Marcela Linková for European Assoc. for Study of Science and Technology

The Centre for Gender & Science was established as a research department at the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in the middle of 2016, after fifteen years of building its research, policy, and advocacy engagements at the EU and country levels. Its research profile focuses on 1) research careers from a gender perspective; 2) the impacts of neoliberal transformations in the public sector, especially in research, healthcare and social work; and 3) history and current multiplicity of medical practices.

The Centre for Gender & Science became an independent research department at the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, a non-university institution, in the middle of 2016, after fifteen years of building its research, policy, and advocacy engagements at the EU and country levels. While our research profile has expanded in recent years, we continue to focus on the various ways in which the research system and research careers are gendered, against the backdrop of changes in research governance and the organisation of research.

Science and Technology Studies was viewed with misunderstanding and perhaps even some disregard during our university studies in the late 1900s and 2000s, and although the number of scholars in this research area has slightly increased, we remain a small lot. Similarly, until recently the Centre was the only body concerned with gender in research and higher education. This means that we started off with an amazing opportunity to create something new in 2001, when Marcela—then not yet even enrolled in a doctoral programme—was assigned to lead the Centre. But it also presented the amazing challenge of having to work without direct intellectual guidance and leadership.

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