Promoting gender equality

Invitations to events related to the International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2025

What conferences, workshops and other events are taking place this year as part of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science?

On February 11, 2025, the conference "Become a Woman Scientist for a Day" will be organized by the Faculty of Nuclear Engineering of CTU together with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of CTU, in collaboration with Second Foundation, BNL-CZ and CERN-CZ. The conference, with female experts from practice and academia, will offer participants the opportunity to experience science first-hand. They can choose from topics ranging from particle physics to robotics to precision machine calibration.

On 11 February 2025, the Faculty of Science of Charles University will host the Women in Science: Challenges and Opportunities on the Way. The event starts at 5.30pm - an evening of inspiring stories and stimulating discussions, with women researchers from different backgrounds sharing their experiences.

Palacký University in Olomouc is organising a "Debate with Women Scientists in the Fortress of Knowledge" on 10 February 2025 and a " Breakfast with Science in the Student Club" on 11 February 2025, especially for junior women scientists and PhD students. Mgr. Michaela Šaradín Lebídková, Ph.D. from the Faculty of Social Studies MU (FSS MU). Her main research interest is digital intimacy and digital wellbeing, which she explores through the lens of media effects. The topic of digital wellbeing is addressed in a joint project of FSS MU and FI MU.

International Day of Women and Girls in Science 11 February 2025 with NKC - Gender and Science

On 11 February 2025, NKC - Gender and Science will launch a month-long online campaign to highlight the changes that should happen in the Czech academic environment to prevent a talent drain and suppression of the potential of women and other marginalised groups. Through the involvement of inspiring women scientists and science students, the campaign aims to highlight that change is not only desirable, but necessary.

This year's NCC campaign for International Day of Women and Girls will run for a month, leading up to Women's History Month and International Women's Day in March. Its international motto this year is Accelerate Action: that is why NKC wants to stress the need for change in the Czech academic environment. What prevents women scientists from developing successful scientific careers? What barriers do they have to face? What do they wish would change? For more information about the campaign, follow the website www.genderaveda.cz.

New FI e-learning: Preventing gender-based violence

What forms of violence are covered by the term gender-based violence? Can you also encounter it in academia?

In the MU Information System, we have put together an interactive training course for male and female employees of the Faculty of Informatics that explains the phenomenon of gender-based violence and offers strategies on how to deal with it if they encounter it on campus. The author of the content is the Gender Information Centre Nora, o.p.s. The training materials were created within the project "Prevention of gender-based violence in the working environment of public research institutions and universities in the Czech Republic", which was financially supported by Norway through the Norway Grants.

The topics of the course include, for example, gender bias against women in academic and research environments, sexual harassment, psychological forms of gender-based violence, bias against women in the recruitment process, gender-balanced expression.

The Preventing Gender-Based Violence e-course can be found HERE.

MU Gender Equality Plan 2025-2028

MU implements a variety of measures to promote gender equality as part of the University's strategic commitment to the principles of transparency, equality and accountability, and at the same time with regard to the work-life balance of all its employees and students. It fulfils this commitment at the level of its units and through the activities of the University as a whole. All this is done on the basis of the MU Gender Equality Plans as well as the sub-gender plans of individual MU faculties and institutes.

The measures set out in the MU Gender Equality Plan 2025-2028 are currently being implemented.

To promote gender equality at MU, the university website Gender Equality at MU was launched in January 2025.

On the page you can find out more about the gender plans, important people and institutions, and the GEP working group at MU. You will also find various educational events, publications and statistics.

CAREER RESTART 2025 grant scheme

The next edition of the CAREER RESTART grant scheme has been announced. The competition period runs from 9 September 2024 to 18 October 2024. The announcement of the results of the call will take place at the GAMU Annual Conference on 11 December 2024.

The aim of Career Restart is to create conditions for the integration of researchers after a career break (e.g. due to parental leave, long-term illness or long-term care of a loved one) into research teams at MU. CAREER RESTART grants will facilitate and accelerate the return of talented young scientists to productive scientific careers and thus increase the percentage of their representation in independent/senior research positions. Detailed information can be found HERE.

The Faculty of Computer Science has adopted the FI Gender Equality Plan (Part 1)

The FI Gender Equality Plan was created based on the outputs and recommendations of the gender audit that FI conducted from April to September 2024 together with external experts from the Gender Information Centre NORA with methodological support from the MU Rector's Office.

The development of the FI Gender Audit and the FI Gender Equality Plan is part of the current Faculty HR Award Action Plan (HRS4R). The same was the case for the 1st Gender Audit and Plan in 2021. The FI Gender Audit covers the following key areas:

• Organizational objectives and institutional arrangements for gender equality policy,
• the organisation's culture and workplace relations,
• the gender dimension in research,
• HR and payroll policies,
• wellbeing and work-life balance.

The six-month audit process consisted of several quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis:

• Analysis of public and internal university and faculty documents, websites and social media. MU and FI networks,
• processing and analysis of statistical data,
• online questionnaire survey,
• 4 face-to-face focus groups,
• face-to-face and online individual interviews with male and female FI employees who expressed interest in the questionnaire survey.

The Faculty of Informatics adopted the FI Gender Equality Plan (Part 2)

The audit found that FI systematically and actively promotes gender equality and diversity. It has incorporated the principles of equal treatment and non-discrimination at faculty level. In 2024, the focus was on the development of the adaptation process for new employees, and the evaluation of non-academic male and female employees was introduced. FI also offers a wide range of arrangements for caring male and female staff, helping to reconcile work and personal/family life. Sub-topics for improvement or development have also been identified. A team of external experts proposed more than 30 measures covering 7 areas:

• Transforming organisational culture,
• work/parenting/life balance,
• recruitment and selection and functional progression,
• gender balance in leadership positions,
• measures against sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence,
• the gender dimension in research and innovation,
• studies and student population.

