BeWiSe is dedicated to achieving equal and full participation of women in all scientific disciplines and at all levels, because diversity will promote scientific excellence and progress further.

News:
5 January 2010. It is our great pleasure to announce the first issue of the BeWiSe Newsletter! You can find it here, and we hope you will enjoy reading it. We call for your contributions! This newsletter is a teamwork effort for which your contributions are very welcome. If you wish to diffuse announcements, news or forthcoming events to the BeWiSe community, or if there is a portrait you would like to suggest please do not hesitate to send your suggestions to info[[at]]bewise.be with the Subject: Contribution to the Newsletter (replace [[at]] by @ in the e-mail header).

Best wishes for the New Year!

Membership:
To become a BeWiSe member, go to our Membership page.

BeWiSe's main objectives are :

To support the position of women in science, both in public and private sectors
To make it more feasible for women and men to combine a scientific career with family life
To improve communication among women in the Belgian and European, scientific community

BeWiSe will work towards achieving these objectives by :

Creating a network for support and exchange of information, experience and knowledge
Providing an electronic meeting place with easy access for everybody
Organising meetings, seminars and workshops
Setting up contacts with similar European and international associations
Publication of a newsletter (in the future)

BeWiSe encourages :

The right of all women and men to choose their own paths in life
Appropriate actions to achieve equal participation of women in science
Laws and regulations that encourage and sustain increased participation by women in science
Programs for change towards more democratic and participatory systems in science
Measures that facilitate the reconciliation of men's and women's professional and family life
Equal participation of women in decision-making bodies

BeWiSe is open to all women working or having worked at all levels in the sciences in the public and private sector (technology & industry and research & education) and those women and men who promote equal participation of women in science.

BeWiSe will take the following measures for fulfilling its three, main, objectives :

Support the position of women in science, both in public and private sectors
- Increase the visibility of women working in various scientific fields in Belgium
- Support actions aimed at increasing the number of women in science and technology
- Promote sciences and women in science in the public
- Provide role models and mentors of women in science
- Encourage and motivate more young women to enter and stay in science
- Support women with or desiring careers in science
- Promote equal participation of women in councils and decision-making bodies
Make it more feasible for women and men to combine a scientific career with family life
- Identify gender barriers in the career paths of women in science and by working towards removing such barriers
To improve communication among women in the Belgian and European, scientific community
- Co-operate with groups and organisations with similar goals in Europe and elsewhere
- Participate in a future European network of networks in concordance with the EC's policies for promoting women in science

Background :

Although women were admitted to some Belgian universities as early as 1888, recent studies have outlined that the situation of women in sciences in Belgium is still characterised by a dramatic under-representation of women, especially at the senior level and in decision-making bodies. At the full professor level, only 5.1% (Flanders) to 7% (Wallonia) are women, whereas females represent 50% or more of the students.

For comparison - 5% of full professors are female in the Netherlands, 13.8% in France ⁽¹⁾. The continuous dropout of highly qualified women at all stages of their careers ("scissors", ?leaky pipeline?) is an enormous waste of public and intellectual resources. Furthermore, scientific progress and excellence will strongly benefit from a more diverse input of both female and male scientists.

⁽¹⁾ Research Directorate-General EC, Science Policies in the European Union: Promoting Excellence Through Mainstreaming Gender Equality, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 2001), p. 10.