Council for Women in Higher Education and Science

17 03 2025

On March 7, 2025, the Minister of Science and Higher Education announced the establishment of the Council for Women in Higher Education and Science. The new advisory body is to support activities for gender equality in the academic community, analyze the situation of women in science and recommend solutions to improve their working conditions and development of scientific careers. Among the persons appointed to the Council were two representatives of the University of Warsaw.

The Council as a response to inequalities in science

The Council for Women in Higher Education and Science was established to support equal opportunities, the development of women’s scientific careers and to improve their working conditions. Its task will be to indicate areas of action for the Minister in the field of equality policies, to give opinions on regulations and acts prepared by the Ministry and to identify actions to counteract exclusion on the basis of gender.

According to data from the POL-on system, only 28% of persons with the title of professor are women, and in the STEM area only 33% of academic teachers are women. At the European level, the situation is similar – in the STEM research sector women constitute only 29% of staff.

Goals and tasks of the Council

The Council for Women in Higher Education and Science will work under the leadership of prof. dr hab. Anna Pacześniak. The body will deal with, among others:

analyzing the situation of women in science and higher education,
giving opinions on draft laws and regulations in terms of gender equality,
recommending actions to eliminate barriers and discrimination,
examining foreign solutions in order to implement good practices in Poland.

A Step Towards Equality

The establishment of the Council for Women in Higher Education and Science is an important step towards building a more just and equal scientific environment. The Council’s activities are intended to accelerate cultural and institutional changes that will enable women to fully utilize their potential in science and higher education.

Composition of the Council for Women in Higher Education and Science

prof. dr hab. Anna Pacześniak
dr inż. Barbara Juszczyk
prof. dr hab. inż. Agnieszka Zakrzewska-Bielawska
mgr Aneta Trojanowska
dr Paulina Sekuła
dr hab. Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak
dr Anna Cybulko
dr Iwona Reichardt
prof. dr hab. Bogumiła Burda
dr hab. Joanna Hańderek
dr hab. Iwona Chmura-Rutkowka
dr hab. Katarzyna Leszczyńska
dr hab. Patrycja Matusz
dr Janina Petelczyc
mgr Janina Bąk
dr hab. Małgorzata Niewiadomska-Cudak
dr Barbara Godlewska-Bujok
mgr Monika Mielnik Kurek
dr hab. inż. Anna Kłos
dr inż. Małgorzata Krokowska-Paluszak
dr inż. Natalia Schmidt-Polończyk
dr Anna Knapińska

Source: https://www.gov.pl/web/nauka/rada-ds-kobiet-w-szkolnictwie-wyzszym-i-nauce-nowy-krok-ku-rownosci