FLTR: Elisabetta Paladino, Anna Di Ciaccio, Petra Rudolf, Pas Garcia Martinez and Sara Pirrone - image credit: S. Pirrone

Author: Sara Pirrone on behalf of the SIF-CPO

The 2024 edition of the National Congress of the Italian Physics Society (SIF), which brings together around 800 Italian physicists for a whole week, was held in Bologna from 9 to 13 September. The Congress, composed of plenary plus 7 parallel sessions dedicated to different fields of physics, represents the meeting point of the scientific community, where Italian researchers, teachers and students find their common background. During the Congress, Round Tables are also organized on specific topics, and particularly this year the SIF Equal Opportunities Committee (CPO) has planned the Round Table entitled: Actions towards Equal Opportunities in European Physical Societies, moderated by Anna Di Ciaccio, member of the SIF CPO.

The invited participants were Pas García Martínez, Chair of the "Women in Physics" group of the Royal Spanish Physical Society, Elisabetta Paladino, invited as representative of "Women for Quantum", Sara Pirrone, Chair of the CPO of the Italian Physical Society and Petra Rudolf, Chair of the Equal Opportunities Committee (EOC) of the European Physical Society (EPS).

Pas Garcia Martinez presented the activities of the Specialised Group “Women in Physics”, created in 2002 according to the guidelines of IUPAP (International Union of Pure and Applied Physics). She presented statistics and figures on the presence of women and men in physics in Spanish universities, as well as projects and initiatives to improve the balance. Among them: the organization of biennial conferences "Women in Physics", where only women can be speakers; the organization of webinars on different related topics; a calendar dedicated to women scientists; the application of the "Women in Physics" program, and of the Equity Plan actions against sexism and violence.

Elisabetta Paladino, presented the "Manifesto of Values" written and supported by the international group W4Q (Women for Quantum), composed of more than 200 women senior professors in the broad field of quantum physics. The W4Q Manifesto of Values aims to make the quantum scientific community aware that despite "social policies" (i.e. regional, national, and EU initiatives) in the field of gender equality, in many cases the change is only symbolic. The aim is to achieve real change, to question the way research (quantum) is currently conducted, and to open a dialogue for change.

Sara Pirrone presented figures and statistics on the gender balance in academia and research organizations in Italy and summarised the main actions carried out by the CPO-SIF from 2017 to date, dedicated to concrete support for gender equality. Among them: the organization of dedicated facilities for childcare offered during the Annual National Congress; the creation, since 2020, of the annual "Laura Bassi" award to promote the talent of women in physics; the realization of the SIF Gender Budget report, analysing data from the Annual Congress since 2010, showing the presence of women in different roles (chair, invited speaker, section president).

Petra Rudolf illustrated the actions of the EOC of EPS, as The Emmy Noether Distinction for Women in Physics; The Code of Conduct for EPS conferences; Round tables, seminars, and workshops on career and gender issues and how to face harassment. She presented also many ongoing actions, as well as: Cooperation with EPS Divisions & Groups, monitoring projects for Gender Fairness in Physics, increasing participation of women in committees, addressing the number of women nominations for EPS Prizes/Awards, and promoting young women and minorities. Besides, the Train-the-trainers workshop is in preparation for 2025.

After the talks, a debate was opened, and many interesting questions and comments came from the audience on different subjects. From the discussions, some points were highlighted, among these, for example, the need to continue to realize activities not only in the field of Equal Opportunity, but also to extend actions related to the inclusion of diversity, ethnicity, and, last but not least, the serious matter of harassment. Besides, the relevance of collaboration among different organizations was highlighted.

The Equal Opportunity Committee of the Italian Physical Society (SIF), whose members are Anna Di Ciaccio, Maria Rosaria Masullo, Sara Pirrone (Chair), Massimiliano Rinaldi, Paolo Rossi, Silvia Soria, carried out two activities on the occasion of the annual National Congress of the Society that, due to the pandemic, has been held this year via online streaming from 14 to 18 September.

The two activities were titled “The Women Scientist of the Sections” and “The modified time during the COVID19 period”.

In “The Women Scientist of the Sections” activity, related to the problem of the gender equality in physics, each traditional scientific section of the Congress (see also at https://www.primapagina.sif.it/issue/82) has been represented by a woman scientist, specifically selected in the field of physics of that section.

For this year we have chosen Lisa Meitner (Vienna 1878–Cambridge 1968) to represent the section “Nuclear and Subnuclear Physics”, Rita Brunetti (Milano 1890–Pavia 1942) for“Solid State Physics”, Vera Rubin (Philadelphia 1928–Princeton 2016) for “Astrophysics”, Giuseppina Aliverti (Somma Lombardo 1894–Napoli 1982) for “Geophysics and Physics of the Environment”, Daria Bocciarelli (Parma 1910–Roma 2006) for “Biophysics and Medical Physics”, Hedy Lamarr (Vienna 1914–Altomonte Springs Florida 2000) for “Applied Physics, Accelerators and Physics applied to Cultural Heritage” and Laura Bassi (Bologna 1711–Bologna 1778) for “Physics Education and History of Physics”.

This activity can be considered in the framework of the so-called “mentoring action”, that helps to create a “leading figure”, which is so important especially for young people when the future choices have to be made. We proposed some examples of women who have excelled in a field of physics, and that can be a model to emulate for the new generations. We selected in particular women scientist of the past that had great difficulties to come out on top, just for a gender question, that is for the sole reason that they were women. Beautiful revisited pictures and biographic cards were prepared, which you can see at  https://www.sif.it/attivita/cpo/scienziate-2020-cpo

In the activity “The modified time during the COVID19 period”, related to the study of gender difference in particular social situations, we have realized short interviews to male and female, junior and senior, staff and temporary researchers in physics. The subject concerned how the lockdown period during the pandemic modified the time and the way to live in connection with one’s own scientific activity. The aim was to highlight gender differences or inequalities, and if any, to search for the reasons, the motivations, the stereotypes and the social conditioning for this. You can see the videos of the interviews at https://www.sif.it/attivita/cpo/interviste-2020-cpo