Linköping University

Homepage: www.tema.liu.se

Since its foundation in the 1960’s, Linköping University (LiU) has established itself as an innovative and modern institution in both education and research. Today, LiU is one of the major universities in Sweden with 26 000 undergraduate students, 3 500 employees and four faculties. GenderTime will focus the implementation and monitoring of a tailor made Action Plan at one of these four faculties: Linköping Institute of Technology (LiTH). LiTH has more than 9 000 students and a faculty of more than 1 200 employees. It is one of Sweden’s largest higher engineering education institutions. It has 7 departments and a number of Centres of Excellent Quality in Higher Education appointed by the Swedish research councils in different areas. 27 per cent of the employees and 16 per cent of the teachers at LiTH are women. The percentage of women Professors (full Professors and adjunct Professors) is lower – only 8 per cent. However, the number has increased, from 4 per cent in 2002. Since the 1980s, LiU has worked actively to bring about gender equality. Every year LiU commits itself to a new Equal Opportunities Strategy and Action Plan that deals with issues of quality and gender, ethnic and religious diversity, accessibility and participation for people with disabilities, equality of rights and treatment for all, regardless of age or gender identity. The Strategy Group for Equal Opportunities is working to implement the plan with different measures. The Forum for Gender Studies and Equality and LiU’s gender lecturers are vital resources in the implementation process. The Department of Thematic Studies at LiU provides a unique institutional framework with interdisciplinary research of social importance in thematic fields of knowledge concerning gender and technology. It is the host of one of three Swedish excellence centres for advanced gender studies. The department is also involved in the FP7 project genSET – aiming to improve the excellence of European science through inclusion of the gender dimension in research and science knowledge making. Moreover, the department is the home of Forum for gender studies and equality, an interdisciplinary centre for research and practice within the field of gender studies and gender equality. In addition, the department has organized several seminars and workshops aiming at increasing the level of gender awareness concerning women’s and men’s career opportunities in science. LiU will share responsibilities with BUW for WP3 Monitoring Action Plans but take an active part in the majority of work packages. LiU and LiU’s Transfer Agent will play an important role in the GenderTime Consortium in order to take full advantage of the knowledge and experiences of working with Gender Equality Action Plans at LiU.

• Peterson, H. (2011) The gender mix policy – addressing gender inequality in higher education management. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 33(6):619-628.
• Peterson, H. (2010) The Gendered Construction of Technical Self-Confidence: Women's Negotiated Positions in Maledominated, Technical Work Settings, International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology, 2(1):66-88.
• Peterson, H. (2010) Women's Career Strategies in Engineering: Confronting Masculine Workplace Culture. Women in engineering and technology research. Godfroy-Genin, A.-S. (ed.). Berlin: LIT Verlag.