Newsmail #38, 2022-10-14
Dear all,
The last two to three weeks I have joined in total eight meetings, combined to 15 hours, focused on JML (gender equality, diversity and equal conditions). Some of these meetings I led, some I joined as a participant. One of these meetings included participants from all over KTH, invited by our vice rector Anna Wahl, including everyone at KTH with a responsibility for JML issues: various JML groups, people with JML-titles.
At this meeting, groups from all five schools, admin and the student union reported about what’s happening in their organizations in relation to JML. It is impressive to see so many things happening in so many places. From library staff explaining a gender equality mindset when ordering new books, service center staff explaining how they are replacing door-openers to enable access for persons with those needs, heads of schools pushing their managers towards greater understanding of gender equality issues.
Tomorrow represents exactly five years since the MeToo-movement started, with a small tweet. There’s definitely more focus on these issues now, as with the meeting(s) above. But, this week, at the ITM PhD supervision faculty seminar, led by the ITM director for 3rd cycle education Mats Magnusson, we learnt that one out of five of all PhD students at KTH are experiencing discrimination. We still see people getting hurt.
I therefore invite all MMK members to use this opportunity to consider the enormous force created by the MeToo-movement, that this force is not weakened or forgotten. We need to remember the discussions, even after the news media shifts focus, to consider our own environments, our research groups, our classrooms.
Best,
Martin