ONE HUNDRED WOMEN TO AVOID MEN-ONLY CONFERENCES
How many times have we heard it said at a conference that "there are only men"? Perhaps there is a solution. Antonella Viola, Ersilia Vaudo, Adriana Albini, Veronica De Romanis, Elsa Fornero, Paola Profeta: these are just some of the authoritative and competent women we see on TV these days and read about in newspapers or online as commentators. They are scientists, economists, and international policy experts who represent the tip of an emerging iceberg of many talented women. Women who have studied, who are passionate about their work, who have celebrated successes, who have not given up after failure, who teach, conduct research, and invest in the new generations, who have dedicated themselves to the community. These excellent women are all part of the "100esperte" community, a project conceived in 2016 by several journalists from the national Giulia association, the Pavia Observatory, supported by the European Commission, and developed thanks to the Bracco Foundation.
The initial project is simple: a database of excellent names (100esperte.it), freely accessible to everyone, intended for journalists, as well as organizers of panels, festivals, and conferences. It collects profiles and contact information for hundreds of Italian professionals. The idea is to give voice to women's perspectives on the world.
The results of the Global Monitoring Project 2020, the largest and longest-running research project on women's visibility in the media, will be available soon. They will be compared with the latest data from 2015: in Italy, women's visibility in the media was then 21 percent, and among experts, women accounted for only 18 percent. But qualified women are out there: just browse the 317 names, selected with the support of institutions such as the University of Milan, Bocconi, and ISPI, to find every type of expertise, from STEM subjects to economists to international politics. And soon, two more categories of talented Italian women will be added: historians and philosophers.