Record audience at final JU LIVE this year
On Thursday 27 November, Anna Nordén, Assistant Professor in Economics at Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University (JU), delivered the final JU LIVE lecture of the autumn semester. The audience learned more about how power, resources, and opportunities are distributed between women and men.
Anna Nordén also leads research at Ownershift, a non-political, non-profit organization that works for economic equality with a particular focus on women's ownership. Using statistics from Ownershift's reports, she illustrated how ownership is distributed in areas such as land, housing, businesses, forests, patents, music rights and children's savings. The lecture had the striking title Who owns (in) Sweden.
Anna Nordén on stage
Boys and men own more
Visitors learned that men own twice as much as women in Sweden. The differences start early: even as children, boys have a total of SEK 901 million more than girls in savings in their own name, and at the age of 18, the gap is at its widest. Ownershift has also looked at what happens to ownership in divorces and found that the differences deepen further, with men owning more both during and after marriage.
“Overall, the statistics show that ownership is not just an economic issue – it affects people's freedom, security and influence,” says Anna Nordén.
She pointed out that there are three main reasons why this is the case:
- The man as the norm: Owners are stereotypically seen as men, and many lack female role models.
- Many little streams make a mighty river: Women earn less throughout their lives because they take on greater responsibility for unpaid domestic work.
- Catch-22: Even if women try to change their behaviour, they are not treated in the same way as men.
Visitor Gunnar Enequist
“All open lectures are good”
Audience member Gunnar Enequist was visiting Jönköping from Linköping and as he used to work in the higher education sector he decided to attend the open lecture.
“It was a good lecture; she was knowledgeable and engaging. The subject itself is always relevant; the distribution of ownership is both interesting and important. All open lectures are good because one of the tasks of educational institutions is to disseminate their research,” says Gunnar Enequist.
The USA, light, saliva and ownership – wide range at JU LIVE
The idea behind JU LIVE is to disseminate JU's research to the public in an easily understandable way. Each semester, four lectures are held – one from each school – which provides a wide range of content.
During the autumn term, audiences heard researchers discuss contemporary developments in the United States, political polarization and the challenges facing democracy under the theme “Talking about the United States”. Just in time for the autumn darkness, the lecture “Wake up to light, wind down to darkness: The role of light in activity and sleep” was held on how light affects our well-being. The second to last lecture, “The amazing saliva – One of the body's superpowers,” highlighted the important role of saliva: protecting teeth and mucous membranes, breaking down food, balancing bacterial flora, and serving as the body's first line of defence against infections.
“I think JU LIVE is a very good format because it makes research accessible to a wider audience and creates a natural meeting place between academia, society and industry,” says Anna Nordén.
JU LIVE will continue in the spring semester with four new interesting lectures.
News about previous lectures
News about the lecture Talking about the USA
News about the lecture The amazing saliva – one of the body's superpowers
If you would like to receive the spring term programme, please email julive@ju.se
The programme will be available in January.
