Gender Equality Plan INOQ
Striving for gender equality generally means striving to attain the same possibilities, rights, and obligations for people regardless of their gender. In practice, it consists of redistributing resources and opportunities so that they are shared by all genders equally, preventing sexual harassment, creating conditions that allow for combining work and parenthood, and integrating a gender perspective into education and course literature. Achieving equality requires an active and continuous effort. This gender equality plan functions as a guide to action and also as a policy document for INOQ. The CEO is responsible for the equality issues at INOQ and will, together with the Equality Officer, monitor INOQ’s activities and ensure that the gender equality plan is followed.
The plan was approved by INOQ’s Group Management on 10.2.2022. The document sets out INOQ’s ambitions and goals related to promoting gender equality within the organization, as well as key initiatives to achieve these ambitions. The plan is based on INOQ’s current situation and circumstances as a biotech group.
INOQ appreciates the EU’s initiative to strengthen gender equality and diversity in the field of research. In order to maintain our key role in society, deliver the best results, and continue to address the major societal challenges, INOQ requires diversity among its employees’ experience, attitudes and perspectives. INOQ has been working for many years to encourage diversity and promote gender equality within the organisation.
INOQ has zero tolerance towards any type of bullying, gender-based violence and sexual harassment. Incidents or matters worthy of criticism will be reported accordingly to our internal routines for whistleblowing. In addition, we monitor and map incidents regarding bullying and sexual harassment through our annual working environment survey. All reported cases are followed up in accordance with established procedures in INOQ’s management system in order to resolve each specific case, take care of the person concerned, and prevent inappropriate behavior from recurring.
Staff and decision-makers are sensitized and trained on the topic of equality and unconscious gender bias in annual staff appraisals.
The current situation
We actively seek to hire colleagues of all genders. For 25 years, the majority of employees have been female, including management, and the current percentage of women in the INOQ Group is 60 % (9/2023).
Objectives
We wish to strengthen our efforts to achieve an organisation-wide gender equality by means of systematic and long-term work. As a foundation for this work, we have defined the number of employees as a development target. We believe that a ratio of 60 % women to 40 % men is an appropriate target for the entire organisation. The option of a 50/50 ratio is considered to be unrealistic due to the inherent bias in INOQ’s recruitment base in several fields.
Our starting point is to use the current status of a range of staff numbers as a benchmark for gender equity trends (see the table below). We assume that INOQ as a whole can maintain an equality ratio of at least 60/40.
INOQ gender equality targets
| Organisational dimension | Status (2021) | Current status (2023) | 3 years (2027) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Overall equality status |
Ratio women/men 75/25 |
Ratio women/men 60/40 |
Ratio women/men Minimum 60/40 |
Responsibility and resources
Compliance with the INOQ Equality Plan is binding for INOQ’s team leaders. They are responsible for creating plans with targets and measures in their area of responsibility and for implementing them so that INOQ can achieve its overall goals. Team leaders are supported in the performance of their duties by dedicated resources and shared systems.
INOQ’s CEO has overall responsibility for supporting and overseeing the work to implement INOQ’s gender equality plan and ensuring the development of systems and tools that support the work to achieve gender equality.
Progress reports
We use our established systems to monitor and document the progress on gender equality on an annual basis. We focus in particular on the senior researcher level, as this is a key position in relation to our core activities. It also forms the basis for developing gender equality in organizational dimensions such as the management of major research projects, publications, and management roles.
Status assessments
We have prepared reports outlining the status of gender equality in relation to the organizational dimensions listed below.
- Gender equality for INOQ overall
Documentation of progress and target/action adjustment
We use a system for annual reporting on the status of the dimensions listed above. This includes the monitoring of corporate governance activities throughout the year. The aim here is to determine whether the plan is progressing in the direction required for INOQ to achieve its objectives. These annual status updates provide the basis for the adjustment of targets and the adaptation of actions in support of ensuring progress in the required direction.
Dr. Carolin Schneider (CEO)
