A Photograph of the Gender Distribution in the Research Personnel at ITC-irst in 2004. What changes have occurred since 1990?

This report illustrates some statistics related to research personnel and gender at ITC-irst, the Center for Scientific and Technological research of ITC - Istituto Trentino di Cultura, Trento (Italy). After a short description of the organization of the institute and some methodological notes, the report presents the gender-disaggregated data of ITC-irst research personnel for the year 2004, separated per contract level, department and contract duration; changes occurred during the period 1990-2004 have also been highlighted, again on the basis of gender-disaggregated data. As a result of the analysis of the data, it has been found that in terms of absolute numbers, the presence of women researchers at ITC-irst has been considerably increasing since 1990. Indeed, at the end of 1990, women researchers at ITC-irst numbered only 13 (11%), reaching 65 (22%) by the end of 2004. On the other hand, the analysis shows that the situation has not changed with respect to contract levels, as the distribution of men and women still follows a clearly scissors-shaped trend. Finally, the analysis of the data for departments raises a question: are cultural and social aspects the only causes of the weak position of women inside the research field or could a gender-sensitive management positively influence the situation?