Gender Balance

Gender balance in research at European level:

Gender equality is a key issue in modern society which affects all aspects of life, from labour and the economy to health, education and domestic life. The importance of gender equality led the United Nations to include it in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals: “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” (https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg5)

The underrepresentation of women in science is also a question being tackled by the European Commission across its main research and innovation programmes, such as HORIZON 2020. The following strategic objectives have been set:

  • Gender balance in research teams;
  • Gender balance in decision-making;
  • Integrating gender/sex analysis in research and innovation content.

Further information on gender balance in research and innovation can be find in the following links:

Other resources to assess gender bias in research:

Project Implicit is a non-profit organisation that aims to educate the public about hidden biases and provide a “virtual laboratory” for collecting data on the Internet. It provides several tests regarding gender bias in several contexts: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/aboutus.html

STAGES- gender bias tests: http://stages.live.iola.dk/en/

LIBRA- Unifying innovative efforts of European research centres to achieve gender equality in academia is a EU project aimed at increasing the representation and participation of women in leadership positions in life sciences: http://www.eu-libra.eu/

Scroll to Top