Brief report of the coordinator of the Czech Republic for the period 2022-2024

According to UNESCO’s current data, women and girls are still significantly less represented in the scientific environment than men: on average, only 30% of scientists worldwide are women. Numerous studies have shown that women in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) publish fewer papers, receive less money for their research, and do not make more progress in their careers than men.

The National Contact Center – Gender and Science established in 2001 as a team and as an independent research department in 2015, the Centre for Gender & Science (originally “for women and science”) is the only specialized research department in the country focusing specifically on gender sociology of science, feminist science and technology studies, and gender equality in research.

According to the National Contact Center – Gender and Science, in 2017, only about 30% of people working in research and development in the Czech Republic were women, and their representation was decreasing. The lowest representation of women is in technical (13.2%) and natural (25.1%) sciences. The proportion of women in leadership and management positions in research institutions was also low. In its Analysis of the state of research, development and innovation in the Czech Republic and its comparison with other countries, the Government Office stated that in 2019 the gender imbalance persisted in all research sectors and that the Czech Republic, together with the representation of women in science, was at the bottom part of the comparison with other EU countries.

Since there is no separate association of women in mathematics in the Czech Republic, the cooperation of women is generally based on the interaction between colleagues of individual institutions, such as the Institute of Mathematics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Charles University, and others.

The community of female mathematicians together with the Czech Mathematical Society organized several seminars and workshops, for instance:

• On April 24, 2024, the Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic held a memorial seminar in honor of Professor Ivo Babuska https://www.math.cas.cz/index.php/news/item/253
• On February 11, 2024, was celebrated as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science
• On March 14, 2023, an Online Conference was held for the International Day of Mathematics

  Among other activities, there are also

• participation in the European Women in Mathematics General Meeting 2022 in

  Finland, Aalto University;

• participation in the Conference “On the Trail of Women in Mathematics”, September

  2022, Gdansk, Republic of Poland, Gdansk University of Technology;

• updating/translating/creating Wikipedia pages;

• translation into Czech of a poster of outstanding female mathematicians;
• spreading information about the activities of women in mathematics through social

  networks (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.);

• Mathematical Olympiad https://www.matematickaolympiada.cz/
• Stochastics in Fluids Conference https://prague-sum.com/

  During the implementation of The Gender Equality Plan in the period between 2022 and 2026, we will focus on:

• work-life balance and organizational culture,
• gender balance in leadership and decision-making,
• gender equality in recruitment and promotion,
• the integration of the gender dimension into research and teaching, and
• measures to combat gender-based violence, including sexual harassment.