations.
The Third International Conference took place in Seoul, Korea,
in October 2008 with the intention of picking up where the previous Conference left off.
Purpose of the Conference
The overarching purpose of the Third
International Conference on Women in Physics
(ICWIP2008) was three-fold: (i) to provide an international opportunity for analysis
of the current status of and progress in promoting women in physics internationally;
(ii) to provide an arena for international women in physics to share their scientific
accomplishments and create international scientific collaborations; and (iii) to build
capacity in each participating country to design and implement changes that improve
the numbers of and advancement of women in physics. By bringing together teams of
physicists (mostly women) from across the globe, the Conference achieved many of its
initial goals:
- reviewing the international status of women in physics country by country;
- sharing success stories and identify persistent barriers impeding women in physics;
- proposing ways to improve women’s participation in physics worldwide;
- helping international teams refine and accelerate appropriate strategies to improve the status of
women in physics in their home countries, regionally, and internationally;
- sharing physics research progress and results; and
- seeding collaborations in physics research, education, and outreach involving
participants from multiple countries in related subdisciplines.
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