The "Women in Copernicus" project shed some light into the gender subject from the point of view
of
women active in Copernicus. Far from being representative of the whole ecosystem, the replies
received from 460 women who participated in the survey launched in 2020 provide a first insight
into
a subject that should deserve further consideration in the future. Results are available in a
report
"Global analysis of the survey",
in an executive summary "Results
of the survey, Executive
summary, November 2020" and in the result section below.
Click on the images to open the full-page documents.
Visual Analysis
The majority of us are in their thirties, 20% being younger (under 30 years old) and 40% older (over 40 years old).
We have a high educational level, mainly in the field of STEM.
These results show that most of us work in the operational and downstream services, work close to the users.
Nearly half of us work in the academic sector (43%), a quarter in private company (26%).
We are proud of our jobs in Copernicus with a global
level of satisfaction of 3,8/5.
Our levels of technical skills and expertise and are also high
(respectively 3,42 and 3,24/5).
However, our position in the hierarchy is quite low, with an
average level of 2,8/5.
Family support and Satisfaction in the job are the main existing facilitators. Trust and acknowledgement of our participation in Copernicus could help us and the programme.
A gender bias exists in the Copernicus ecosystem.
Many struggle to find a good balance between our private lives and professional careers.
Gender stereotypes are still well anchored in society and have been often internalised by
us.
It is important for us to invert the patriarchy paradigm by acquiring more self
confidence and by creating strong links among each other.
Stereotypes in society (68%), missing role-models (67%) and culture/marketing/television (66%) and lack of confidence (63%) are the main factors seen to influence the low number of women that make the choice of STEM in their education.