On Tuesday, March 8, we celebrated International Women's Day. It is my pleasure to write an article from the Ombud's corner on this occasion.
I have been working at CERN for 36 years now and, trust me, I’ve seen major progress in the working environment for women.
Let me give you an idea of what you might experience as a woman at CERN back in 1990. I had already been working at CERN for four years as a computing engineer and had just had my first child. I asked my hierarchy about the possibility of an additional month of leave for breast-feeding. The answer was a firm NO, which led to my doctor granting me a month of sick leave instead. When I later returned to work, I learned from colleagues that my hierarchy had described my request as “highly unprofessional”.
32 years later, the Staff Rules and Regulations (Article R II 4.23) state: “The duration of maternity leave shall not be less than 16 weeks and shall be extended (…) by four weeks for breast-feeding”. What was considered by some as a “highly unprofessional” request is now a right for women at CERN.
A further example of what it could be like for women at CERN in the 1990s: A division leader would see no problem in asking his secretary to walk his dog, when needed, during working hours. Under the CERN Code of Conduct, which has been in place since 2010, such a request would be deemed unprofessional and disrespectful today.
Since 1913, the United Nations have enshrined 8 March as International Women's Day. This day was set up to express solidarity with and support for women, to accelerate gender parity and to celebrate women's achievements. It is an opportunity for the CERN community to look back on the progress made owing to the fruitful concertation between Management and the Staff Association and to the supportive governance of our Member States. It is also an opportunity to ask ourselves what progress remains to be made.
The 25 by ’25 journey , was launched in March 2021 by the Diversity & Inclusion Programme. This is a strategy that is endorsed and led by CERN’s management and has been specifically incorporated in its strategic objectives for 2021-2025. It is a much welcomed and significant endeavour aimed at increasing the population of women at CERN, and it is hoped that it will also contribute to achieving a more inclusive working environment.
The Ombud is visited by proportionally twice more women than men. Many factors come into play in this statistic, which cannot be interpreted without taking them all into account. However, whatever our gender, we could all do well to ask ourselves whether our attitude towards other genders is respectful and unbiased, and whether we’re doing everything we can to make all members of the CERN community feel safe and treated equally, in all areas of the Organization’s activities.
The CERN population, past and present, can be very proud of the Laboratory’s progress toward gender equality. Still, I should also like to recall the words of Simone de Beauvoir**, the well-known French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist and feminist activist:
"Never forget that it takes only a political, economic or religious crisis for women's rights to be called into question. These rights can never be taken for granted. You will need to remain vigilant throughout your lives."
With such a melting pot of genders, cultures, professions and brains, CERN is a unique environment for the promotion of diversity, including gender diversity. Diversity is everyone’s responsibility, and a stated core value of CERN. So let’s all contribute to making continued progress in this area.
You may find it interesting to read again the still very relevant posts of my predecessors on gender diversity and the challenges that women face in the working environment:
- Ombuds' Corner: a land of equal opportunity? (October 2016)
- Do we not owe it to our daughters? (February 2017)
- Accelerating gender equality (April 2017)
- “Women negotiate poorly, lack self-confidence and are risk-averse.” Really? (May2018)
- Sexism: let’s face the facts (March2021)
Laure Esteveny
I want to hear from you – feel free to send an email to ombud@cern.ch with any feedback or suggestions for topics you’d like me to address.
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#diversity
*) Simone de Beauvoir, Le Deuxième sexe, 1949