The Talent Drain - Where and Why do Women Flee from Physics
The Sixth Scientific Meeting of the Croatian Physical Society which was held in Primošten on 8 – 11 October 2009, gathered more than 250 scientists from the country and abroad, involved in physics research and applied physics. The four day meeting included interesting lectures and insightful poster presentations on key topics, as well as three round table discussions on: The Talent Drain - Where and Why do Women Flee from Physics, Financing of Science in Croatia and the EU projects in Croatia.
The round table discussion on The Talent Drain - Where and Why do Women Flee from Physics has attracted great interest of all participants and the media. Various perspectives were reported at this round table, which enabled participants to identify and discuss more fully the issues and problems associated with the greater number of women leaving their scientific career due to motherhood and family responsibilities. RBI Director General Danica Ramljak, D.V.M, PhD, has warned that it is essential to raise greater awareness of the gender issues in the scientific system and provide stronger support to women scientist as they move through their careers if we want to stop this unpopular talent drain. This is why the RBI Director has recently launched an initiative to open a nursery school near RBI and other scientific and academic institutions in the area.