Women's Day event helps boost awareness
The International Women's Day event held at ESOC on 8 March helped boost awareness of the equal opportunity and diversity issues that affect both men and women working at large organizations such as ESA.
The seminar and information event at ESOC on International Women's Day (IWD), 8 March, was attended by a keen crowd of both genders, indicating a good level of interest among site staff in helping improve opportunities for everyone within ESA.
The guest speaker, Dr Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, a member of the executive board of the European Central Bank (ECB), spoke on managing diversity. Dr Tumpel-Gugerell referred to the rubric used by the ECB, the "Value Circle," helping illustrate the importance of attaining professional excellence in an environment of equal opportunity — a challenge faced by many large European organizations.
One of the key issues discussed at the event was the low representation of women in the engineering, science and managerial fields at ESA.
Mariella Spada, Head of the Science Mission Data Systems Section at ESOC, attended the event in her role as local chairperson of the ESA Women's Network, Urania. "It was very interesting to see that other European organizations are trying to be proactive like ESA is," she said. She agrees that ESA's corporate understanding of family issues has increased significantly in the past few years. "Before, no one was even thinking or talking about these matters."
Female YGT participants represent majority
Mrs Spada also points to the positive news that more then 50 percent of ESA's Young Graduate Trainees (YGT) have recently been female, indicating that ESA's efforts to attract the best talent from both genders is having positive results.
Of course, not all YGT participants go on to join ESA, but this augers well for the future. "Today, young people are much more cautious about where they choose to work," said Mrs Spada. "Female graduates will be more willing to join ESA if there is good female representation in the scientific, technical and, particularly, management areas."
ESOC Childcare Centre supports work/family balance
The day's event was also deemed a success in promoting the goal that all ESA staff, male and female, should aim to achieve a positive balance between work and family life.
"The ESOC day care facility is perhaps the most concrete recent example of ESA's efforts to support equal opportunity and diversity," said Roberta Mugellesi-Dow, a mathematical analyst in the Testing, Systems and Observatory Support Section at ESOC and chairperson of the staff working group that managed this year's IWD event at ESOC.
Events like this are important for increasing awareness of gender issues and boosting equality of opportunity and help ESA continue to attract talented scientists and engineers of both sexes keen to explore the universe.
