Sweden struggles to keep up on gender balance

Sweden lags behind the UK and Norway when it comes to gender balance among researchers, a report has found.

The share of women researchers in Sweden was 33 per cent in 2014, compared with 37 per cent in the UK and Norway, according to an annual research barometer published by the Swedish Research Council on 28 June. Gender balance was the worst among professors—in 2016, 26 per cent of professors were women, the report said. Nevertheless, Sweden is seeing a generally positive trend for gender balance.

The barometer aims to take stock of research in Sweden and to provide an overview of the country’s research output, comparing it internationally. It found that Sweden is top five among OECD countries in terms of both business and public spending on R&D as a percentage of GDP.