About the CBM

Equality committee

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Committee Chair

Alejandra Gámez Abascal

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Committee Vice-chair

Jose Mª Carrascosa Baeza

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Contact information

igualdad(at)cbm.csic.es

The CBM Equality Committee was set up in 2021 and follows the Equality policies of the State General Administration,  the CSIC, and the CSIC Equality Plan. Its creation was approved and has the support of the CBM director.

In accordance with the guidelines for the constitution of Equality Committees in the ICUs of the CSIC, this committee should contain the same number of women and men and include members of any of the professional categories of the Centre, to ensure proper attention to the different situations of inequality that may arise.

The Equality Committee is not executive in its nature, but rather, will act by transmitting any concerns related to this matter to the Board of Directors of the CBM. Its performance must be in accordance with the Equality Plans of the CSIC and the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.

Our aim is to ensure and foster the practice of the equal opportunities policy in all its activities, without distinction of gender, race, ideology, age, affective-sexual orientation or religion.

We will maintain close contact with the CSIC Equality and Women and Science Committees and with the UAM Gender Equality Unit. We are members of the CSIC-UAM Excellence Campus Network of Institutes’ Equality Committee (CBM, CIAL, CNB, ICMAT, ICMM, ICP, ICV, IFT, IIB and IMN), and we work in collaboration on topics of gender equality and promotion of female researchers.

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Committee members

Members:
* Alejandra Gámez Abascal (Directora, agamez@cbm.csic.es)
* José Mª Carrascosa Baeza (Vicedirector, jmcarrascosa@cbm.csic.es)
* Beatriz López-Corcuera (Vocal, blopez@cbm.csic.es)
* Esther Serrano Saiz (Vocal, eserrano@cbm.csic.es)
* Álvaro Sahún (Vocal, alvaro.sahun@cbm.csic.es)
* Elisa Carrasco Cerro (Vocal, elisa.carrasco@cbm.csic.es)
* María José Martín Pereira (Vocal, comunicacion@cbm.uam.es)

Collaborators:
* Kostas Stamatakis (k.s@csic.es)
* Carmen Arroyo Martín (carroyo@cbm.csic.es)
* Elena Campos Sánchez (Gondwatec@gmail.com)
* Leyre Campos Talaverón (lcampos@cbm.csic.es)
* Violeta Gallego Rodríguez (violeta.gallego@estudiante.uam.es)
* Adrián Martínez Bonilla (amartinez@cbm.csic.es)
* Jaime Millán Martínez (jmillan@cbm.csic.es)
* Andres Soto (andres.soto@cbm.csic.es)
* Ernest Palomer (epalomer@cbm.csic.es)
* Ángela Vázquez Calvo (avazquez@cbm.csic.es)
* Cecilia Lara Segura (lara@vivotecnia-ms.com)
* Sara Cogliati (scogliati@cbm.csic.es)

Half of the members of the committee will be renewed every two years.

Aims and goals
  • To disseminate and promote the knowledge of the equality policies of the CSIC and the UAM, and more specifically, the equality plans of AGE, CSIC and UAM.
  • To publicize institutional activities and decisions on equality policies.
  • To serve as a channel for any proposals or suggestions that CBM staff may issue in this area.
  • To attend, in strict confidentiality, to any member of the CBM victim of harassment, discrimination or any other type of inappropriate behaviour.
  • To promote policies to reconcile work, personal and family life for all CBM employees.
  • To diagnose the situation in the CBM regarding equality, based on the data available in the center and promote specific measures that tackle any improvement area detected.
  • To promote the training for all CBM employees on gender equality and diversity issues, as well as specific training focused on treating sexual and gender-based harassment, preferably within the framework of the CSIC Training Plan.
  • To promote equality in the functional and organisational structures of the CBM in agreement with the direction of the CBM.
  • To encourage sex/gender inclusion in research and innovation and promote training in these matters, fostering the integration of sex/gender analysis in research projects.
  • To promote, through specific actions, the visibility of the role of women in the CBM, in all working areas, and the dissemination of the role of women in Science in general as a reference for current and future generations.
News and activities

