In January 2003 the EFTA Court ruled that the practice of reserving some academic positions exclusively for women at Norwegian universities is unlawful according to Norway’s obligations under the EEA agreement. At that time the University of Oslo had reserved eight professor positions for women, and had plans to reserve an additional four positions. As a result of the ruling, the universities were deprived of an important instrument for increasing the proportion of women in high-level academic positions.

Experience from the EU member countries, however, suggests that Norway has interpreted this ruling too strictly, and a number of measures targeted exclusively at women have been implemented within the EU in the aftermath of the ruling. When the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was incorporated into the EU’s Equal Treatment Directive in autumn 2007, the door was opened for the implementation of temporary special measures to increase the proportion of the under-represented gender. Based on advice from the Committee for Mainstreaming - Women in Science in Norway, and recommendations made by the Stjernø Commission, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research is now assessing whether the changes in EU regulations once again permit the reservation of positions at the universities.

Opposition to the practice of reserving positions is heard from many quarters. Arguments such as “the statistics are embellished" and “women selected through a quota system are stigmatised" are repeated often. I agree that this practice presents a challenge, and it is a sign that something is amiss when women must be appointed on a quota basis in order to achieve gender equality in academia. Nonetheless, I believe that a quota system is a crucial instrument as long as it is used in combination with a number of other recruitment measures and is implemented within strategically important areas. Positions may be reserved in variety of ways. One possibility is to reserve one position for a woman for every man employed in fields where women are traditionally under-represented. Another possibility is to set aside research fellowships for women under a female professor in order to create a community around that professor. It is also possible to reserve professor II positions for women or to earmark recruitment grants, for example, by awarding three-year qualifying grants to women in associate professor positions.

Cultural change will occur as more women are appointed to positions in academia, and the University of Oslo is looking forward to reserving positions for women as a gender equality measure. We hope that other public institutions do the same!