Suggested measures include, for example, the creation of mentoring programmes to support women's career development, awareness raising and training on the gender dimension in research, gender-based violence or gender-sensitive language, raising awareness of remuneration, benefits, complaints or anti-discrimination law, and the collection and evaluation of gender-segregated data. The implementation of these measures will be subject to regular annual evaluation and review.

We thank all participants in the gender audit for their participation. We greatly appreciate your feedback, your opinions and shared experiences. To share your suggestions for positive change at FI, please email pers@fi.muni.cz.

8th National Conference on Gender and Science

We would like to inform you about an exciting opportunity to participate in the 8th National Conference on Gender and Science, which will take place on 10 September 2024 in Prague at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The theme of this year's conference is "Social Security: From Challenge to Action" and will focus on issues of security and dignity in academic settings, with an emphasis on the prevention of gender-based violence.

The conference is intended for all those interested in gender equality and improving conditions in scientific and academic institutions. It offers a wide range of discussions, workshops and networking activities to share best practices and solutions for a safer and more inclusive work environment.

The conference will be held in person in Prague with the option of online participation for those unable to be physically present. For more information about the program and registration, please visit the official conference website.

Gender Summit Virtual Conference (GS24)

The Gender Summit Virtual Conference (GS24) will take place on 22 May and 23 May 2024. The Gender Summit was established in 2011 as a result of the EU-funded genSET project to create a platform dedicated to gender issues in the environment of scientific institutions.

This year's event will feature approximately 70 international experts who will present the latest research findings and analytical approaches to gender issues that will help the scientific community reflect on the negative impacts of social inequality on the quality of research. In addition, the event will offer a space to discuss measures that help integrate gender policy into scientific practice. The virtual conference will be followed by an in-person meeting on 19 November 2024 in Ottawa, Canada.

A detailed agenda for the virtual conference is available HERE. Participation is free to register HERE.

Gender Sensitive Communication Workshop

On April 10, 2024, staff from the Human Resources Department, the Office of Studies, the Office of Doctoral and International Studies, and the Office of External Relations and Partnerships participated in an online workshop on "Gender Sensitive Communication". The workshop was conducted by the lecturers of NKC Gender and Science.

The workshop was primarily aimed at imparting tips on how to incorporate gender-sensitive communication into regular internal communication, faculty regulations and documents, communication towards students and on social media.

NKC Gender and Science's handbook entitled "How to Gender Sensitive Communication in an Institution" can be downloaded HERE.

Courses Monitoring and Evaluation of the Gender Equality Plan, Gender Equality in the Institution and Gender Equality Plans I and II

Want to learn more about gender equality? The National Contact Centre - Gender and Science of the Institute of Sociology of the CAS offers courses on gender equality, which are designed as e-learning, publicly available training for interested women and men from universities and research organisations in the Czech Republic. These courses are designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of gender equality plans and aim to provide an overall overview of the topic of gender equality.

You can register for the courses HERE.

From April 2024, it is possible to enrol in the new mini-course Monitoring and Evaluation of the Gender Equality Plan. The course focuses on monitoring and evaluation of gender equality plans. It introduces in detail the objectives of monitoring and evaluation, the basic concepts that the field of monitoring and evaluation works with, as well as the manual "How to monitor and evaluate gender equality plans" and specific tools for monitoring and evaluation.

The course "Effective Communication in International/Intercultural Teams

A short course on "Effective Communication within International / Intercultural Teams" will take place from 24 November 2023 to 26 November 2023.

Do you want to learn tips on how to work effectively in an international team, how to manage time management or remote communication? Sign up for a free three-day course organised by the MU Language Learning Centre.

The course is available for MU employees and PhD students who are also employees. Try out exercises and scenarios from practice together with foreign lecturers. The course must be registered for via the CJV website and is conducted in English. Preliminary program and link from the registration can be found HERE.

Webinar on the gender dimension in research

Invitation: On 4 October 2023, the NCC will host a webinar on the gender dimension in research. The online workshop by Professor Stefanie Lemke from BOKU Vienna, entitled Integrating gender in food systems research - concepts, approaches and experiences from the field, is part of the NKC's educational activities on gender and science focusing on the gender dimension in science. The workshop is intended for the professional public and will be held in English.

More information and registration for the webinar can be found HERE.

European Diversity Month

Promoting diversity and creating inclusive workplaces is a long-term challenge. The European Diversity Month is in May and a number of activities take place during the month, such as the International Conference - European Diversity Day 2023: Building Bridges - Diversity, Sustainability and Partnership or the European Commission's Launch Conference with the participation of European Commissioner Helena Dalli - 28 April 2023.

For inspiration, ideas and themes for the European Diversity Month celebrations, you may find the concise and clear Guide, which can be downloaded below in English and English HERE.

Minerva Informatics Equality Reward - Best Practices in Supporting Women

The Minerva Informatics Equality Award recognises outstanding European initiatives and best practices supporting women's careers in informatics research and education. The aim is to recognise successful initiatives with a measurable impact on women's careers at all stages. These initiatives can serve as examples of best practice and be adopted by other institutions. Until 2022, the award was given in a 3-year cycle, focusing on a different career stage each year. Projects from previous years can be found HERE.

Starting in 2023, the focus is on any stage of career advancement for women in computer science research and education. Best practices are compiled in this Informatics Europe BROCHURE.