Society needs engineers, including more engineers than are currently being educated. We are therefore doing everything we can to attract new talents to DTU’s study programmes—both women and men. But we cannot aim for a completely equal gender balance.
By Anders Bjarklev
Is it an expression of gender equality if there are equal numbers of women and men in all study programmes and position levels within the university system? No, not necessarily. We should not become fixated with figures, because if our gender management is based on a rigid fifty-fifty balance, we actually run the risk of being discriminatory—against both sexes.
If DTU were to achieve a gender balance within a few years, we would have to get rid of a lot of highly talented men. This would entail a huge loss of experience, and what would the argument for this be? That they are men? Likewise, it would, in my opinion, be discriminatory to choose women solely based on their gender.
No, we need to start somewhere else entirely and work with the gender roles and prejudices that are instilled in young people long before they apply for admission to a higher education programme. For example, many immediately think of a man when saying carpenter or engineer, while a nurse is often associated with a woman. This is where DTU’s work on gender equality in our study programmes starts: We try—by various means—to show that an engineer may just as well be a woman as a man.
We should obviously not all become engineers, but everyone must have an actual basis for making their choice, which must preferably not be based on prejudices. This means that we focus on showing that engineering is not just technology for technology’s sake, but aims more broadly at improving living conditions for people. And in all our image material, we strive to show the diversity of our students. In this way, we generally try to invite a greater range of people into DTU—and, in these years, especially more women.
Special offers for women do not discriminate men
"I would not like to reserve half the places in a study programme for women. We should not remove the unfair practices of the past by creating new ones. But we can do something special for a certain group of people—for example girls—who have the abilities for and commitment to the natural sciences, but who do not really see themselves studying the STEM ."
Anders Bjarklev, President
We also take the liberty of organizing special events for women in areas such as IT, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering, which traditionally mostly attract men. Some find that this is discriminatory against men, but I do not agree with that. Camps for women are simply an extra opportunity among many others to learn more about what it means to study at DTU.
I would not like to reserve half the places in a study programme for women. We should not remove the unfair practices of the past by creating new ones. But we can do something special for a certain group of people—for example girls—who have the abilities for and commitment to the natural sciences, but who do not really see themselves studying the STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Mathematics) subjects.
Prior to this autumn’s Engineering Camp for girls, we spoke with current students of these subjects. And here we became aware that women who choose, for example, electrical engineering, typically already know some who have chosen that path. This shows how important role models are, and we therefore also make an extra effort to introduce these young people to both women and men who are studying or have graduated in these subjects.
There are no quick solutions to the lack of gender equality in these study programmes, it is a long haul. We just have to keep focusing on the following objective: that all people should have the same opportunities, and we must constantly strive to become better at looking without prejudice for the only thing that really counts: Commitment and ability.