UiT supports women fleeing the war
March 8 marks International Women’s Day around the world. One of this year’s slogans is about giving women and children on the run, and this year our thoughts go to women from Ukraine. UiT Norway’s Arctic University wants to contribute, and we are now looking at opportunities to help students and academics on the run.
Dag Rune Olsen, Rector of UiT Norway’s Arctic University, Camilla Brekke, Vice-Rector for Research and Development, Kathrine Tveiterås, Vice-Rector for Education, Bente Haug, Vice-Rector, Rikke Gürgens Gjærum, Vice-Rector
Russia has invaded Ukraine, and forced men into war and women and children on the run. Every day we see pictures of Ukrainians hiding in basements and bomb shelters, trying to protect themselves from the atrocities of war. We see women who have to leave the country, hoping to save their children, well aware that they may never see their husbands, sons and girlfriends again. We also see brave Ukrainian women who choose to stay again for a huge fight against the Russian attacks.
Also Russian women demonstrant. It is journalists and researchers, and it is women who engage in Feminist Anti-War Resistance. They mark resistance in the quiet or on the open street in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Petersburg. Some are arrested along with their children when they lay flowers in front of the Ukrainian embassy. In Russia, it is soldiers’ mothers and girlfriends who do not know the whereabouts of their son or husband, and who are informed that they have died in the service.
Focus on women’s health now!
It’s Ukrainian and Russian mothers who have to explain to their children what is happening and do not find words. As in all wars and conflicts, women and children are victims, and as we know, violence against women is often used as a weapon during war and conflict. That is why Women’s Day is important. The day should give us both the strength to look ahead and the humility of looking back. Therefore, we must always remember to honor the women in history.
Women’s Day was founded at a socialist congress in Copenhagen in 1910 on the initiative of the German Marxist Clara Zetkin. International Women’s Day was celebrated for the first time the following year, March 19, 1911. But why was March 8 chosen as an anniversary? Then we have to look to Russia and play exactly 105 years back. Then 90,000 women demonstrated in St. Petersburg with signs like “Down with the Tsar!” and “No to the war!” This was recorded for the Russian Revolution. There were fighting, but the soldiers did not shoot at the protesters, they also took part in the demonstrations. Five days later the tsar was felt. This is Russia for over a hundred years ago, on its way out of autocracy and into the future. Russia went ahead then.
One of this year’s slogans is about feminism being limitless and that we must provide protection for women and children on the run. As a university, we want to do what we can to help the refugees, and we want to contribute. We are currently working on developing measures such as offering studies and opportunities for graduates on the run.
There are others as well women perspectives it is important to remember today. As a university, we have a special responsibility to put diversity, equality, equality and gender on the agenda, and contribute to us achieving the UN’s sustainability goal number 5: gender equality. But the gender perspective is also central, when we are to achieve the other sustainability goals. That is, the major societal challenges in energy and the environment, health, education and global justice. Hege Kristin Andreassen, head of the Center for Women and Gender Research, has summed it up so well: “If gender is missed in work, then we will not achieve sustainable solutions”. At UiT, the gender perspective is central and in a series of short films made on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Center for Women and Gender Research, UiT researchers from various disciplines tell why gender is important in all areas of society and for all of us: UiT research with a gender perspective UiT.
In one of the short films you hear 40 percent of the professors and leaders at UiT are women.This places us at the top of the world in the field of gender equality, and it’s something we celebrate today. At the same time, the figures are a motivator for continuing the important work of research on the topic of justice, inequality and power. Last week, we organized Gender Awareness Week, where international feminism in Poland, Turkey and Africa, among others, was on the agenda.
We in the rectorate are Concerned about the importance of gender in academia and of gender balance in societal development. We want to work for a boys ‘lift in the health subjects and a girls’ lift in the science subjects to ensure equality across all subjects. We have a number of challenges related to justice, inequality and power that we must solve in order for the world to become a good place to be for all of us. UiT wants to contribute to these solutions through research, innovation and competence development.
Congratulations the day for all women and men who work with equality, both in Norway and around the world, and especially warm thoughts go to all women who are in war zones or are on the run.