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.
Genie events and related activities
Want to know more about the Genie Open Call projects?
Chalmers' research database Research.Chalmers.se provides information about the projects that got funding in Genie's Open Call 2019.
The most recent articles about Genie
"Universities ramp up efforts to improve faculty gender balance and work climate in STEM" (July 2021, Physics Today)
"A large ‘discovery’ experiment: Gender Initiative for Excellence (Genie) at Chalmers University of Technology" (June 2021, Cambridge University Press)
"Female Faculty: Why So Few and Why Care? (June 2020, Chemistry - A European Journal)
Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede and Lynn Kamerlin (professor at Uppsala university) write about the slow ongoing progress in increasing the representation of women in academia at senior levels, in particular in the natural sciences and engineering. 
Read the full article
Gender-divided data and employee survey analysis published
Genie has now published gender-divided data for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 for Chalmers as a whole, departments and for divisions. The data includes gender-division for various positions (all types of research-related positions), and for sick-leave and salaries. We also provides analysis comparing the different reports.
We have also analyzed the questions Genie added to the employee survey in 2019. We have now published a summary of the 2019 results where we analyze the answers based on gender for different types of research-related positions as well as per department.
Gender Report 2020 comparison
Gender Report 2020
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.
Genie starts visiting faculty programme
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 at Chalmers intranet (requires a CID login)
Management group and contact
Mary Sheeran, Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, vice-leader of Genie