”We have worked for equal pay over the past four years”
Martin meets JML enthusiasts
In the Martin Edin Grimheden series of interviews with *JML enthusiasts, it's the turn of the Head of the ITM School.
Hi Pär! I'll get straight to the point. Do we have equal pay for equal work at ITM?
”Yes, we actually do”.
How did that come about? Has it always been that way?
”We have tried actively to achieve equal pay over the past four years, with the support service providing us with statistics. For example, four years ago, we could see that in certain categories, there was a difference in median salaries between male and female colleagues. We then made a major investment with our "snedsitspott" at ITM and gave heads of department the task of allocating these extra funds to women based on performance. Since then, we have continued to follow up on salaries at each salary review. Today, we can proudly state that we have equal median salaries between men and women for all forms of employment within the faculty”.
Equal pay is one aspect among others. When I started as head of department in 2019, the former head of school - who appointed me as head of department - thought it was unfortunate that the balance of the management team was changing. Before I was appointed, ITM's management team had an equal number of men and women. Now, this is no longer the case, partly because of me. How do we work with that?
”A couple of years ago, we noticed a lack of female leaders in the organization and began thinking about how to help more women to leadership positions. In discussions with Anna Wahl and Magnus Åkesson, we developed the idea to create an 18-month training program for future leaders at ITM. The program started in April 2023 under Magnus’ supervision. Six women and eight men have applied for or been nominated for the program. The program focuses on supporting individuals' needs and, therefore, includes personal coaching sessions in addition to training. We expect to attract these women and men to apply for leadership positions at ITM in the future. We hope that this pilot initiative will be successful and can later be shared with the other schools at KTH”.
More about the program for future leaders (Swe)
*JML is a KTH concept that stands for Gender Equality, Diversity and Equal opportunities.