Next year, the Swedish government proposes, the higher education institutions will develop their targets for the proportion of newly recruited professors who are women. What is the situation today? Research Council’s journal Curie has talked about equality with representatives of four universities.
The proportion of women in academia is increasing at all levels , but slowly . This is particularly the proportion of professors, where only 23 per cent were women in 2011.
Our diverse governments have since 1997 set targets for the proportion of newly recruited professors who are women . Current targets are for the period 2012-2015 . From 2015 it is proposed that the institutions themselves should be involved in developing the goals. The objective is to rapidly increase the proportion of women. The aim of the new model is a higher ambition for better gender balance among all the professors in comparison of today’s levels.
At the University of Gothenburg the headmaster decided that the university should investigate whether there are suitable women for the current new job, in Sweden and internationally .
– They should be actively sought out and encouraged to apply. There are committees that are responsible for this, says Helena Lindholm Schulz , Vice Rector of the University, writes Curie .
At GU is today 27 percent of the professors women. A strategy to increase the proportion is that the university look for women who are so deserving that they should be promoted to professors. In this way, 49 women were identified and encouraged to do a test application for promotion . The application is reviewed by external experts who also provide input. The aim for the University of Gothenburg is: 40 percent of professors at the University shall be women by 2015.
Read what the other universities says:
(in Swedish)
