Prof. Ewa Łojkowska: women play an important role in the development of our University

– Gender equality should be the norm at our university, which wants to be modern, inclusive and concerned about equality – not discriminating againts gender, age, political views, origin or sexual preferences – says Professor Habilitated doctor Ewa Łojkowska, plant biotechnologist, head of the Department of Plant Protection and Biotechnology at the Institute of Biotechnology of the University of Gdańsk, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology of the University of Gdańsk and the Medical University of Gdańsk. How is the “Gender Equality Policy Implementation Plan” pursued at the University of Gdańsk?  Interview from the series “Conversations about Sustainable Development” of the Centre for Sustainable Development of the University of Gdańsk.

Author of the main photo: Sylwester Ciszek

Szymon Gronowski: Professor, the starting point for our conversation is the fifth sustainable development goal – gender equality. The University of Gdańsk has been taking numerous actions for years to promote equal treatment of women and men. Promoting gender equality is also one of the priorities implemented by the European Commission, including within the framework of the “Horizon 2020” programme. Why is it so important?

Professor Ewa Łojkowska: First of all, because women constitute about fifty percent of Polish society and not using their potential has negative consequences for all of us. We observe that women still often do not work professionally because they are involved in household chores or have limited opportunities to develop a professional career, especially in science. The situation is different at the University of Gdańsk, because women constitute more than half of our employees. At our university, activities aimed at monitoring gender equality were undertaken in 2018, when we started carrying out the EU HORIZON 2020 STARBIOS 2 project, which concerned responsibly conducted research, especially in biological sciences. One of the directions of our activities was to draw attention to gender equality. The effect of this project was the establishment of the UG Social Responsibility Committee in 2019. The Committee’s tasks are focused, among others, on monitoring gender equality.

The aim of the Committee’s work was to prepare a report on gender equality at the University – to check how it was promoted and what actions were taken in this area until 2019. In 2020, we prepared a report “Women in science – managing diversity and gender equality in the social responsibility of the University of Gdańsk”, which brought many responses. We obtained information on the employment structure, taking into account the situation at individual faculties and scientific positions, as well as data on the differences in salaries between women and men. We had data on the percentage of women among scientific employees at individual faculties and in managerial positions in institutes, departments and central administration. The conclusions that flowed from the collected data indicated that more work needed to be done on gender equality at the University of Gdańsk. Actions should be taken that would lead to women – female scientists and researchers – feeling treated in the same way at our University as male scientists and researchers. There is a rule that if there is no data, there is no problem. But when we monitor data, we start to see problems and can take action to address them.

In what areas did the University of Gdańsk do well, and in which areas did you find challenges and problems?

The collected data confirmed the fact that despite the presence of almost 60% of female students and doctoral students at the university, this proportion is significantly distorted at higher levels of scientific careers. In 2020, we had about 23% of women in the position of professor and about 43% in the position of university professor. We knew that there was a lot to do, especially in terms of helping women develop their scientific careers, as well as making them aware of their potential. Women often do not have faith in their potential and their knowledge as much as men. They are frequently more burdened with household chores. We noticed that help in developing a scientific career is necessary. When the university authorities got familiar with the report results, the rector took action to equalise the salaries of women and men holding the same posts. These differences in salaries were not significant, they were lower than the average for our country, but they existed. We also saw that there were faculties where there was a predominance of men and others where there was also a preponderance of women. Here, too, we wanted to take action to reduce these differences. One of the goals of the “Plan for the implementation of gender equality policy at UG from 2022 to 2023” is to reduce these differences, although we will certainly not eliminate them. It is simply not possible to cause these differences to disappear suddenly. We have also noticed that in order to reduce them, actions should be taken to encourage men to study humanities and to prompt women to take up studies in exact sciences.

Another initiative resulting from the analyses is the preparation of so-called “family rooms” in university buildings allowing employees to spend time with their children during breaks from work. The first such room was created in the MAB [International Research Agenda – editor’s note] at ul. Kładki 24, and the second one will soon be opened in the building of the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology of the University of Gdańsk and the Medical University of Gdańsk. Awareness should be constantly raised that gender equality should be the norm at our university, which wants to be modern, inclusive and concerned about equality – not discriminating against gender, age, political views, origin or sexual preferences.

One of such activities is the implementation of the international project “MINDtheGEPs – Modifying Institutions by Developing The Gender Equality Plans”, which is financed by the Horizon 2020 programme, to support research organisations in implementing gender equality plans. You are the project manager on behalf of the University of Gdańsk. What is the aim of this project?

