Does the right to vote necessarily mean that you are heard and have influence over the way the world is interpreted? This was among the questions raised in the seminar Use your voice – make yourself heard.

For the first time the Equality and Anti-discrimination Ombud will review all the cases from six years of work to combat sexual harassment. The report will be ready in early January.

The Research Council of Norway’s Initiative on Gender Balance in Senior Positions and Research Management (BALANSE) has awarded its first project funding. Three independent research institutes and one university can now implement new gender equality activities.

UiT – The Arctic University of Norway is using the prize money from the Gender Equality Award to gain new inspiration from Norway and abroad. Eight new adjunct professor positions have been created.

Swedish universities have made the most progress in renewing the academic culture and Norwegian institutions have designed effective measures, but in Denmark the prevailing belief is that gender equality has already been achieved.

Expectations were high for the incentive scheme from the Ministry of Education and Research to recruit women to senior-level positions in mathematics, natural science and technology. Now, however, an evaluation report recommends ending the scheme.

“The award is for universities, university colleges and research institutes seeking to move up a notch or two in the gender equality ranks,” says Gerd Bjørhovde, chair of the Committee for Gender Balance in Research.  

A visit from the KIF Committee can mean the difference between no focus on gender equality and being the best in the class, measured by the percentage of women professors. As long as the best in the class is 27 percent, there is no doubt that more visits are needed.

A new report from the Work Research Institute shows that the academic field of history remains highly male dominated. A conservative academic culture and a lack of willingness to problematize male dominance in the field can take much of the blame for this.

Students want gender balance in their academic fields, and feel they benefit academically from a combination of women and men. However, persistent stereotypes may be an obstacle to the long-sought-after gender balance.

Although the Nordic countries have been good about bringing more women into academic leadership positions, they are only at the EU level when it comes to the percentage of female professors.

The new white paper on research describes the lack of gender balance in the research sector, but its only recommendation for dealing with the problem is to ask the KIF Committee for advice. The ministry will get what it asks for.

This is the clear challenge from Managing Director Kari Nygaard. The Norwegian Institute for Air Research has achieved good results with this approach.

At the University of Bergen, Kuvvet Atakan and his team have made gender equality a key issue in their bid to win the rectorial election.