Increasing the number of women in leadership positions, i.e., as senior managers and professors, is a specific goal set by the University of Eastern Finland in its Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities Plan for 2021–2022. The university’s own payroll statistics, as well as statistics provided by the Confederation of Finnish Industries, show that men continue to outnumber women in leadership positions.
At the University of Eastern Finland, appointments to management positions and professorships are made equitably and without reference to gender. Positive discrimination, i.e., favouring the under-represented gender, is employed in recruitment situations where the top two candidates are equally qualified, but of different genders. In addition, the university is investigating the reasons and background factors causing women to remain in a minority in leadership positions, and the university is exploring various measures to support and encourage women in career advancement. Furthermore, to increase transparency within the academic community, the university makes various statistics related to the staff structure and salary available for internal use.
Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities Plan of the University of Eastern Finland for 2021–2022
