The website “Key statistics for gender equality at AU” has just been updated with the most recent key figures. The figures show that things are slowly moving in the right direction, but that change takes time.

2021.09.02 | Anders Hylander

"Unfortunately, there are no quick and easy solutions – it will take hard work over the coming years to find locally based solutions,” says Pro-rector Berit Eika about work to achieve gender balance. (Photo: Anders Trærup/AU Foto)

Moves towards a better gender balance among researchers at the university are slowly progressing. This is evident from the 2020 key figures just published on the AU website.

Among other things, the figures show that:

• POPULATION: There is a general trend towards a better gender balance, but progress is slow. The difference in numbers between female and male professors is still considerable. In 2016, 19 per cent of professors at AU were women. In 2020, the number was 23 per cent.
• NEW EMPLOYMENTS: From postdoc to professor level, the proportion of newly appointed female researchers ranges between 48 per cent and 24 per cent.
• MANAGEMENT: From 2016 to 2020, the proportion of female department heads decreased from 17 per cent to 11 per cent. At vice-dean and senior management team level, the proportion of female managers is 27 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively.

Pro-rector Berit Eika, who shares the chairmanship of the AU Committee for Diversity and Equality with Rector Brian Bech Nielsen, has reviewed the figures together with the senior management team.

"Overall, it's positive that we’re seeing more female professors at Aarhus University. This is an important indicator that we’re moving in the right direction in our work to achieve gender balance, thereby ensuring that the full pool of talent is brought into play. However, as is also clearly evident from the figures, there’s still a long way to go," says Berit Eika.

AU’s current action plan for gender equality focuses on recruitment and leadership, among other things. The figures show that special initiatives are required in this area. For example, a general effort is needed to encourage more female applicants to apply for research positions, and to ensure a better gender balance at management level.

"Unfortunately, there are no quick and easy solutions – it will take hard work over the coming years to find locally based solutions. This is a very important objective in the action plan that we’re currently implementing at AU - at faculty and department level," says the pro-rector.

In addition to recruitment and leadership, AU’s action plan for gender equality focuses on career development and workplace culture.

Delve into the figures

To make the key figures on gender equality work more accessible to managers and staff, AU has just updated the website “Key statistics for gender equality at AU”. On this website, you can delve into the 2020 figures at AU level and departmental level.

From action plan to action

For more about AU’s action plan for gender equality, listen to the new season of the #DiversityAU podcast and, along with four internationally acclaimed experts, explore the focus areas of the action plan: workplace culture, recruitment, leadership and career development.

The experts present the latest research within these four areas and come up with ideas for how managements and employees can work specifically and constructively to promote gender equality in research environments.

Each episode lasts 15-20 minutes. All episodes are in English and were created and produced by Journalist Carsten Ortmann, known from the radio programme Supertanker at DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation) radio channel P1.

• The #DiversityAU podcast is available here

Learn more about work on gender equality

• Article (in Danish): Managers to promote gender equality at AU (20.08.2021)
• Information about AU’s work to promote equality and diversity