Gender Equality Plan (GEP)

To secure possibilities for employees and students to be able to perform care work at the workplace and home, and thereby balance work and study with their private life, it is necessary to establish supportive routines and facilities. To realize such possibilities University West works, i.e., to adapt times for meetings and lessons, and to introduce flexible working times.

By regular measures and activities, a work and study culture that is sensitive to parenthood must be created.

University West investigate the organizational culture, jargon, and experiences of harassment via a general work environment survey (ARK), and the Equal Conditions Survey (based on active measures). Figures for parental leave are measured by the national gender equality index (Jämställdhetsindex Jämix® - Nyckeltalsinstitutet). From these surveys all work units receive local results, completed with methodologies, to facilitate continued work at the local level.

It is fundamental to establish a systematical examination of processes for leadership, governance, and support, to secure that gender perspective is integrated. Managers and leaders must actively prevent and counteract inequality and discrimination, for example when recruiting staff and doctoral students, and create good working conditions in the daily work in education, research and operational support.

The gender perspective is therefore a part of the university´s routines, guidelines, quality systems, and employment regulations, concerning the academic as well as the line structure. The university organizes special leadership training that recurs annually, and gender balance in management, board, etc. is measured and followed up via the national gender equality index (Jämix).

Each year, in September, the top management has strategic discussions about sustainability and equality. The discussions are based on the result of the year with the purpose to point out new priorities for next year, which then are integrated into the management system of the university. This is an important strategic occasion which ensures that the perspective is always alive and relevant in the organization and that the University West prioritize what is most necessary and dedicates resources for the work that needs to be done.   

Gender equality is important for University West with Vice-chancellor and top management responsible. Gender competence is supported and further developed by a gender mainstreaming coordinator and a strategic group of experts. The group are also supported by the Centre for sustainable development, containing experts on gender perspectives from the academic staff (Högskolan Väst - Centrum för hållbarhet (hv.se)). In addition, competent gender-competent teachers and researchers are engaged with education, research, and strategic work to promote gender equality, among students as well as employees.

To strengthen competence in the field of gender equality, elements of gender/norm competence should be introduced systematically in all educational programs and relevant courses. Skill development for managers, administrative staff, teachers, researchers, supervisors, doctoral students, and board representatives, focusing on each area of responsibility, is offered continuously. Additionally, higher education courses, that cover all aspects of sustainability, need to be more comprehensive to ensure that sufficient theoretical and pedagogical competence in gender equality has time to develop. The university must also develop a coherent strategy for collaboration with the university's partners on, for example, career choices, skills development, and commissioned training, to promote a gender-equal working environment and working conditions for both students and professionals, and in the long run, contribute to a more equal society and labour market. This is done by offering different competence development programs and courses, such as training programs for academic staff, leaders, doctoral students and supervisors and administrative and technical staff. For example, academic staff is offered an annual course in Norm-critical pedagogy in higher education (Högskolan Väst – Normkritisk pedagogik i högre utbildning (hv.se)), and a skill training program in sustainability for all staff is under development and will start in autumn 2022.

To ensure that recruitment, merit and resource allocation are equal, all resource allocation processes should be mapped, gender equality reviewed and, if necessary, revised. This applies, for example, to salary setting, job planning/division of labour, merit funds, and internal and external research funds. This requires that assessment competence is developed in relevant processes to avoid bias, which should also apply as a requirement for external reviewers and assessors. To achieve justice and gender equality in the distribution of university-wide resources, all budget work should be gender equality reviewed and, if necessary, revised.

Central governing documents, preparation and decision-making processes must be transparent and clear and thereby lead to equal recruitment, study, and career paths. The recruitment board should be trained in gender-equal recruitment, and guidelines and processes must be continuously revised to secure that recruitment and career progression are gender-equal. The same requirements should be applied to other supportive parts and processes related to recruitment and career conditions.

To promote gender representation, the university measures gender equality by the, earlier mentioned, national instrument index (Jämställdhetsindex Jämix® - Nyckeltalsinstitutet), which measures i.e., work-life balance, representation in leadership, median salary, occupational categories, recruitment, promotion, and sick leave, concerning staff (dnr HV 2021/55 report Jämix 2021 University West). Measures are followed up regularly:

• The distribution of women and men in different employment categories is included in the gender mainstreaming commission, which University West annually report to the government.
• It is also reported through feedback and decisions on measures taken by the university's top management group every year concerning competence supply.
• Additionally, Swedish universities have target numbers for professors, to increase newly hired professors to 48% women.
• Finally, gender equality is a standing item on the employment committee's agenda. The gender equality work in the committee is continuously followed up in the reconciliations that the committee's chairman has twice per semester with the vice-chancellor and pro-vice-chancellor.

