New taskforce to get women into research

Just 18 percent of Danish professors are women

Due to a lack of female professors, the government has established a new taskforce dedicated to getting a better gender balance in Danish research.

Despite the fact the number of women in research has been on the rise in recent years, women are still underrepresented among the scientific personnel at the Danish research institutions.

“Denmark is missing out on talent if women systematically avoid research careers,” Sofie Carsten Nielsen, the education and research minister, said in a press release. "Research is what generates the future."

“We’ll only be good enough to obtain that knowledge if all of the talent is in play, so the taskforce will recommend a number of initiatives that can promote gender equality in research.”

READ MORE: Danish researchers make electric discovery

Below EU averages
While 46 percent of PhD graduates in Denmark are women, just 18 percent of professors are women, which is well below the EU and Nordic average.

Aside from the initiatives, the taskforce will help identify where there is a need for a better knowledge base to take effective action.

The taskforce will commence its work at the beginning of 2015 and is expected to finish its work and present its findings by the end of the first quarter of 2015.





  • How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    Being part of a trade union is a long-established norm for Danes. But many internationals do not join unions – instead enduring workers’ rights violations. Find out how joining a union could benefit you, and how to go about it.

  • Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals are overrepresented in the lowest-paid fields of agriculture, transport, cleaning, hotels and restaurants, and construction – industries that classically lack collective agreements. A new analysis from the Workers’ Union’s Business Council suggests that internationals rarely join trade unions – but if they did, it would generate better industry standards.

  • Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    The numbers are especially striking amongst the 3,477 business and economics students polled, of whom 31 percent elected Novo Nordisk as their favorite, compared with 20 percent last year.