Norway and Sweden are held up as shining examples when gender equality in academia is discussed in a European context. But even in these countries, political efforts to achieve the objectives of gender balance must continue. Key challenges are rigid structures and the men who dominate academia, according to researchers who recently attended a European conference in Stockholm.

The better the gender balance, the more we benefit from the pool of researcher talent. This is the argument made by the independent research institutes for their own gender equality efforts. However, a new study shows that women are in short supply at the highest levels of research and in leadership positions within the sector.

Women in academia publish 21 per cent less than their male colleagues, and this figure has been stable for nearly 20 years. A new master’s thesis takes a look behind the numbers.

By changing the name to the Committee for Gender Balance in Research, the KIF Committee has received a stricter mandate for its work. “This sends a signal that gender equality involves more than equal rights,” says Mari Teigen, Research Director at the Institute for Social Research (ISF).

According to the science hierarchy, sociology has low status whereas mathematics has high status. Both this hierarchy and the peer-review process have characteristics that structurally downgrade women’s position in academia.

madeleine kennedy-macfoy has lived her life moving between England, Belgium, Sierra Leone, the US and Norway. For her, being international is not a choice – it is life itself. It is also a life she would recommend to others.

The academic field of history remains highly male dominated, according to a new report from the Work Research Institute. A conservative academic culture and a lack of willingness to problematise male dominance in the field can take much of the blame for this.

Swedish universities have made the most progress in renewing the academic culture and Norwegian institutions have designed effective measures, but in Denmark the prevailing belief is that gender equality has already been achieved.

Women physicists at CERN are locked in a structure and culture that is highly male dominated at all levels. The women’s movement and gender equality have not reached the physics fields, according to a history of science researcher.