The Equality Plan of ISCTE-IUL and the Charter of Principles for Equality in Higher Education, prepared under the SAGE project, were presented this Monday in the presence of the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education and the Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality
The Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education said on Monday that the next few years in universities and polytechnics will be “career strengthening”. “Higher education institutions have until 2022 to guarantee 50% of the career professors, namely university professors and associate professors, and coordinating professors, in polytechnics,” confirmed Manuel Heitor before a mostly female auditorium, stressing that an ideal time to implement gender equality measures in the recruitment of institutions.
The Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality also believes that we are at a different time, taking into account Horizon 2020 with objectives such as gender equality in scientific careers, gender balance in decision-making, research and innovation.
Rosa Monteiro does not forget the importance of evaluation criteria in the field of Gender Equality. “It is not only the descriptive representation of more women in decision-making positions in universities but also a substantive representation. Those organizations change and transform themselves, that promote more conciliation, recognizing what are the specificities and difficulties of life resulting from the overloads that persist in the lives of women and men, “said Rosa Monteiro.
Also present at this “Day of SAGE”, an event dedicated to gender equality, organized by the seven universities that integrate this international project financed by the European Commission and whose objective is to implement Plans for Gender Equality in higher education institutions, was the president of the Governing Council of the Foundation for Science and Technology. Helena Pereira believes that the representation of women in research, doctorates and even in areas such as engineering is “relatively good”. “In research, it’s even dominant.
These measures, which, according to the coordinator of the Polytechnics and president of the Polytechnic of Setúbal, undergo a quota system. “Among the polytechnics, only one has an exclusively male governing body, but I defend that it is necessary to promote equality and consider measures as quotas for discussion, even because inequality has repercussions on careers and wages,” said Pedro Dominguinhos.
For the head of the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality, Higher Education is fertile ground for the implementation of policies in this area. “It is where knowledge takes place and simultaneously it is in higher education that we have a knowledge of how certain systems work. If I want to intervene in a system, be it health, economy or other, I have to work with who studies it, knows it, besides being a specialist in the area of studies on women and gender, “concluded Teresa Alvarez.
At the end of the work, the coordinator of the SAGE project by ISCTE-IUL, Lígia Amâncio, underlined the moment as fundamental for the dissemination of the various European projects that, in several Portuguese universities, work with similar interest and commitment to take measures to combat the imbalances of and promote gender awareness in higher education.