Ciclo de seminarios de Igualdad

 

 

 

Red de Igualdad Intercentros del campus UAM-CSIC

 

The CBM collaborates with the other 9 CSIC research centres of the UAM campus on activities related to EDI. In particular, the network created an Escape Road activity where participants can learn about female scientists awarded with the Nobel prize or Abel and Fields medals. The activity is available to the public during the European Researchers’ Night and is also available on loan to schools, prisons and other institutions.

11F, Día Internacional de la Mujer y la Niña en la Ciencia

 

 

 

  • Debate “Observatorio. Mujer y Niña en la Ciencia” (El Mundo y Yo Dona, 2 de febrero de 2022, con motivo  del 11F).  Elena Campos Sanchez intervino como investigadora joven  y presidenta de la Asociación para Proteger al Enfermo de Terapias Pseudocientíficas (APETP).

 

 

 

 

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Día internacional de la mujer y la niña en la ciencia. Febrero 2024

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Día internacional de la mujer y la niña en la ciencia. Febrero 2023

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Día internacional de la mujer y la niña en la ciencia. Febrero 2020

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Día internacional de la mujer y la niña en la ciencia. Febrero 2019

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Día internacional de la mujer y la niña en la ciencia. Febrero 2018

8M, Día Internacional de la Mujer

 

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Día internacional de la mujer, marzo 2024

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Día internacional de la mujer, marzo 2023

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Día internacional de la mujer, marzo 2022

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Día internacional de la mujer, marzo 2021

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Día internacional de la mujer, marzo 2020

 

25N, Día Internacional de la Eliminación de la Violencia contra la Mujer

 

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2024

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2023

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2022

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2021

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2020

 

LGTBI+ Pride Month

Our celebrations of pride month included a stand with movie, TV show and book suggestions, plus an interactive activity where our staff could indicate their sexual orientation.

We also had a series of posters on display, with information and bios of scientists of different sexual orientations, lent by our friends at the ICMM, which you can see here.

21 May, World Day for Cultural Diversity

To celebrate the multiculturalism of our centre, we organised an activity in which our staff were able to mark their country of origin on a map with a pin.

Awards

 

El Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas hace entrega de los Distintivos de Igualdad CSIC a los centros destacados por su implicación en el diseño e implantación de políticas de igualdad de género. La acreditación correspondiente a 2021 ha sido otorgada al Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa por su labor de promoción, difusión y divulgación de la Igualdad en la ciencia

Equality in numbers

Gender perspective in research

Including a gender perspective in research is a human rights challenge, aimed at achieving the desired equality between women and men. It requires that several actions be carried out aimed at increasing the participation of women in research, and towards their professional stabilization, as well as the incorporation of gender dimension in research. Many years of research have revealed that sexual and gender biases are harmful and costly to society.

Therefore, gender innovations:

  •  add value to research and engineering, ensuring excellence and quality in results and improving sustainability.
  • add value to society, by making research more responsive to social needs.
  • add value to businesses, through the development of new ideas, patents and technology.

Embracing the gender dimension in research implies that gender is considered a key analytical and explanatory variable. Therefore, we must apply a systematic and visible strategy to promote gender equality in science and research. This strategy includes four aspects: 1) increasing the participation of women in science and research, 2) research must address the needs of women as well as those of men, 3) there must be gender-specific research aimed at improving the understanding of gender issues and 4) in basic research, adequate samples of both cells and tissues of male and female animals should be used to avoid bias in the results. Moreover, investing in a gender-sensitive approach to research content contributes to higher quality and validity.

