Lily (Raabe) Stuck

This is a link to the "Gender Balance in the Nuclear Sector" 112 page report from Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) published in 2023. This report features the first publicly available international data on gender balance in the nuclear sector. Based on the findings, a comprehensive, evidence-driven policy framework is proposed with practical recommendations.

From the site: "Female scientists and engineers pioneered the nuclear and radiological fields, with leaders and innovators such as Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Lise Meitner, among many others, establishing the foundation of modern nuclear science and technology. Women continue to make vital contributions to the sector, but their visibility and overall numbers in the sector remain limited, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and leadership roles. The lack of diversity in the sector represents a loss of potential innovation and growth and a critical threat to the viability of the field. This report features the first publicly available international data on gender balance in the nuclear sector. The data was collected from over 8 000 women in the nuclear workforce in 32 countries, as well as human resources data from 96 nuclear organizations in 17 countries. Based on the findings, a comprehensive, evidence-driven policy framework is proposed with practical recommendations."   Key findings "The first comprehensive survey of gender balance in NEA countries substantiates women’s underrepresentation in the sector, especially in STEM and leadership roles. • Women comprise 24.9% of the nuclear workforce, based on data from 17 countries, and constitute only 20.6% of the STEM workforce and 18.3% of senior leadership roles. • Current recruitment, attrition and promotion rates are insufficient to significantly improve gender balance in the sector." Key findings also describe challenges to attracting women, challenges to women’s retention, and challenges to women’s advancement.   Key recommendations "Comprehensive, co-ordinated policy solutions are recommended to improve gender balance in the nuclear sector. The following actions are proposed: • Attract women into the sector through public communications campaigns, enhancing the educational pipeline, and balanced recruitment and hiring; • Retain and support women in the nuclear sector workforce by eliminating harassment, building inclusive work environments, addressing impacts related to familial responsibilities, assessing unequal impacts on women of policies and programmes, linking executive management performance to progress on supporting and advancing women, and by conducting regular national qualitative surveys on workplace experiences; • Advance and develop women as leaders and enhance their contributions to the sector by eliminating unequal impacts for women’s career recognition and advancement and by conducting regular national surveys on women’s participation in the nuclear sector workforce; and • Provide data and accountability through goal-setting, regular reporting and designating resources and senior-level individuals to implement the above actions."

The report is available at https://www.oecd-nea.org/jcms/pl_78831/gender-balance-in-the-nuclear-sector