Jordan Shields

Trends

A map of cities in Italy. © Study in Italy, 2011

Now, science and technology are more important than ever in the world that we live in today. Everyone needs to help with the advancement, although not enough women are apart of it and it very well could have to deal with their lack of confidence in the fields. This isn’t just women in Italy, but everywhere. Although, it is easy to see why many Italian women don’t have the confidence in the science and technology field because they are constantly being degraded and having to prove themselves every step of the way, so why pursue a life of hardship when a woman can be comfortable with raising her children? The answer is because it is necessary for the Italian culture and everyone else to grow to our true potential. The first start is to make things more equal. As of April 2007, the yearly salary of Italian researchers who are female was $25,652 and the yearly salary of Italian researchers who are male was $38, 440. This may have been five years ago, but making over $10,000 more than woman is insulting. Although perhaps why Italian men make more money than women is because only 59% of Italian citizens think that more women should be in European research. The question is who many men are saying this and how many women? 38.5% of Italian young women believe that “a scientific career” is more difficult if you have children, while 40.8 of Italian young men think that. 17.7% of young Italian men think that women are less gifted to do scientific research, while only 14.5% of young Italian women think so. The fact that more men think that women are less capable of doing scientific research is why there aren’t very many doing scientific research. If no one thinks that they can do it, than why should they think that they could? This is also probably why Italian women strive so hard to get a job in science and technology, because men in particular think that they can’t do it. A shocking 68.4% of young Italian women think that men rule scientific research, while only 57.9% of Italian young men think that. Why do more women think men rule research? Is it because Italian women are taught to care for their house and children while the men do the work? Is it actually getting to them? The men don’t seem to think so. According to Observa: Science and Technology, “even though women in Europe represent 50% of the total number of graduates in scientific disciplines, women researchers only consist of 29% of the total number of European researchers and this percentage gets smaller as we climb the professional ladder (only 23% of professors are women). Besides this, women are practically absent in decision-making commissions and work councils.” The problem of equality can only be fixe with time. Italian women have to be more positive about themselves in order to keep up with their male colleagues and perhaps then they will be more respected by them. Secondly, both women and men have to realize that they can have a family while working at the same time. They also need to understand that they can work together instead of making it a competition of who’s on top because scientific research is for all of humanity not a specific gender.  (Edizioni, 2008).

A woman doing scientific research. © The Guardian