Finally, gender must be taken into account at all stages of the research cycle:

  • Ideas phase, generating gender-sensitive ideas for gender-sensitive research proposals and hypotheses
  • Proposal phase, ask gender-sensitive questions, choose a gender-sensitive methodology
  • Research phase, collect gender-sensitive data, analyze data in a gender-sensitive way
  • Dissemination phase, report data in a gender-sensitive way, use gender-neutral language.

Documents

Diversity

There is no use in denying the fact that human populations consist of very diverse people and, in a fair society, such diversity would permeate through each and every layer of our social and work life. But that is just not the case.

Turning our eyes specifically to the STEM field (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), data are not very encouraging. Lack of diversity can be easily spotted on the clear gap between men and women, especially noticeable on high-power positions; but also on the fact that the great majority of the workforce is composed of white men (even in regions where they are a minority within the rest of the population), on the poor percentage of people with any kind of disability or the high proportion of LGTBIQ+ people that need to conceal their identity at work or that report any type of discrimination or harassment.

This sense of diversity is also related to the quality of scientific research: when scientists take into account the diversity of their groups, Science is not only more inclusive and fairer, but also improves Science itself. Accumulated evidence points out that more diverse groups are more innovative and creative, more diligent and better at anticipating alternative viewpoints and solving complex problems. Furthermore, diversity is shown to enhance and promote innovation, which is particularly interesting for the STEM field.

However, we must not forget that the need to detect the lack of diversity and the potential harm this may exert on people is justified first and foremost as a matter of respect towards Human Rights: inclusion of every person regardless of their specific reality (including sex, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious preference…) must be guaranteed – not only for those on privileged positions but for every single person, also at work.

The scientific community is finally addressing this problem, supported by growing social efforts towards visibility and the work of associations in Spain and outside our frontiers. The Equality Committee at the CBM want to share our commitment with the acknowledgement and promotion of diversity in every form and fashion and join the global effort towards inclusion and effective equal opportunities for everyone.

Take a look at the supplementary material to gain a more in-depth insight into the topic and get access to resources addressing diversity and inclusion.

If you have experienced any problem related to the acknowledgement, acceptance or expression of your identity in any way or you know someone struggling with these issues, you can contact us at igualdad@cbm.csic.es

Prevention of harassment

The term “harassment” covers any offensive, humiliating, intimidating, violent or discriminatory conduct on grounds of racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, opinion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age or any other personal or social condition or circumstance.

Mobbing is a situation of violence that occurs in the workplace, in which one or more individuals exercise physical, verbal or psychological violence against a specific person in a repeated and prolonged manner. Its purpose or effect is to create a hostile or humiliating environment that disrupts the victim’s working life.

Sexual harassment is defined as a sub-type of violence (verbal or physical) of a sexual nature, perpetrated by one person against another who does not want or has not expressed a desire for such sexual implications. Sexual harassment is condemned by the international community and is illegal in more than 125 countries.

Harassment on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity (hereafter included in the term harassment on the basis of sex) involves any behaviour on these grounds that may be considered offensive, humiliating, violent, or intimidating, with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of the victim and of creating an intimidating, degrading or offensive working environment.

Situations of harassment at work, sexual and gender-based harassment cause fear and discouragement and can seriously affect the mental health of those who suffer it, increasing absenteeism and even leading to job abandonment. Harassment is a violation of the human rights to sexual freedom, dignity and safety at work.

Both the CSIC and the UAM have protocols against sexual and gender-based harassment and harassment at work. Their general objective is to prevent possible situations of harassment in any form and to deal with them effectively, should they occur. The procedure for action is indicated in the protocols. In case it helps, and always bearing in mind that the task of the committee is merely consultative, serving as a channel of communication, if any of you consider yourselves to be a victim of harassment, you can contact one of the members of the equality committee directly, where you will be fully attended.

Documents:

Equality plans

Planes Igualdad AGE

Planes Igualdad CSIC

Plan Igualdad UAM

Useful resources

Lenguaje Inclusivo

Gender equality

 

LGBTIQ+ Equality

ICMM-CSIC Good Practices Manuals