Our involvement in the project assumed that all principles related to gender equality would be implemented at the University of Gdańsk. We received an invitation to participate in the project from our partners from the University of Turin. We are not the only university that had to prepare a gender equality implementation plan. The members of the UG Social Responsibility Committee could approach the creation of this plan very rationally, because they already had at their disposal the report I mentioned, describing in detail the problems and challenges that our university has to face. The principles for creating gender equality plans are defined by the European Commission, which has set five main goals for them. The first goal is to increase awareness of the importance of gender equality in the academic community. The main activities in this area were training and raising awareness of female scientists and students about the experience of discrimination. As part of the Gender Equality Plan for the UG introduced by the Rector’s regulation in December 2021, a series of training courses was prepared, which will be implemented in the e-learning workshop formula. We would like such basic training to eventually become a mandatory “entrance” questionnaire for people employed at the UG, just as occupational health and safety training is conducted. Even before the creation of the Gender Equality Plan for the UG, the Ombudsman for Equal Treatment and Combating Mobbing was appointed. In the next stage, in March 2023, the Rector appointed a plenipotentiary for monitoring gender equality at the UG.

The plan also includes organising training courses and webinars that will raise awareness of what actions can be taken to prevent gender discrimination. One of our first initiatives was to create a tab on the UG website entitled Women in Science at the University of Gdańsk. Our research showed that women’s scientific and organisational activity had not been sufficiently highlighted in the history of the university. The website also contains links to biographies of women who have made outstanding contributions to the University, placed in Gedanopedia . On the one hand, we show these women on the university website, and on the other, during this project, we have enriched Gedanopedia with over 50 biographies of women who were or are associated with the University of Gdańsk. The main goal of this activity was to show that women actively work in various management bodies of the university, and also develop their scientific careers. In this way, we want to inspire young female researchers and organisers who see various difficulties ahead of them. Our action is also supposed to make men aware that women were and are present in the history of the University, and that many female researchers and employees of the University of Gdańsk have played an important role in the development of our University. This was the first action related to increasing awareness of this subject.

Another thing was the effort to ensure gender balance in decision-making processes at the University. Indirectly, the activities related to the implementation of this project led to the fact that we have two female vice-rectors, although, in the history of the University, there was only one female vice-rector. We have never had a female rector in the history of the university. There are also more and more women at other levels of the university organisation. We are sensitising everybody to the fact that during recruitment processes, and even during the elections of deans, women should be taken into account and mobilised to also stand as candidates for these posts.

Should quotas be introduced?

We have discussed this topic. At the moment, we are focusing on raising awareness. We do not want situations in which an important contract for the University is being signed or a decision is being made, and in the commemorative photo, there are, for example, seven men and no women. Attention is paid to this now not only in university life. A few years ago, there was a famous story when President Andrzej Duda appointed the Council for Higher Education. Over 20 people, one hundred percent of whom were men. Such situations should be paid attention to. Returning to the university – we should strive to introduce balance in the recruitment process, and adjust the content of recruitment messages so that they are directed to female and male candidates, and not just to one gender. It is also important to raise awareness of the language used. The Gender Equality Plan does not state that the use of feminatives in official and journalistic language will be mandatory at the University but we should lead to the gradual introduction of feminatives. The fact that feminatives are used more and more often at the UG can be seen in texts that appear on the university’s website or in the University Gazette. Among the activities that we carried out in this area was, among others, a presentation by Professor Małgorzata Książek-Czermińska, a philologist, who talked about the fact that feminatives are not a whim and that they were used in Polish as early as the interwar period.

We also want to support the development of women’s and men’s scientific careers. We have recorded instruction videos with presentations by Professor Grzegorz Węgrzyn, head of the Council for Scientific Excellence in 2020-2023, for people who are at the stage of applying for a doctoral degree, postdoctoral degree and the title of professor. The videos are available on the YouTube platform, so anyone can have a look at them at any time and obtain information on the applicable rules and requirements for promotion to the next position.

In the MINtheGEPs project, we also drew up the rules of the competition “I include gender in research”, which promotes the inclusion of the gender aspect in scientific research and taking into account the gender perspective in the field of research. I personally work on bacteria, so it is difficult to talk about it here. In humanities and sociological research, the gender aspect is often taken into account, while in biological research, due to costs, research is often conducted only on male individuals. When organising this competition, we paid attention to taking the gender aspect of research subjects into account when planning scientific research. This is also a very important activity.

I suspect it is very difficult to implement.

The idea is to constantly sensitise researchers to the fact that the gender dimension of the research object is important. Last year we had the first edition of the competition. We awarded one prize each for a master’s thesis and a doctoral thesis. This year we have additional requirements and we are awarding separate prizes for a master’s thesis and a doctoral thesis in the fields of humanities and social sciences and exact and natural sciences, i.e. a total of 4 prizes. The next steps are related to the analysis of the percentage of publications whose first and last authors are women and men. This is difficult research because such statistics have not been produced before, so you have to look at each publication individually. It is quite easy in Polish because most names allow you to distinguish between genders. Producing these statistics aims to increase the number of women who are key authors of scientific publications. In the humanities, the first position, and in the exact sciences, the first and last position in a publication are the most important. Our goal is also to increase the number of women giving plenary lectures at scientific conferences and to raise their number in organising committees, review boards, or chapters awarding prizes.

The last group of activities are those related to the so-called work-life balance. They are aimed at supporting women and men in achieving a balance between professional work and private life. These activities include, among others, creating family rooms in UG buildings and a gym or a playground for children on campus. These activities also include university picnics and events allowing young people and children to get to know scientists’ work at the university up close. These activities also focus on supporting online work, especially in the case of people who have children or elderly people requiring care.

As part of the MINDtheGEPs project, the Council Implementing the Plan of Equal Treatment of Women and Men was also established, of which you are a member. What is the mission of this body?

The Council is primarily responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Gender Equality Plan. At the beginning of 2024, we are going to prepare a report taking into account all the actions contained in this document, divided into those that have already been fully implemented, have been partially implemented, or have not been achieved yet for various reasons. It is worth noting that the first activities were spread over the years 2022-2023. The plan is constantly developing and is continually being enriched with new tasks. The Council’s goal is to monitor the implementation of the plan and indicate how it can be enriched and how it can be modified so that in subsequent years, actions stimulated by the implementation of the Plan are continued. This includes ensuring greater inclusiveness, as well as all actions for gender equality and against discrimination against age, gender, origin or sexual orientation.

How is the action taken under the Gender Equality Plan received by the academic community?

The reception by the university authorities is very positive because the members of the Rector’s College are aware of how important this topic is. The authorities are open to our ideas and activities. We will soon learn more about the effect of what we do in the academic environment because a survey has been sent to all UG employees, containing, among other things, questions about the Gender Equality Plan. The survey may provide us with an answer to the question about UG employees’ general awareness of the implementation of the Plan and the activities undertaken around this topic. The survey includes, among other things, the question: “What activities included in the Gender Equality Plan have you encountered or are aware of?”. All the activities that we undertake as part of the Gender Equality Plan are also conducted as a component of the SEA-EU project. We can also say that there is a kind of “personal union”, because Habilitated Doctor Natasza Kosakowska-Berezecka, prof. of the UG, who coordinates this part of the SEA-EU project, deals with equality issues, and also actively works in the MINDtheGEPs project and the UG Social Responsibility Committee.  She was involved in the creation of the Gender Equality Report and Plan from the beginning. We hope that after analysing the survey results, it will be known what the reception of our activities is among the university community.

You have already partially answered my next question, which was supposed to refer to stereotypes, prejudices and other practices that make it difficult for women to develop scientifically. Is this a challenge that the University of Gdańsk also faces?

When we embarked upon the creation of the Gender Equality Plan and started the debate on implementing feminatives, we met with a lot of resistance and statements that it was impossible because in the official language, there are no feminine forms of such words as professor or doctor.

Now, however, more and more feminatives are in common use. More and more women have approved the use of feminatives in relation to their professions. While the feminine form of assistant professor did not encounter any objections, the feminine form of  professor stirred up a lot of emotions. At the moment, more and more people are starting to think that it is a normal word. There is a prevailing view that feminatives are a nuisance in some professions and positions, and not in others. We are taking action to convince our environment that feminatives should be used, because then it shows that, for example, professors are not only men but also women. I think that inclusive language is very important. Of course, there are also stereotypes. This is especially true for my generation, which was used to many things and unfortunately treats them as a norm. We also raise awareness that women are often burdened with work, the effects of which are difficult to measure. These are time-consuming tasks, but not as effective as, for example, strictly scientific work. These include, for example, preparatory, teaching or organisational work. This often applies to women, because it is easier for men to say: no, I don’t have time for this. Women accept such tasks more easily. It is about assertiveness and the ability to say “no” in certain situations. It seems that there are no drastic situations at the University of Gdańsk that need to be combated. Despite this, we want to direct our activities towards constantly raising awareness. The changes can already be seen, for example, on the website and news articles of the University of Gdańsk, which increasingly often feature feminine forms of such words as vice-rector, professor or expert. I myself have pointed out that when, for example, we announce the recruitment of candidates, we should also remember about female candidates because the information is not addressed exclusively to men. In the official language, positive changes have started to appear in the last few years. Society is beginning to realise that a woman can hold a high position thanks to the change in vocabulary. Words build associations. When we ask a six- or seven-year-old to draw a professor, we can be almost certain that he or she will draw an elderly man with glasses and a beard. A man. By commonly using the term “professoress”, we gradually begin to make those around us aware that women also hold this academic title. Anyway, we are in a relatively good situation, because in the history of Poland, there was Maria Skłodowska-Curie, who was a professor and a two-time Nobel Prize winner.

What other actions are you going to take in the coming months?

Training courses are planned for the management staff of the University of Gdańsk. We have excellent female experts in this field who have experience in teaching similar courses for management staff at the Gdańsk University of Technology and other Polish universities. We are also preparing an information film aimed at popularising paternity and parental leave for men. Our data show that only a minimal percentage of men take such leave. In 2019, it was less than three percent, and in 2022, less than five percent. We want to present the benefits of such leave. Parental leave is simply the norm and men are entitled to it, as well as children who would like to spend time with their fathers. Another issue is the issue of even more widespread introduction of feminatives into the language so that these forms become standard in texts published in university media. We will definitely keep on working on the preparation of family rooms at other faculties and creation of additional infrastructure to help people with children on the university campus. One element of such infrastructure could be a playground.

Thank you very much for the interview.

Interviewed by Szymon Gronowski