The number of women engaged in teaching and research has increased significantly more than the number of men in the past five years. However there are still great differences between men and women in the higher occupational categories. Female professors are still in the minority in all areas of research. This is shown in new figures from the National Agency of Higher Education and Statistics Sweden.
Last year, there were slightly under 64 000 employees at universities and institutes of higher education. After two year with staff reductions in higher education, this has now come to an end. The distribution of men and women is largely even with 51 percent women and 49 percent men although this varies greatly between the different occupations. Despite the fact that the number of professors has doubled in slightly over ten years, the share of women is not more than 17 percent. Women are also a minority among senior lecturers, 37 percent. However there are roughly the same number of men and women studying in postgraduate education.
Few women in technology research areas
The distribution of men and women also differs greatly between the different research areas and therefore also between universities, depending on their course selection. The share of women engaged in teaching and research is greatest in the healthcare and teaching programmes; at the Stockholm Institute of Education, for example, 70 percent of teachers are women. In technology research areas, the share of women is considerably lower. Chalmers and the Royal Institute of Technology have the lowest share of women among their teaching staff; 17 and 19 percent respectively.