Gender balance and gender equality in academia is about searching for the best candidates in the population as a whole and securing a fair distribution of resources and opportunities. A fair research system is also a better and more robust research system.

Ultimately, this is about democracy, sustainability and ethics. Gender balance in research is also about who stipulates the terms for research and the development of our society in the future.

The imbalance between the number of men and women in academic positions in our faculty is significant. The figure to the right shows that the imbalance increases from students to professors. The faculty aims to establish more equal career opportunities for women and men. The goal is a minimum of 40 per cent representation of both genders in permanent academic positions.

Figure: Percentages of men and women in scientific positions at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences in 2011 and 2021. Source: DBH