The Committee for Mainstreaming – Women in Science has looked at the need for a collaborative effort to build networks for female scientists in Norway. The pilot project found that there was an interest in strengthening and co-ordinating the networks.
The world will be a better place if more girls become engineers, says Camilla Schreiner. She does research on the connection between gender and choosing a career within the Natural Sciences.
The Ministry of Education and Research is requesting the KiF Committee to prepare models ensuring women employment in academic positions in male dominated fields. This autumn, the Ministry will announce the measures the various institutions can make use of.
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the University of Tromsø (UiT) share this year’s Award for Gender Equality, worth two million Norwegian kroner. "I do hope this will inspire more people to work for gender equality," Tora Aasland, minister of Research and Higher Education said during the award-giving ceremony.
The gender equality aspect was missing in the first national evaluation of the Quality Reform. This is evident in the government report on the reform.
The number of women in academia in Norway has increased, yet they are still a minority, and the target that women should make up half of all academic personnel in permanent positions has not been achieved. If the current rate of change in the higher education sector continues at the same tempo as it has in the 1990s and the current decade, it will take another 25 to 30 years before half of those in permanent positions are women. These figures emerge from a new report compiled by NIFU STEP.
Norwegian Minister for Education and research, Øystein Djupedal, emphasizes the use of positive discrimination to recruit more women to top positions in academia, and he is looking to the EU for the means to do this. However, he is receiving criticism for his budget from the opposition.
The start package was not a lifesaver, but it has given professor Heidi C. Dreyer the opportunity to work towards her long-term goals.
There is a great deal of focus on the proportion of women among permanent staff at universities and university colleges in Norway. But it is in business and independent institutes that the proportion of women is the lowest.
What will minister Øystein Djupedal do to speed up gender equality work in the higher education sector?
In the autumn, here in Norway, a new round of the grant Outstanding Young Investigators (OYI), will be launched. Professor Inge Henningsen is of the opinion that the Research Council of Norway should make an equal opportunities assessment of the whole program.
“I know what to do to make gender equality work succeed, but it is only rarely that I am allowed to do it.” This is how Eva Mark began her lecture at the Network Meeting for gender equality workers 29 May.
New thinking on gender equality is taking place at Norwegian universities. In recent years the burden of responsibility has been moved, equal opportunities budgets have been increased by millions of Norwegian kroner and new initiatives have been put in place. We have checked the progress at two of the country’s universities.
