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Process
Portia Ltd designs and implements effective strategies for gender equality in Science, Engineering and Technology. At Portia our work is organised around four key elements: evidence, dialogue, consensus, and actions.
Using this methodology we create effective strategies that promote gender equality in: science knowledge making, its applications, and communication; different science and engineering disciplines; in education; in research and innovation; in commercialisation of technical knowledge.
The evidence, in particular recent empirical studies, critical reviews, evaluated examples of good practice, etc., starts the process and frames the content of the dialogue, the consensus, and of the actions.
A demonstration how this works in practice is provided by the genSET project. Some 120 research studies provided the evidence that a panel of science leaders considered to establish a consensus on the recommendations for action targeting science institutions.
If you find our approach interesting and would like to adopt it in your work, please contact us.
Partners
We work by creating collaborative partnerships, small and big, with organisations that share the same mission and are looking for effective solutions to widely experienced problems. The largest project partnership we have managed involved 70 organisations. A partnership can also be about networks for sharing knowledge and experience. For example in the genSET project we established a Stakeholder Network with around 200 organisations to promote capacity building for mainstreaming gender in science institutions. Our partners come from different sectors: academia, schools, industry, policy, government, women's organisations, professional bodies and associations, media and other areas. If you would like to work with us, or feel our networks may be helpful to the work you do, please contact us.
Publications
We have accumulated an extensive collection of recent studies in the area of gender issues in science. Many are available on the genSET website. Some of the key documents we have produced can be found on the Publications page on this website. In 2010 we produced a special issue of the Interdisciplinary Science Reviews journal on Gender in Science. Currently we are working on a review of recent research involving the gender dimension to highlight how this kind of research can open up new markets for science knowledge. If there are examples of empirical studies and critical reviews that you feel we should feature, please contact us.
About Us
Portia was set up by women scientists in 1997 to promote gender equality in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine. Portia incorporated as a not-for-profit company in 2001 and since then has led national and international partnerships to deliver high impact projects. More recently, our attention has increasingly focused on the role of gender as a dimension of quality in research and innovation, where, we believe, it can stimulate new research ideas and opportunities for new markets for science knowledge. This perspective has a strong link to recent European policy initiatives such as HORIZON 2020, Innovation Union and European Research Area.
Latest News
Established in 2011, the Gender Summit has become the foremost annual forum for engaging top-level researchers, policy makers, science and innovation leaders, and other actors and stakeholders in STEM, to address gender issues in research and innovation where they impact on efficacy, quality and success of these sectors. The aim of the 3rd Gender Summit, which is focused on North America, is to interconnect all relevant stakeholders in a Call to Action to achieve positive change towards greater diversity in the Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics (STEM) workforce and leadership, and greater inclusion of sex and gender considerations (the “gender dimension”) in research content and process. Join the Summit to: hear the latest research evidence from global experts; network with a wide range of stakeholders from across the world; learn from best practice examples of how to positively promote gender equity and gender considerations in STEM; and have your say on future changes in the field. Go to the Gender Summit 3 - North America (GS3-NA) website This article details the background, goals and achievements of the most recent European Gender Summit, 2012. You can read about the event's origins and underpinning research, as well as the benefits created so far, and plans for this year in the USA. 
Gender Summit 3 - North America website launched
"(gen)SET for gender equality" - Dr Pollitzer's article on the EGS2012
(gen)SET for gender equality. For more information on the publication visit www.paneuropeannetworks.com.
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