Minutes from the Meeting 2 October 2013 12:00-13:00

Present:
Tilda Pentikäinen
Jonas Flodin
Ida Maria Sintorn
Michael Thuné
Björn Victor
Per Mattson
Emanuel Rubensson
Karolina Malm Holmström
Magnus Grandin
Maria Andreina Francisco Rodriguez
Secretary: Anna-Lena Forsberg

The agenda was postponed to the next meeting. Instead Michael Thuné informed the new (and old) members of the group about the Gender Equity Group in the past, its mandate today and its role in the department and the revision of the Gender Equity Plan:

There was earlier no real renewal of the group and it was uncertain who was a member and who was not. Now the board have appointed the members and stated a mandate period of 3 years for each member except for student members who have 1 year period. The Equity Group meetings are open meetings so that any employee or student can attend if they want and not only the members.
The "Prestationsresurs B" is a resource from the faculty targeted towards gender equality. It is c. 1 million SEK/year. A call for proposals to improve the gender equality at the department is published in LäsIT twice a year. The Equity Group reviews the proposals and the head of the department makes the decision. This resource funded Tilde Pentikäinens project (reported in the minutes of the last meeting); a visit by Yekaterina Epshteyn; the cost for participation in a leadership program for women; recruiting female PhD-students to the divisions.
There is also a policy document on our website http://www.it.uu.se/internt/policies_rapporter_handlingsplaner/prestationsresurs_B_beslut121206.pdf

The revision of the Gender Equity Plan

The plan is revised at the end of the autumn semester each year and stated on the last board meeting (this year the 28th of November). Measures taken should be reported to the secretary of the Equity Group.

A better gender balanced recruitment

A better gender balance is needed in all the position categories of this Department.
The goal is that more women apply to our open positions. To achieve this we must invite women to be guest researchers and guest lecturers. In this way we will make ourselves known to excellent female scholars and they may establish a good relation to our Department for future cooperation. The Prestationsresurs B could be used for this purpose.
Prestationsresurs B also funded parts of Takako Kawamuras project to create a database for female researchers and scholars in our field. It contains 3500 names from which to find a guest lecturer or researcher or inspire suitable scholars in this list to apply to out open positions.

FESTA-project

It is a European project run by the Equal Opportunities Unit at the University (Lika Villkors enheten) with 10 different universities in Europe involved.
Targets of the project are:
1. Informal decision and communication channels
2. Gender equality indicators (in GLIS)
3. Excellence notions.
The project members have interviewed part of our staff as part of the project and also informed the Human Resources Administrators about the Gender Indicators in GLIS.

Change the name to Equal Opportunities (Lika Villkors) Group?

There is a decision in the Faculty to change the name from Jämställdhetsutskottet to Lika villkorsutskottet from the 1 of July 2014. On the University level the Gender Equality Committee (Jämställdhetskommittén) changed their name to Council for Equal Opportunities (Rådet för lika villkor) and included all the grounds for discrimination according to the Discrimination Law: gender, gender identity or expression, ethnic, religion or other beliefs, disability, sexual orientation and age.
A question has been whether this group should follow and do the same. The topic should be discussed further.