The project aims to investigate the factors that determine the low percentage of professional advancement for women in science. The research is conducted at two universities: Adam Mickiewicz University (AMU) (Poland) and Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University (Ukraine). The research covers the careers of women in mathematics, computer science and physics. The research covers several elements: gender stereotypes, various forms of “glass ceiling”, work-life balance and the relationship between women’s careers in science and scientists' awareness of gender determinants of professional advancement. These factors are already largely well researched. The least studied factor is subtle, little-noticed "symbolic violence". The team also highlights this phenomenon in this project. The group under comparison are scientists from the same faculties at Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University. The comparative analysis will determine whether the career path of women in science is similar or different depending on other cultural, political and pro-feminist factors.

Such sociological methods as statistic data analyses and interview will be used for the project implementation. Interviews will be conducted with both men and women to identify possible similarities and/or differences in perceptions of scientific career determinants. The main accent of this project falls on symbolic violence (Pierre Bourdier, La Domination masculine, Paris, Seuil 1998) and neuroscience (Cordelia Fine, Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference, W.W.Norton & Company, Inc. New York 2010). We believe that these areas are "related - conditional". The project team wants to check it in this project.

A significant part of the project is devoted to the presentation of research results to the academic staff of AMU and CHNU. Our experience at AMU shows that projects that end up with recommendations to the university authorities (rector, deans, department heads) are more productive and more likely to implement the objectives than those that carry out only the scientific part. At AMU, the project team made such recommendations to the feminist community at the University in 2018 and 2019. A large part of these recommendations has been accepted and introduced to university life (http://gdynaukajestkobieta.amu.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/When-Science-Is-a-Woman-1.pdf). We hope that the outcomes of this project can also contribute to improving the work of women in universities.