Participation of women in the science and technology industry In a written question from the Parliament concerning the participation of women on science and technology industry, the Commissioner responsible for scientific research, Mrs Cresson, said that a greater number of women responsible, at European level, for research and technolog... In a written question from the Parliament concerning the participation of women on science and technology industry, the Commissioner responsible for scientific research, Mrs Cresson, said that a greater number of women responsible, at European level, for research and technology was one of the recommendations laid down at the end of the "Women in science" workshop organized by the Commission on 15-16 January 1993 in Brussels. The Commission is doing every thing it can to give expression to this recommendation. The European Science and Technology Assembly now includes four women, one of whom is a Vice-Chairwoman. The Commission would have liked to have seen more women in the Assembly. However, there was only limited room for manoeuvre. Twenty-seven of the Assembly's hundred members are members of the former Codest (Committee for the European Development of Science and Technology), which included only one women. Sixty other members were appointed by the Commission on the basis of proposals from the major European research organizations (European Science Foundation, Academia europa, Eirma, Irdac, etc) in which women are relatively underrepresented, and the list put forward by these organizations often failed to include a single women. Bound as it was by the terms of the Decision setting up the Assembly to assure the desired balance in geographical terms and in the various disciplines, the Commission endeavoured to choose as many women as possible from the lists. It will pursue the same line when the membership of the Assembly is renewed in 1997.
