The final day of the 2019 Mentoring Program for Women Researchers took place on Friday 1st March 2019 at CERGE-EI. What started out as a plan to mentor CERGE-EI\u2019s own women PhD students spread to a more open program to include PhD candidates from other faculties and subjects due to its popularity, as Lucia Stefankova, CERGE-EI\u2019s Deputy Director for Development and PR, stated during the opening of the workshop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Number of special guests and alumni travelled to\nPrague from as far away as Norway, Finland, England, Italy and Germany to\npresent and take part in the panel discussions. They gave their time free of\ncharge in order to share their experiences and support others in their pursuit\nof gaining a PhD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The morning session was dedicated to career\nprogression and opening the proceedings was a short presentation by In\u00e9s Hardoy\nfrom the Institute for Social Research in Oslo, speaking about the impact of\nchildren on the gender gap in management. In a study conducted by Dr Hardoy and\nher colleagues based on Norwegian data, they found that parenthood increases\nthe management gap when the mother takes the primary caring responsibility for\na newborn, but when the father shares parental leave, this gap is greatly\nreduced initially, becoming insignificant by the end of a 9-year period.\nIndications of the study are that in more recent years this gap is narrowing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first panel discussion was comprised of an\nesteemed panel of academics from an interesting variety of fields: Zuzana\nBrixiov\u00e1 (Technical University of Ostrava), Alexandra Tsvetkova (CERGE-EI\nAlumna, OECD Trento Centre for Local Development), Helena Fulkov\u00e1 (Institute of\nExperimental Medicine, Czech Academy of Sciences), and Pavl\u00edna Lou\u017eensk\u00e1\n(Google Developers Launchpad). The whole event was moderated by Daniela Vrbov\u00e1\nfrom Czech Radio. A strong theme among the items of discussion was\nself-confidence. The participants agreed that Czechs and Eastern Europeans in\ngeneral are less self-confident and they had to push themselves out of their\ncomfort zone in order to become more successful. Foreign experience was also\nattributed to their current success, where they were exposed to unfamiliar\nchallenges that boosted their self-confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All four of the panel members were very open in\nsharing their successes and failures. What was clear from them was that they\nmade great sacrifices in terms of living away from family for extended periods,\nand giving up large amounts of free time in pursuit of career advancement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the coffee break the floor was opened to\nquestions from the audience. Topics such as how to stay motivated after you\u2019ve\nbeen working on a project already for a couple of years were dealt with.\nAlexandra Tsvetkova advised bringing in co-authors to provide a new impulse to\nthe work. She also added that sometimes just a change of location can help\nbring new energy. Zuzana Brixiov\u00e1 added that it\u2019s always a good idea to remind\nyourself why you are doing your PhD and what your ultimate goal is – if it\u2019s to\npush science further or to help some people through your work. A strong\npiece of advice came from Pavl\u00edna Lou\u017eensk\u00e1, telling the participants to share\ntheir stresses and problems with friends and family, as bottling these things\nup will not end well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The impact of social media was also discussed.\nThere\u2019s a lot of pressure these days to keep up with other people who are\nattending conferences, receiving grants and getting internships. This can cause\na feeling of inferiority. The successes are always shown online but the\nfailures rarely are, presenting a false view of reality. The advice in this\ncase was to reduce your exposure to social media so that you don\u2019t feel so\nstressed and under pressure by what others are doing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The afternoon session, focused on publications and\njob market preparation, welcomed a new panel of experts and plenary speaker.\nProf. \u0160t\u011bp\u00e1n Jurajda, opened the session continuing the discussion on gender\ngap. He presented a variety of trends from research in relation to gender\ndifferences, and also discussed the impact cultural differences have on the\ngender gap and how the issue of higher natural competitiveness in males results\nin them being more successful. Evidence also suggests that women are biased against\nin a selection process – even when more women are on the selection committee,\nbut a strong factor in boosting the success rate of women is the presence of\nfemale role models and therefore that is a good reason for the existence of\nthis program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The panel for the afternoon was composed of In\u00e9s\nHardoy (Institute for Social Research, Oslo), Anastasiya Shamshur (CERGE-EI\nAlumna, University of East Anglia), Jana Cahl\u00edkov\u00e1 (CERGE-EI Alumna, Max Planck\nInstitute for Tax Law and Public Finance, Munich), and Zuzana Fung\u00e1\u010dov\u00e1\n(CERGE-EI Alumna, Bank of Finland Institute for Economies in Transition). A lot\nof practical advice was given about the publication process and challenges that\nauthors face. Among the key points mentioned here were that the\nabstract and introduction should be polished to the highest level possible, as\nit is often from these sections that editors decide whether to reject the paper\nimmediately or forward it to reviewers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The importance of attending conferences and\nnetworking as a way of developing contacts was also stressed as a tool for\nbuilding a name. Zuzana Fung\u00e1\u010dov\u00e1 strongly recommended writing on topics that\nyou feel passionate about; firstly, you will enjoy doing the research more, and\nsecondly, this enthusiasm (or lack of) comes across in conference presentations\nfor the audience to recognize. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The whole panel agreed that researchers should aim\nto the highest ranked journal possible, while simultaneously realistically\nevaluating the level of their outputs and select corresponding journals for\nsubmission. A lively discussion ensued among the whole panel on the\nsubject of co-authors. Various tips were given on how to choose and cooperate\nwith them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anastasiya Shamshur gave a detailed presentation of\nhow the job market works. This was presented from the point of view of an\neconomist interested in working in academia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The audience showed genuine interest and actively\nparticipated throughout the whole day. We hope that this workshop proved useful\nto the people who attended and will serve as motivation for them in their\ncontinuing PhD studies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The final day of the 2019 Mentoring Program for Women Researchers took place on Friday 1st March 2019 at CERGE-EI. What started out as a plan to mentor CERGE-EI\u2019s own women PhD students spread to a more open program to include PhD candidates from other faculties and subjects due to its popularity, as Lucia Stefankova, … Continue reading Mentoring Program for Women Researchers<\/span>