To ensure gender equality for research, postgraduate students and research environments, the organization must develop a specific action plan for research-related activities. It should focus on identifying, and if necessary, addressing, conditions for increasing research and other research activities in the field of gender equality, creating and maintaining equal research environments and research groups, and initiating research collaboration with the surrounding society to solve actual gender equality challenges in society.

All students should know about and be given opportunities to analyze and discuss solutions to gender equality questions. Therefore, students' gender equality should be included in programs and/or courses, as a general and discipline-specific content as well as pedagogical methods.

Follow-ups are made annually through the university’s quality system, where the collegial board system is central. The top management group decide on measures based on an annual report in which gender equality as content and form in research and education is reported.

According to the Swedish Discrimination Act 2008:567, employers and education providers must prevent all forms of harassment and discrimination, including sexual harassment. University West has therefore created a system for continuous mapping and following up on gender equality and discrimination among employees and students, through the university’s Equal condition surveys. It takes measures to counteract all forms of harassment and discrimination. Students and staff are trained to understand and prevent harassment, and special training initiatives aimed at managers are accomplished regularly.

In general, the university follows up on complaints, including harassment that comes to the university's notice, from students, even if in the formal sense they have not become notified cases. Correspondingly, follow-up is linked to the work environment. Additionally, the university is preparing for a whistleblower function with guaranteed anonymity for illegal, unethical, or otherwise inappropriate cases. Reports may relate to suspected corruption, misconduct affecting the life and health of individuals, deficiencies in safety in the workplace, or serious forms of discrimination or harassment.

Measures against sexual harassment and destructive psychosocial work and study environment will also be developed based on the national survey on Sexual harassment and gender-based vulnerability in the Swedish higher education sector, and the European Unisafe-study (UniSAFE - unisafe-gbv. eu), from which local result has been and will be received, and from local Equal condition surveys. Data are also perceived from all work units within the university via the annual reporting system, regarding their work and progress with gender mainstreaming in education and research, as well as an employer. All data mentioned will be analyzed by strategic resources. These analyses, together with priorities, are presented in a “sustainability report” and discussed at the management’s strategic discussion for sustainability once a year. Based on that, priorities are pointed out and integrated into the management system, via action plans and follow-up systems.

The organizational and academic culture is of great importance for the possibility of realising gender equality. University West shall be characterized by a safe, stimulating, and sustainable work and study environment. All employees and students must be treated equally and in a respectful manner. To make this possible, a functioning systematic work and study environment is required on equal terms. Our employees, managers and students must have the conditions to ensure that there is a good work and study environment. Furthermore, we are all expected to take personal responsibility for the common work and study environment and contribute to a positive work climate.

To ensure gender mainstreaming, a systematic review of routines, guidelines and approaches will take place continuously. Internal and external communication should be ensured gender equality, and the need for skill development for those concerned needs to be identified. The organization should also identify and apply relevant methods to change informal social processes and other mechanisms that contribute to maintaining inequality in the work and study environment - for example, representation in governing and decision-making bodies, collegial relations, treatment, dependence and loyalty structures, the culture of silence, etc., to realize sustainable gender equality, and social inclusion in a broader perspective.

The university's overall work on these issues will continue to take place within the framework of the general work environment survey (ARK) and the Sustainable Policy, including the Gender Equality Policy. Furthermore, each department or work unit must have a local council for issues concerning the work environment and equal terms, to make it possible for the university to work systematically with equal conditions issues.

Centre for Sustainable Development, University West

Equal Conditions and Gender Equality, University West

Gender Equality Policy, Swedish Government

Gender Equality Policy, University West

Global Goals for Sustainable Development

Goals for Gender Equality, Swedish Government

National Gender Equality Index (Jämställdhetsindex Jämix® - Nyckeltalsinstitutet)

Plan for Gender Mainstreaming at University West

Report: Gender-based vulnerability and sexual harassment

Report: Jämix 2021 University West: Dnr HV 2021/551