Agnes Wold, professor at the Institute of Biomedicine, is one of the appointed members of the Helene Hellmark Knutssons national Expert Group for greater gender equality in higher education.
One of the tasks for the Expert Group is to come up with ideas and suggestions for the next research bill, which will be put forward in parliament in autumn 2016. The group will also report their main conclusions for greater gender equality in higher education by the end of 2016.
Helene Hellmark Knutsson, Minister of Higher Education and Research makes a statement in a press release:
– The government’s goal is that the proportion of professors who are women will increase, research funding should be allocated equal, and that universities should have a clearer mandate to work with gender integration in all its operations. The Expert Group will be a key tool in the design of future reforms in these areas.
Basic facts gender equality at Universities
- In 2014, only 25 percent were women and 75 percent men among the professors in Sweden. The proportion of female professors has since 2006 increased with in avarage one percentage point a year, from 17 to 24 percent in 2012. Between 2012 and 2014, however, the increase in the proportion of women occurred in a slightly slower pace, by 0.4 and 0.6 percentage points. In 2013, the proportion of women among newly recruited professors 31 percent.
- A survey by the State Treasury from 2014 shows that women have access to research funding to a lesser extent than men in the surveyed institutions. This applies both in absolute terms and in relation to the proportion of women and men in the research staff. In 2013, 39 percent of grant funds were used to pay for women’s wages and 61 percent men’s wages. Women accounted for 42 percent of the research staff at these universities. The total difference between the proportion of grant funding that has come to some women and the proportion of women in the research staff will therefore be three percentage points, equivalent to just over SEK 80 million.