University of Gothenburg
Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research
  2. Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research
  3. What We Do
  4. A free knowledge society

A free knowledge society

What is needed in a free knowledge society? We work on the conditions for education and research. The higher education sector is analysed both in terms of its importance for a democratic society and as workplaces with their specific working conditions, norms and structures.

The importance of scientific analyses, facts and results is questioned today. Authoritarian, populist, and nationalist ideological currents aim in particular to invalidate critical knowledge perspectives, such as those that make visible vulnerable minorities, exclusionary norms around gender, body and ethnicity, and how power and oppression create inequality. In this context, it is particularly important to emphasise the specific conditions of gender researchers and gender scientists. But within the academic structures there are also problems. Therefore, we also focus on the vulnerability of teachers, researchers and students to hate, threats and gender-based violence.

Conversations on the conditions of research
In 2024-2025, the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research is organising a series of discussions on the conditions for…
GenderSAFE
GenderSAFE focus on methods to counteract gender-based violence in academia. Gender-based violence is an extensive problem…
Threats and Hate against Representatives of Academia
Threats and hate towards employees in higher education is threat against democratic dialologue.
UniSAFE
Despite the scale, the political significance and the growing interest in academia, gender-based violence in research…
SUPPORTER
Higher education in sport and sport institutions is characterised by unequal conditions and widespread issues of gender…
GENDERACTIONplus
Gender-based violence and harassment resides throughout the European Research Area, ERA. Two out of three students and staff…
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