NEWS The Umeå University investment in women visiting professors and grants for women to qualify for promotion to professors has yielded results. Since 2010, when the investment was begun, the number of women professors has increased from 22 to 30 per cent, which is the highest percentage in Sweden. All women who have been given the grant have today either been promoted to professor or been evaluated with professor qualifications.
“Increasing the number of women professors has long since been a prioritised target for Umeå University, but not until now – thanks to this aimed investment – we can see a radical change in development. In only five years, the number of women professors has increased by 30, which represents an increase of eight percentage points,” says Marianne Sommarin, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research at Umeå University.
From 2010–2014, Umeå University made a SEK 27.5 million investment in increasing the proportion of women professors. From that amount, SEK 15 million was put aside to provide women with the financial opportunities to concentrate on their research and acquire sufficient qualifications to be promoted professors. The remaining SEK 12.5 million was used to offer foreign women visiting professors the opportunity to spend a few months at Umeå University to act as role models and initiate research collaborations.
The follow-up of the investment, which was presented to the University Board of Directors on 17 December 2015, now shows evidence of success. In total, 18 women have been given grants, and 17 of these have been promoted to a professorship. The individual who has yet not been promoted has been evaluated with professor qualifications. Furthermore, the investment has resulted in several new, international research collaborations, according to Marianne Sommarin.
The Government has set a national objective of at least 39 per cent of all newly employed professors from 2012–2014 to be women. At Umeå University, the target has been greatly exceeded and lands on between 44 and 56 per cent for the mentioned period. The fast development has also resulted in the university’s own intermediate objective of having overall 30 per cent women professors was achieved already in 2014. These statistics mean that Umeå University has achieved the highest percentage among the higher education institutions in Sweden (see diagram 1). As a result, the university intermediate objective has recently been adjusted to 35 per cent for the period 2016–2018.
Vice-Chancellor Lena Gustafsson sees investment in gender equality as a central and incredibly important matter for the development and quality of the university, and wants to see this important work continue to permeate the whole organisation.
“It feels rewarding to approach the long-term target of a more equal gender distribution among professors and to know that our initiative seems to have had an effect. At the same time, intense work continues and will need to put its mark on all relevant areas. The question of equality is of huge importance in every recruitment to new posts, but that is not the only key area to build upon,” says Lena Gustafsson.
Marianne Sommarin, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research at Umeå UniversityPhone: +46 70-662 3874
Email: marianne.sommarin@umu.se
Editor: Anna Lawrence