Gender imbalance at KTH

Improving the gender imbalance has been a high priority issue at KTH. While there has been some progress in this area, it has been sluggish in certain respects. We need to continue working hard to achieve a greater gender balance among students and faculty personnel.

The proportion of female students at first-cycle and second-cycle level is increasing slowly. Among new admissions to the masters of engineering and architecture programmes in 2012, 32% were women, compared with 29% five years earlier. The figures vary slightly from year to year but there is a steady increase.

The information department recently performed a survey among presumptive female students. It yielded a number of interesting observations that we need to incorporate both in the way we present KTH and plan our study environments.

An individual, relationship-building external communication clearly has a much greater impact than, say, advertising campaigns in the mass media. In addition to highlighting female examples we need to communicate the strong sense of community among students at KTH and portray Stockholm as a student city. Important for attracting more female students to KTH’s study programmes is also an increased number of female teachers.

The proportion of women at KTH’s faculty is outgrowing the proportion of female students, albeit from low levels.

If you compare 2012 and 2007, the number of female professors has risen by 81% and the number of female associate professors by 79%. The corresponding increase among male professors and associate professors is 6% and 11% respectively. The proportion of women professors is now 11% (7% in 2007) and for women associate professors it is 22% (15% in 2007).

The healthy trend of recent years needs to continue. What is needed now is hard work at every level. In the next few years we will be creating a number of new faculty posts. I want to see requirements on the inclusion of strong female candidates to fill the new vacancies.

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