Women in physics: Actions of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics and their impact in Latin America

Abstract

The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) is the scientific union representing identified physics communities from all over the world. It currently has 60 country members and is organized and run by the physics community itself. About to turn one hundred years old, the IUPAP has taken several actions for over 20 years to increase the participation and improve the situation of women physicists. The creation of its Working Group on Women in Physics in 1999 has had an enormous impact on the physics communities giving visibility to a problem that had often gone unnoticed, raising awareness and, most importantly, creating a very active network of women physicists in more countries than IUPAP members. The Working Group has also had a direct impact on the IUPAP's organization and on the activities it sponsors. In this paper I give a brief account of the actions of the Working Group and of the measures that the IUPAP has taken since 1999 to help reduce the gender gap in physics and in STEM. I then focus on the many activities that it led to in Latin America, the region of origin of three of the five chairs of the Working Group.