DTU’s President member of UN equality initiative

DTU President Anders Bjarklev has just been admitted as a member of the newly created ‘Gender Diversity Roundtable Denmark’, whose task is to find specific tools and solutions that can pave the way for greater gender diversity in top management.

Behind the new equality initiative are Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and UN Women, bringing together 15 top executives from the business community, educational institutions, and social organizations.
Specifically, the members of the new ‘roundtable’ will adopt a targeted approach within their respective sector to promote greater gender diversity in management teams. Thus, they must function as a think tank, a knowledge sharing centre, and pioneers of new specific tools.

Too few female top managers
“Unfortunately, Denmark lags behind its Nordic neighbours when it comes to women in management and research. Although management equality has been high on the Danish agenda for the past decade—and despite considerable focus and initiatives by the corporate sector—there are still only a few female top executives in Danish companies. Businesses thus miss out on the value forged by diverse management,” says Anders Bjarklev.

According to Anders Bjarklev, DTU can help pave the way for increasing the share of women in management and research by knowledge sharing across sectors, discussing specific tangible solutions, and contributing to new research in the area.

We also need to promote gender equality among researchers, as it is entirely understandable that young women looking to establish a career as a researcher may not necessarily consider ageing male professors to be ideal role models. That is why we need more women as heads of research and professors—role models that young researchers can look up to and want to work with,” says Anders Bjarklev.