News

Leadership and gender

Why is gender an issue for EU? And what has it got to do with academic leadership?
For the participants at the Auto Cure workshop ”Academic leadership in Rheumatology including a gender perspective” held in Prague mid April, these questions are now easy to
answer. After two unforgettable days of engaging lectures, hard facts, vivid discussions and personal reflections the gender awareness raised to an all time high, resulting in a list of actionplans for the future. The initiator of the workshop, Professor
Ingrid Lundberg from Karolinska, Institutet, presented startling statistics and raised many
important questions. — More than 60 percent of the medical students in Europe are
female, but only 16 percent of the professors at Karolinska Institutet are women.
Less than four years after PhD 68 percent of the researchers in medical science in Europe are female, but only 36 percent of the experienced scientists and 15 percent of grade A staff are women.

Where do they go all these educated women?Why do men publish more articles? And why are there still such gender differences amongst professors? Gender equality is not only a question of justice, it is also vital for the global economy. — This leaking pipe of female
drop outs in the academic world is a big financial waste. These educated women are not reinvesting their skills into the economy and therefore it is necessary to train and retain female doctors and scientist. Ingrid Lundberg also stressed the fact that gender awareness is fundamental for good management and strategic leadership,
also in projects like AutoCure. — Our first target is to aim for 50 percent women among the experienced scientists in the project, the second is to increase the number of female Principal Investigators. Today there are only 3... We also need to discuss how we can
promote and encourage young female scientists to take on leaderships.

Professor Ingrid Lundberg