The gender perspective is important – if it is relevant to the course content. This is the case, according to the student union LundaEkonomerna, as it pertains to two specific courses in economics not applying a specific gender perspective.
“As a union, the LundaEkonomerna union is of the mindset that the gender issue is highly imperative, but that it carries different levels of importance for different courses,” says Anton Blidheim, Vice President of LundaEkonomerna. He doesn’t know why the gender perspective has been discarded from the two courses.
“I don’t know why they’ve chosen to cross it out entirely.”
Anton Blidheim claims he believes that the gender perspective should be included, if it is to be applied in a program which takes place for several years, but he doesn’t want to specifically comment on the two courses that ignored the gender perspective.
“I can’t comment on certain individuals’ opinions in this discussion,” he says.
Relevance decides
Anton Blidhem believes that the relevance for courses varies depending on the course type.
“It’s less relevant to apply a gender perspective if we’re dealing with a course in mathematics. It’s probably possible to include it anyways, but it could have come across as a bit contrived,” he says.
Josefin Kilman is taking the Master’s program in Economics, and is of the mindset that the gender perspective could be irrelevant, even on courses of economics.
“The gender perspective enhances the economic analysis and widens the understanding. Also, I think more women maybe should take more interest in economics, which for a long time has been a male-dominated community,” she says.
Anna Berglund is taking the introduction course of economics within the confines of the Politicies Bachelor’s program, and she also believes it wouldn’t be relevant to include the gender issue on her course. She says that the lectures have been dealing with certain fields to which the gender issue could have been relevant – but the professor did not bring it up.
“There are a lot of moments where I thought: why didn’t he bring up the question of gender differences in this case? Why was no light shed on the gender perspective in this particular instance? When they opt to not bring gender issues to light, or even include its perspective, you ask yourself what that says about the Department,” she says.
Gender taboo
Josefin Kilman believes that talking about gender-related issues might be a taboo, even if she thinks it is important that the University operate as a cutting-edge institution and can show more scenarios in which society includes the gender perspective.
”It’s a bit of taboo to talk about gender. You don’t really want to deal with it, it is inconvenient,” says Josefin Kilman.
Anton Blidheim has a different view on the matter. He does not believe the gender discussion is censored at the Department, but that it is rather discussed from a course relevance standpoint.
“Just because the syllabus doesn’t include it today, doesn’t mean that a discussion is off limits on the course,” he says.
READ MORE: The University Ignores Their Own Gender Policy
READ MORE: Discarded Gender Perspective Causes Indignation
Text: Sigrid Rosell
Translation: Maximilian Aleman-Tennell
