Scienziate in carriera? Il caso delle ricercatrici del CNR di Torino

Abstract

Katia Ferraris e Ivana Tagliafico, "Scienziate in carriera? Il caso delle ricercatrici del CNR di Torino", prefazione di Claudia Piccardo, “Quaderni di donne e ricerca” n. 3, CIRSDe, 2006

Nowadays, a very little attention is paid to gender studies in science and technology, in particular to vertical female segregation in public research institutions. For this reason, we’ve tried to analyze the phenomenon of glass ceiling within an Italian public research lab (CNR, the National Research Council of Italy) which  operates in Technological Science: why women don’t arrive to the top of scientific career? Why they stop before? In particular, we’ve tried to validate a model emergent from a personal elaboration of theories proposed in literature about this issue. Through narrative interviews, this study shows different factors behind glass ceiling, among which:
1) gender identity;
2) motherhood;
3) social construction of science;
4) gender’s organizational culture.
Moreover another important factor emerged: the “freeze of careers” that actually stops the possibility of actuating any kind of management actions against glass ceiling. Some concluding remarks end this work.