European charter to promote gender equality launched in Trinity today

The SAGE charter sets out 12 principles to eradicate gender discrimination

Photo by Joe McCallion for Trinity News

A new European charter to promote gender equality has been launched today. The announcement was made during a Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education, which is being held in Trinity this week.

The Systemic Action for Gender Equality (SAGE) charter forms part of the 2020 initiative named the SAGE project. The project seeks to build a stronger commitment to gender equality in third level and research institutions.

The charter has been developed by seven European universities and led by the Centre for Gender Equality and Leadership in Trinity. Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), Universita deli Studi di Brescia, Kadir Has University, Instituto Universitario di Lisboa, Sciences Po Bordeaux and International University of Sarajevo were also involved in developing the charter.

Director of the Trinity Centre of Gender Equality and Leadership, and conference coordinator, Professor Eileen Drew noted that the conference was the “perfect opportunity to launch the much needed charter”. She noted that it clearly outlined some major issues seen in academia today and expressed optimism that “the charter underpins the key principles that will pave the way for the gender agenda”.

The charter sets out 12 principles that support structural, cultural, and political change to eradicate sexism, bias, and other forms of discrimination in research and higher education.

The SAGE charter was developed to eliminate cultural, political and structural factors which play a role in different forms of sexism and discrimination in higher education. Its main goal is to promote equality and inclusiveness in third level institutions.

The charter includes principles which are committed to improving gender balance at all levels of academia, while also eliminating the gender pay gap and promoting policies which will eradicate bullying and harassment.

Professor Drew also looked to the future and called for the commitment of other partner universities, and added that “this campaign will culminate in 2019 with SAGE Ribbon Day that we hope will be celebrated across European universities”.

The conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education being held in Trinity this week has hosted 400 academics over three days. This is the first time the conference has been held in Ireland.