What is the proportion of women and men within the University of Liege, among students and staff ? The ULiège draws up its gender map, as well as the actions - in progress or to come - which tend towards the best possible balance.
Female and male STUDENTS
The proportion of women among undergraduate and postgraduate students remains stable and close to 58%, with 16,412 female students and 11,730 male students.
Women are in the majority in the Faculties of Psychology, Speech and Language Therapy, and Education (81%), Veterinary Medicine (76.2%), Social Sciences (69.9%), Philosophy and Letters (66.9%), Law, Political Science and Criminology (63.5%), Medicine (61.9%) and Architecture (52%).
In contrast, women are in the minority in the School of Engineering (25.4%), at HEC Management School (45.7%), in the Faculty of Sciences (45.9%) and at Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech (47.5%).
Graduates: Postmaster Survey
Based on a survey conducted in 2021 among 2,736 2020 Master's graduates, to which 517 women (31.2%) and 327 men (30.4%) responded, it appears that 15 months after graduation, 84.3% of female graduates have a job, or a paid doctorate or internship, compared to 85.6% of men. The other graduates are continuing their studies (4.4% of women and 4.3% of men) or applying for a job (7.4% of women and 7.3% of men). We note that 52.8% of men have a permanent contract compared to 47.8% of women. 15% of women work part-time, compared to 9.9% of men.
Men are more numerous in the civil service (21.8% for 17.2% of women). The number of men and women working as self-employed is almost similar (12.6% of women and 13.2% of men). On the other hand, more women than men have a temporary status (5.5% for 2.9% of men).
According to this survey, for a full-time job, women are more numerous in the low wage categories: 11.7% of women have a net salary of less than 1,500 euros against 6.1% of men. Conversely, men are more numerous in the highest salary categories: 7.8% of men have a salary of more than 3,000 euros compared to 5.8% of women.
Female and male researchers
Women represent 50.5% of the scientific staff and are distributed in similar similar proportions among permanent scientists (54%) and temporary scientists (51%). Most of them are under 35 years old (63.4%), similar to the situation of male scientific staff (63.2%).
Women account for 50% of the doctoral graduate, compared to 45% in 2010. In particular, they are 71% in humanities and social sciences, 61% in health sciences, and 40% in science and technology, the sector with the highest number of PhDs.
Women are well represented among researchers at the beginning of their careers (51.5%), but their proportion decreases as their careers progress (post-doctorate or equivalent: 46.8%; confirmed researchers: 34.6%).
Women represent 50.8% of FNRS FRESH-FRIA fellows, 55.3% of FNRS aspirants, 47.8% of post-docs and 34.9% of qualified researchers.
academic staff
In 2022, 29.6% of the academic staff are women:
- 28% of lecturers (71 women for 182 men) for 28% in 2010
- 30% of female professors (59 women for 140 men) for 16% in 2010
- 27% of ordinary female professors (52 women for 144 men) for 8% in 2010
Although there has been an increase, women remain a minority at all levels of the academic career.
There is also a disparity in the proportion of women professors and lecturers in the different Faculties: in 6 of them, women represent less than 25% of the professors
Rector, deaneries, councils, directorates
For the first time in its history, the University of Liège has a female Rector, who has three female advisors in her team. In addition, since 2020, ULiège has a female Administrator.
There are currently three female deans in the 11 faculties. On the other hand, there are as many male vice-deans as there are female vice-deans (8 women are vice-deans for Teaching and 3 women are vice-deans for Research).
On the Board of Directors, there are 12 women out of 38 members.
There is a policy to better balance their representation on the sectoral research councils with 18 women for 29 men.
The administrative directorates are almost exclusively occupied by women (11 women for 3 men).
honorary doctors
20% of the honorary doctors at ULiège are women.
However, in the 2021 edition, they were in the majority with 6 women out of the 11 laureates
Stimulating the arrival and retention of women
Parity has been achieved in certain categories, such as scientists. The administration at ULiège demonstrates that women can hold, with excellence, management positions that are still difficult for them to access in other sectors of the labor market. However, they are still in a clear minority at the level of the Board of Governors (the University's decision-making body) and it has taken more than ten years to see the number of women holding the highest academic degree increase from 8 to 27% (only).
As Florence Caeymaex, Advisor in charge of ethics and equality policies since October1, 2022, points out, "we should not be happy about the overrepresentation of women in certain fields of study either, because, from a sociological point of view, the abandonment of a sector by men is often a sign of its symbolic and economic devaluation. This is why parity remains so important."
How to change the situation?
Waiting for the trends to reverse themselves does not seem to be an option for a university that aims for excellence in all areas : teaching, research, but also its own practices. So how can we change the way our institution operates?
For Florence Caeymaex, "moving towards parity in all categories requires not imposing quotas, nor simply encouraging women, but fighting against discrimination. This means removing, wherever necessary, the unfair and unjustified obstacles that stand in the way of women in their studies and their professional lives. On the one hand, transforming social relations in the university: addressing sexist behaviors, ending sexual harassment, and thinking together about healthier forms of mentoring relationships (from professor to student, from supervisor to researcher). On the other hand, adapting the organization of work: making visible and correcting gender biases in research evaluation, in recruitment and promotion procedures, and adapting work practices to the real lives of women and men, to make them more compatible with tasks related, for example, to parenthood or peer support."
