Gender related challenges in the education system are an obstacle for economic growth and better career opportunities, especially for women. One of the main challenges is that girls and boys tend to choose subjects according to traditional gender roles. This is one of the findings of new research by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). In Lithuania, men dominate study fields such as computing (87.5%) and engineering (83.1%), while women hold the majority of degrees in social services (81.6%) and health care (74.7%).
The Gender Equality Index 2023 gives an overview of the state of gender equality in the EU. The EU and the Member States will be given a score from 1...
The freshly launched Gender Equality Index 2022 reveals that progress continues at a snails' pace, with a mere 0.6-point increase since last year's edition. The scores present strong warning signs amid continued uncertainty and turmoil.
The Gender Equality in Academia and Research (GEAR) tool provides concrete and practical guidelines for developing Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) that are tailored to an organisation’s specific contextand conditions, and that are compatible with the Horizon Europe requirements. Based on practical experience and examples, it provides detailed information on what a GEP is and which stakeholders should be involved, why gender equality is important and relevant for organisations, and how an effective and sustainable GEP can be developed and implemented in six steps, from getting started and implementing the GEP to monitoring and evaluation.
The Gender Equality Index is a tool to measure the progress of gender equality in the EU, developed by EIGE. It gives more visibility to areas that need improvement and ultimately supports policy makers to design more effective gender equality measures. The Gender Equality Index has tracked the painfully slow progress of gender equality in the EU since 2010, mostly due to advances in decision-making.
The independent Observatory for Research on Scientific Careers was created following the joint decision of representatives of the different French-speaking universities, the FWB and FNRS. It aims to create and follow up (missing and random) data on researchers in order to create a comprehensive, objective data collection. Its main goals are to monitor and use the expertise of different universities and partners to carry out analytical evaluations and statistics on researchers in the FWB.
The FWF published its Equal Opportunity Monitoring, as recommended by the Ministry of Digital and Economic Affairs. The measure seeks to increase the participation of women researchers in Austria since 2015. The monitoring is part of the FWF’s action plan on changing structures. Published each of the past two years, it presents a visualisation of facts and data to bring to life the insights in the annual report.
In April 2021, the State Social Insurance Fund Board (SODRA) under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour) analysed data from the Vilnius Academy of Arts. It found that, on average, women earned slightly less than their male colleagues (the gender pay gap amounted to 2 %). This result reflects the implementation of the “Plan of Measures for the Implementation of Equality at the Vilnius Academy of Arts”.
The CNR published its first gender budget in 2020. The CNR is the largest public research organisation, with more than 9,000 employees. The report showed that the general composition of CNR staff is equally distributed, but a gap becomes evident in the subsequent career levels: 38 % of senior researchers and 26 % of research directors are women. That gap is even wider at top management level, where women make up only 22 %.
This update extends guidance beyond universities and research-performing organisations to give wider audiences access to a simple way of making gender equality plans part of their institutional strategies.
This gender equality in academia and research (GEAR) step-by-step guide is for all those seeking to implement measures in support of gender equality in research organisations, universities or other public bodies. For implementing gender equality in funding procedures, see the GEAR step-by-step guide for research funding bodies. If you are new to the topic, we recommend going through the steps one after the other.
Main section Videos and webinars Tools and resources At this point, you have realised that promoting gender equality in your organisation is crucial to promote better working conditions and to perform research that is more responsive to societal needs. Now … how to get the process started? As a first step, you need to understand the context of your own organisation (see below for more details), starting with the type of organisation:
