On March 12, 2020 in Moscow, in the main building of Rosatom State Corporation a business breakfast was held with the ambassadors and participants of the Association of Women in the Nuclear Industry. It was organised by the Foundation for the Support and Development of Women's Initiatives "Association of Women in the Nuclear Industry" together with the State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM.
The event was attended by over 50 participants from 7 regions of the Russian Federation: the Leningrad, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov, Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk Regions and the city of Moscow.
The participants of the breakfast informally discussed the main vectors of the movement's development, prospective areas of activities, goals and objectives of the Association of Women of Nuclear Industry for the coming year. According to the attendees such events unite like-minded people around common interests, inspire initiative implementation and give start to new projects.
Business lunch started with general voting of all present guests. The participants were asked to answer the following questions: "What is the main obstacle to realizing women's potential?", "What areas of the Nuclear Industry Women's Association are ready to take on personally?", "What barriers exist to realizing women's potential in the nuclear industry?". The voting showed that among barriers to realization of women's potential in nuclear branch the majority of respondents stated the following: existing gender stereotypes and closed nature of the branch.
The Association ambassadors showed a video clip with a collection of pictures of women workers and explained their vision of a woman in the nuclear industry.
The guest of the event was Tatyana Anatolievna Terentyeva, HR Director of Rosatom State Corporation. In her speech Tatyana Anatolievna cited a number of statistics for the industry. For example, about 30 percent of executive positions in Rosatom are held by women, while in the world in the energy sector the share of women in management is 11 percent. She presented statistical data on the industry, including women's participation in youth programs, personnel reserves, in the leadership of the industry. At Rosatom, for example, women occupy about 30% of management positions, while in the world energy sector the share of women in management is only 11%. Despite the fact that in general the situation in the Russian nuclear industry looks favorable against the background of other countries, T. Terentyeva noted the importance of efforts to involve girls in engineering professions. "The tasks facing the industry require employees to be fast, open, creative, collaborative and flexible. Teamwork among employees with different values and backgrounds is one of the conditions for successful companies in the 21st century. Public initiatives such as the Nuclear Industry Women's Union are important as a platform where each participant's potential can be realized in joint projects for the benefit of the industry," said Tatyana Terentyeva.
The mission of the Association, implementation of projects and work plans were told by co-founders of the "Association of Women in the Nuclear Industry" Foundation Angelika Khaperskaya, Margarita Udalaya and Alexandra Ryabykh. The speakers noted that within the framework of the Fund's activity it was necessary to develop international cooperation in the field of the safe use of atomic energy, to provide social support, to promote social and legal protection of women in the nuclear industry, to render all-round support to families with many children, to support complex development of small social entrepreneurship among women, to assist in protecting and preventing health of women in the nuclear industry, to provide environmental education to the population.
Within the framework of the event, personal cards were presented to the Ambassadors of newly formed initiative groups of the Association: Ekaterina Kharchenko, leading specialist of JSC "Grinatom", Marina Buzilova, assistant of the head of the Public Council of Rosatom State Corporation in Volgodonsk, Irina Bychkova, chief specialist of GC "NEOLANT" and Anna Tobolenko, head of department of JSC "TECHSNABEXPORT" and others.
The organizers hope that such meetings will become regular, since this format allows to build horizontal interaction and effective communication between participants from different regions of Russia, which will undoubtedly contribute to the development of a high level of initiative and opportunities for self-realization. The participants of the Association, inspired by the general idea and the format of the event, noted that they would look forward to the next Business Breakfast.
