European gender equality project kicks off
Organizations from 21 countries recently came together under a new project to promote gender equality in European research policy.
Organizations from 21 countries recently came together under a new project to promote gender equality in European research policy.
New light has been shed on the long-held myth that female researchers have a publishing problem. It now appears clear that publishing points are far more a matter of one’s academic field and position level, not gender.
How will gender equality efforts in the research sector evolve as we take more and more groups into consideration?
The new KIF Committee has been appointed, and for the first time it has a leader team from both a university and a research institute.
Even though more women researchers are coming from abroad than before, it is often more difficult for a woman to move her family to Norway, asserts researcher Ingvild Reymert.
Why is it a good idea to draw up action plans for gender equality and diversity, and how should one do it? Learn more in these new films.
Check out our top five most read news articles about COVID-19, the recruitment of top researchers, foreign researchers in Norway and a technology professor with two gender equality awards.
It is pointless to start a search for female applicants one week before the application deadline. If you want to increase the number of women in a male-dominated field, you have to make long-term plans. This is according to Tor Grande, who recently stepped down as head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
“We don’t discuss gender equality very much; after all, it’s an integral part of our job,” says Vice-Dean Helge Klungland of the Faculty of Medicine at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). “Nobody is hired or granted project funding here without gender equality being part of the process.”
This was the clear message from the CEO of the SINTEF Group, Unni Steinsmo, when she opened a conference on gender equality in the independent research institutes.
The better the gender balance, the more we benefit from the pool of researcher talent. This is the argument made by the independent research institutes for their own gender equality efforts. However, a new study shows that women are in short supply at the highest levels of research and in leadership positions within the sector.
The Norwegian Government will extend the term of the national committee that promotes gender equality. It is also proposing financial rewards for institutions that employ women in high-level positions in the male-dominated natural sciences.
What does it take to change the gender balance in the most male-dominated physical sciences? This is an issue that Jan Petter Hansen of the University of Bergen knows a lot about. Under his leadership, the percentage of women in the Department of Physics and Technology is finally on the rise.
Norway and Sweden are held up as shining examples when gender equality in academia is discussed in a European context. But even in these countries, political efforts to achieve the objectives of gender balance must continue. Key challenges are rigid structures and the men who dominate academia, according to researchers who recently attended a European conference in Stockholm.