科学是一个受益于不同观点和经验的协作性领域。迄今为止，性别差异持续地存在：在东亚和太平洋地区，女性科学家和研究人员占总数的不到25％。女性在许多科学研究领域中所占的比例均不足，核领域也不例外。
科学是一个受益于不同观点和经验的协作性领域。迄今为止，性别差异持续地存在：在东亚和太平洋地区，女性科学家和研究人员占总数的不到25％。女性在许多科学研究领域中所占的比例均不足，核领域也不例外。
国际原子能机构通过进修金、培训课程及科学访问项目使男性与女性有更多机会在核科学领域获得教育、培训和就业上的发展。一年一度的国际妇女节是一次聚焦支持核领域的女性科学家在过去、现在和将来的职业发展的倡议的契机。
壁垒通常始于早期教育阶段，阻碍着女孩和年轻女性进入科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域。联合国教科文组织的研究显示，在全球范围内，参加STEM课程的所有接受高等教育的学生中只有35％是女性，而科学家中只有30％是女性。女性的选择还受到围绕STEM学科的社会和文化偏见的影响。一项在联合国妇女署的支持下由包括中国在内的11个国家展开的研究表明，流行电影中在STEM领域工作的角色只有不到12%是女性。
自1957年成立以来，国际原子能机构便致力于支持科学领域中的妇女和女孩，并鼓励她们升任领导职务。原子能机构通过其技术合作计划，为从核工程到放射化学的各个学科提供了约55 000个进修金名额。进修计划通过支持日后将返回各自国家的青年专业人员发展新的技能和本领来帮助增强各国核机构的能力。这些年来，将近23%的进修人员是女性，其中包括了来自泰国的Salag Dhababandana和来自墨西哥的Maria Elena Fucugauchi De Santiago，在1959年她们是第一批女性进修人员。
国际原子能机构正在致力于提高这一比例并实现均等。国际原子能机构技术合作司的处长Martin Krause表示：“我们能致力于提高女性研究员的数量。这需要提名进修人员参加我们计划的成员国的支持，只要齐心协力，我们将有所作为。”
历史上，粮食与农业中同位素和辐射的应用是女性参与国际原子能机构进修计划最主要的研究领域，在1959年至2017年间占所有研究领域的将近25%，其次是辐射医学和人体健康，然后是辐射安全及核安保。
国际原子能机构聘请的第一位女性专家是来自阿根廷的Sonia Nassif，她在1961年对一群年轻的科学家进行了放射性同位素技术应用的培训。自那以后，国际原子能机构招募女性专业人员担任讲师与专家来支持技术合作，其中包括因开发放射免疫分析技术而共同获得1977年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖的Rosalyn Sussman Yalow。
1974年，在国际原子能机构支持的研究中，肯尼亚内罗毕大学学院动物学系研究助理用光密度计分析蛋白质条带，以研究: 以研究昆虫肠道和唾液腺血液中的哪些因素控制了昏睡病寄生虫的生长。（照片：国际原子能机构档案/E0054-018）
国际原子能机构继续支持妇女在核领域的发展，并通过一系列活动激励年轻一代探索在科学和技术方面受教育和就业的机会。
国际原子能机构着重强调了机构中女科学家的故事以创造一个更加包容的工作环境，在这里男女都可以平等地发展和作出贡献。原子能机构致力于到2025年，在所有级别的专业及高级职类中实现性别均等—女性占50％，男性占50％。在2020年，机构采取措施使女性代表性在各个部门中更加平衡，也鼓励更多女性申请职位。这些努力使得包括许多STEM相关工作在内的专业及高级职类工作的58%被提供给女性并被女性接受。查看当前开放职位请点击此处。
为了支持在核科学与技术领域的下一代女性科学家，国际原子能机构在2020年开展了玛丽·斯克洛多夫斯卡-居里进修计划。首批来自世界各地的100名学生被授予进修金来帮助缩小在核科学与技术领域的性别差异。
1962年2月，在原子能机构的进修计划下，来自芬兰的Annelie Salo在奥地利塞伯斯多夫的国际原子能机构环境放射性分析实验室里在牛奶样品中分离钇90。
Since its establishment in 1957, the IAEA has worked to support women and girls in science and to encourage their rise to leadership positions. The IAEA, through its technical cooperation programme, has supported about 55 000 fellowships across myriad disciplines, from nuclear engineering to radiochemistry. Fellowships help to strengthen the capacities of national nuclear institutions by supporting the development of new skills and competencies of young professionals, who subsequently return to their respective countries. Over the years, nearly 23 per cent of all fellows have been women, including Salag Dhababandana from Thailand and Maria Elena Fucugauchi De Santiago from Mexico, who were the first female fellows, in 1959.
The IAEA is working to improve this ratio and reach parity. “We are committed to increasing the number of women fellows. We count on the support of Member States, who nominate fellows to participate in our programmes,” said Martin Krause, Director at the IAEA’s Department of Technical Cooperation. “Together we can make a difference.”
Historically, the application of isotopes and radiation in food and agriculture have been the most common field of study for women participating in IAEA fellowships, accounting for nearly 25 per cent from 1959 to 2017, followed by radiation medicine and human health, and then by radiation safety and nuclear security.
The first woman engaged as an expert by the IAEA was Sonia Nassif of Argentina, who trained a group of young scientists in the use of radioisotope techniques in 1961. Since then, the IAEA has recruited women professionals to act as lecturers and experts in support of technical cooperation, including Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, co-winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for development of the radioimmunoassay technique. As early as 1971, Yalow was engaged in Agency activities, assisting in a mission in medical application of radioisotopes.
During the IAEA-supported research, a research assistant at the Zoology Department, University College of Nairobi, Kenya, analyses protein bands with a densitometer to investigate what factors in the insect blood in the gut and salivary glands control the development of the sleeping sickness parasite in 1974. (Photo: IAEA Archives/E0054-018)
The IAEA continues to promote women in the nuclear field and to inspire younger generations to explore educational and professional opportunities in science and technology through a range of activities.
The IAEA is highlighting the stories of female scientists at the Agency in its drive for a more inclusive workforce, where both women and men can equally thrive and contribute. The IAEA is committed to achieving gender parity — 50 per cent women and 50 per cent men — at all levels of the professional and higher categories by 2025. In 2020, it adopted measures to create more balanced representation of women in all departments and to encourage more women to apply for vacancies. These efforts have resulted in about 58 per cent of all job offers in the professional and higher categories, including many STEM-related jobs, being offered to and accepted by women. To check the current vacancies, please click here.
To support the next generation of women scientists in nuclear science and technology, the IAEA launched the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme in 2020. The first 100 students from around the world have been awarded scholarships to help close the gender gap in nuclear science and technology.
Under the Agency's fellowship programme, Annelie Salo of Finland makes a separation of yttrium 90 in a milk sample in the IAEA laboratory for the analysis of environmental radioactivity at Seibersdorf, Austria, in February 1962. (Photo: IAEA Archives/E0001-021)