Through concrete changes of the academic culture, system and procedures together with strategic recruitments, we aim towards equal gender balance within the faculty. We invest SEK 300 million over ten years on gender equality work to make Chalmers more successful.
The initiative is funded by the Chalmers University of Technology Foundation, was launched on 1 January 2019 and run through 2028. As far as Chalmers knows, this is by far the largest individual investment in gender equality made by any university.
Background and motive of Genie
Like other technical universities, Chalmers has a very low proportion of women in its faculty. However, research shows that a more even gender balance leads to greater scientific success and a better working environment, for both men and women. As a strategy to become more excellent, Chalmers aims to increase the proportion of women among its faculty.
Overall goals
The overall goals of the project:
- Increase the proportion of female faculty.
- Remove the structural and cultural obstacles that hamper women’s careers.
- Create a working environment that is diverse and inclusive and supportive of excellence in research and teaching.
Content
Genie mainly consists of two parts: concrete and tailored action plans, to achieve long-term cultural and structural change in the departments, and direct support to increase the fraction of females in the faculty.
About Genie events and related activities
Baseline men-women data collected
The Genie team has gathered a first baseline report of the fraction of men and women in different employee categories at Chalmers and within different departments. Genie has also collected sick leave, salary and hiring data divided into men and women for all departments. The Genie team will now collect the same information for 2019; the point is to use this as starting point for monitoring change in the coming years.
Genie supports the WiSE-WWACQT mentorship program
The WiSE-WWACQT Mentorship Program is an initiative that aims at providing support for female PhD students and post-docs either at the E2 Department or WWACQT, through mentorship. The idea is to provide a one-to-one connection between junior and senior scientists working at different departments at Chalmers.
Year one with Genie: "Many people at Chalmers want to engage in gender equality"
After a year of running Chalmers’ gender equality initiative Genie, the leader Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede looks back on a time that has focused on setting up a foundation, gathering knowledge and, most importantly, building trust among Chalmers employees.
She anticipates a bright future.
"There are many people at Chalmers who want to engage in gender equality and there are lots of good ideas," she says. 
Read the full article Genie starts visiting faculty programme
The aim is to improve gender balance in a department or division, to provide role models and international contacts for students and faculty, and to support excellent research.
Read more at Chalmers Insidan
Genie Open Call a great success
Just before Christmas, the reviewing for the Genie Open Call was completed and all applicants have been noted of the outcome. There was a great variety of types of proposal, and in total, 73 proposals were received, with a total of 114 authors. 48 of the main applicants were female, and 25 were male. Read more about the open call
Management group and contact
Mary Sheeran, Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, vice-leader of Genie