Gender Equality Fund as an internal drive for university-wide engagement

Jelena Angelis, Malin Skanelid and Giada Baldessarelli, Stockholm School of Economics

The SSE Gender Equality Fund (GE Fund) is one of the initiatives designed as part of the Gender Equality Plan of the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) ‘Program 40/60 2023’ developed during the Horizon 2020 funded Targeted-MPI project.

The Fund was established in 2022 to support projects promoting gender equality at SSE. All employees, PhD students, and people with SSE affiliation for at least one year are eligible to apply for funding. Their project must have a well-defined connection to one or more focus areas and/or specific actions in the SSE Gender Equality Plan.

The inspiration for establishing a GEF came from similar initiatives in other Swedish universities. Specifically, it started with the SSE Targeted-MPI project team reviewing online resources to gather insights and inspiration from activities and achievements of similar initiatives (i.e., learning from others). Drawing from resources gathered on such initiatives, like the UN Women – Fund for Gender Equality, the team identified the requirements for application, what would be necessary to include in an application form and a grant report, and developed relevant documentation.

The Fund runs annually following an annual call for proposals advertised on the SSE’s portal. The team also approaches departments and divisions at the university to present the opportunities the Fund offers. Once the applications are submitted, the Gender Equality Coordinator and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Manager review them and submit the decision proposal to the SSE Executive Management Team. The latter authorizes the final decision. Funded projects submit a grant report and a financial report on the completion of their funded projects, as well as conduct dissemination and communication activities about their GEF-supported project.

The total amount available in the GE Fund has been SEK 50,000 each year in 2022 and 2023, and SEK 100,000 in 2024. Funding comes from the internal Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity budget of the HR department and not from the central university budget.

Despite the modest funding, six exciting projects were funded in 2022-2023, and four are in the final funding allocation step for 2024.

• SEK 20,000 was awarded in 2023 to the Department of Finance for EmpowHERed CollabHERation.
• SEK 12,500was awarded in 2023 to the Library for Empowering Minds, Transforming Futures, Making Art: A Gender Equality Education Project.
• SEK 9,000 was awarded in 2023 to External Relations, Alumni Team for International Equal Pay Day.
• SEK 24,000 was awarded in 2023 to the External Relations Program Marketing Team for a need-based scholarship for women admitted to the MFIN or MAVFM programs.
• SEK 30,000 was awarded in 2022 and SEK 10,000 in 2023 to the SSE Library for the project Diversity & Equality Book Collection.
• SEK 20,000 was awarded in 2022 to the External Relations department for their project Female Student Recruitment​.

Challenges to be aware of and enablers to utilize when setting up a Gender Equality Fund

When establishing the fund, it was crucial to inform the organization of this new initiative and help the employees understand what projects one could apply for. This has gone better than anticipated as we conducted sizable work to post info on the internal webpage (including setting up the GE Fund’s own webpage), talk about the GE Fund in different internal forums, and schedule short meetings/email conversations with people interested in applying. All these marketing activities have been vital in informing the organization. Another challenge was how to communicate the different GEF-funded projects in the best way to not only let the organization know about the project itself but also promote the GEF. We’ve been persistent in highlighting that all funded projects must be disseminated to the organization.

Having internal funding, of course, was a huge enabler. This made it an easy process to initiate the GE Fund. In addition, after the first edition of the Fund, it was much easier to disseminate the information for the call in the 2^nd and 3^rd years. Examples of funded projects – especially when encompassing a diverse range of activities – helped a lot. Finally, one enabler was already built into the application process: The guidelines clearly stated, “Priority will be given to projects that include co-financing from a department, unit or equivalent at SSE and/or external funding”. This was an explicit attempt to embed gender equality conversations into the functions of the university.

Key tips to other Business & Management schools interested in Gender Equality Fund

• Every little bit helps! Even if the budget of the Fund is not huge, it allows to kick start some internal projects AND gather some useful examples.
• Don’t start from scratch! Other universities tried multiple initiatives around gender equality, diversity, and inclusion. The most powerful outcomes—and long-term impact—come from building on the experience of others. The GE Fund at SSE was inspired by similar pursuits in other Swedish universities. Some were more successful than others, thus providing fantastic input on how to start, what to do, and what not to do.
• Make them part of the journey. The only way to bring changes into the culture of an organization is by involving the members of that organization to contribute to a collective goal. When designing an application form for the GE Fund, the SSE team has purposefully included a question about how a particular project (an applicant was seeking funding for) would contribute to one or several of the five focus areas and/or actions set in the SSE Gender Equality Plan (GEP). To apply, people had to read and be very familiar with the institutional GEP. In this way, applicants had to think about the intended impact of their project on achieving gender equality within their department/unit or SSE as a whole. This is a gentle – but powerful – way to spread the GEP among different parts of the institution.
• Communicate, communicate, communicate! Bringing examples from different parts of the university is very powerful. Library, studies programs, HR office, individual departments – each has unique activities contributing to gender equality, diversity, and inclusion. Each team that received funding had to include some dissemination activities. These ranged from an internal presentation, an inauguration of a new library collection (with home-baked gender equality themed cookies), a dedicated (to specific departments) workshop, and an article. The more varied the communication and dissemination activities are, the more varied parts of the university community they can reach.

In conclusion, the GE Fund has been a rewarding initiative introduced by SSE, which strives to continue promoting and improving gender equality at all university levels and functions.