Blog by Evelyne Para, Soroptimist International Representative at UNESCO, Paris.
During UNESCO’s celebration of the “International Day of Women and Girls in Science” on 11 February 2026, I had the opportunity to participate in several roundtables.
In addition to my previous blog post entitled “Educating, Supporting and Inspiring Girls and Women in Science,” I would like to focus here on the discussions dedicated to work environments that attract and retain women scientists, to advance their careers and leadership.
Women Still Face a “Glass Ceiling”
Achieving gender equality in science requires addressing the problems that exist in the professional sphere. While some women voluntarily choose to leave their scientific careers, many do so because of an unsupportive, biased, or even hostile institutional culture. Often, the lack of family-friendly and work-life balance measures, as well as the scarcity of affordable childcare, makes it difficult for parents (primarily mothers) to remain in the system.
Furthermore, there is a worrying trend known as the “glass ceiling”, whereby the gender gap widens as women advance in their scientific careers. In academia, the representation of women decreases at each professional level, as they progress from doctoral student to early-career professor or lecturer, and then to full professor, research director, dean, or other leadership positions. Women are also underrepresented in senior positions within research governance structures, including academies of sciences and scientific councils.
It is therefore urgent to change the structure and culture of the scientific profession to attract, retain, and advance women scientists in their leadership roles.
Promoting the development of women’s managerial skills
In 2026, management is no longer simply about organising work or setting objectives. Managers are at the heart of current organisational challenges, such as the acceleration of Artificial Intelligence (AI), mental health, and increased employee expectations. The key skills of a scientific manager extend far beyond traditional technical expertise. Their qualities are as numerous as they are diverse: leadership, communication, emotional intelligence, agility, mastery of digital tools, and more…
Scientific managers, whether men or women, must be trained in these new managerial skills. Today, they must combine scientific expertise, interpersonal skills, operational management capabilities, and the ability to support change. Their managerial approach directly influences employee engagement, quality of the work environment, and overall performance. Unfortunately, once recruited, female scientists do not always have access to the management training that would foster their career development.
Here are some of the managerial skills presented at the roundtables for the “International Day of Women and Girls in Science”, held at UNESCO on 11 February 2026:
- Operational skills for driving performance: being able to identify and develop the skills of one’s team, knowing how to organise and manage remotely to ensure team cohesion, transparency of information, and employee empowerment;
- Interpersonal and human skills: embodying a leadership style based on trust, transparency, and leading by example; listening to teams to foster a positive work environment and healthy relationships between colleagues; helping to manage conflicts; recognising, understanding, and regulating one’s own emotions and those of others; integrating dimensions related to inclusion, diversity, and social responsibility to create a work environment where everyone feels respected, valued, and free to express their ideas;
- Necessary adaptability skills in a changing environment: knowing how to explain, reassure and provide visibility on upcoming transformations, demonstrating analysis, critical thinking and decisional agility.
Recommended actions
To translate these discussions into meaningful change, a number of concrete actions are needed to transform workplace culture, strengthen leadership pathways, and ensure women scientists can advance and thrive.
>>> Adopt institutional policies that promote mandatory training on gender stereotypes for managers, evaluation committees, and recruitment officers so they become aware of and eliminate implicit biases present in their current decision-making processes and underlying procedures such as hiring, promotions, and the allocation of funding for scientific research projects;
>>> Create professional development pathways open to women scientists, particularly those whose careers have been affected by maternity or other family reasons;
>>> Promote women scientists’ access to leadership positions by developing open-access training programs on soft skills, such as leadership and negotiation, to enhance their professional development.
>>> Promote collaboration among women scientists, particularly through formal mentoring, sponsorship, and networking programs, to enable them to share their experiences with other women and facilitate collective leadership learning.
In conclusion,
These recent meetings, organized at UNESCO on the occasion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on February 11, 2026, facilitated the creation of numerous contacts. They were very informative and motivating, and may lead to the development of new action programs by NGOs in official partnership with UNESCO.
