It is in the heart of the leafy Sart Tilman campus in LiAndwhere is the office of astrophysicist Yaël Nazé housed. porcineAndback to the door, star posters, computers, a beautiful libraryAndthan. For this specialist, the observation of the stars has always been obvious or almost. “Around 10 years old I told myself that I was going to do astro! My parents are not academics, but they supported me in my projects.”
In 1994, she began her studies iningpower. “The proportion of girls was low. On the other hand, for the firstAndOnce again, in my class, there was an elAndve enrolled in computer science. For my part, I was in electricity and we were 10% girls.” At the end of this course, she left her native Borinage and landed in the Ardent City to complete her internship and her thesis at the Li Space CenterAndge. It is in the town on the banks of the Meuse qushe continued her journey with her doctorate and her admission to the FNRS.
►►► Find by clicking here all the articles of the Grenades, the RTBF media that unpins the news from a feminist point of view
Namely: the University de LiAndge is the only one in the French-speaking Belgian landscape to offer a Master’s degree in space sciences for about ten years. This course is accessible to people with BACs in Physical Sciences and Engineering Sciences; courses that only have an average of 20% girls. However, astronomy turns out to be a fairly feminine domain. “Half of the students are school children.students. MSame thing at the doctoral level. However, when you go to post doc, you drop to a third of women. Then, in permanent positions, depending on statistics of the‘International Astronomical Union, in Belgium we are only at 20%.”
Quwhat explains this starcart ? The answers are not to be decoded in the stars, but in the gender stereotypes that continue to influence our social behavior. “The post doc is a period whereù we must beAnds productive·fri. We often have to go abroad. This is also the time, around 30 years où people are starting to settle… Many researchers leave the country and are followed by their companions, but the opposite remains rare…” Same logic at the birth of children, without real support from the co-parent and / or the entourage and / or good childcare facilities, difficult to stay the course. The obstacles are multifactorial. The glass ceiling remains a reality.
Who discovered the law allowing us to survey the Universe, who found lighthouses in space, who understood the functioning of stellar forges or who upset our vision of the Universe? Again and again women
–
