Towards a gender-sensitive university

How Can Higher Education Promote Gender Equality, Diversity and Non-Discrimination?

“…Many women have reported that they lack support in their academic careers [4]. Fourth, unconscious bias is one of the main challenges in HEs and universities [13]. Until now, the promotion work has been done mainly as projects; although it should be part of the everyday work of HE institutions.…”

Developing a theoretical framework for exploring the institutional responses to the Athena SWAN Charter in higher education institutions—A feminist institutionalist perspective

“…The gender-sensitive university is driven within the Charter by facilitating concerted action to address gender inequalities; by requiring the design and implementation use of contextually designed gender equality plans for each HEI, which cover a range of areas including: 'leadership, organisational culture, recruitment, promotion and retention policies, gender in research' and addressing issues around harassment and assault, as Bencivenga and Drew (2020: 181) outline when describing the concept. Athena SWAN is certainly a tangible way to work towards the goal of a gender-sensitive institution, by tackling gender inequalities and opening up educational and professional opportunities for all genders (Bencivenga and Drew, 2020). However, whilst the adoption of the Charter is to be welcomed, it needs to go 'beyond data collection and monitoring' towards more direct approaches of promoting more women as leaders (Power 2020) otherwise progress will remain slow and incremental at best.…”

“…These limitations are also acknowledged as being heavily influenced and determined by wider socio-political factors that go beyond the scope of the Charter (Caffrey et al 2016). Despite such limitations, intentional institutional reform initiatives, such as the Athena SWAN Charter, play a crucial role in supporting institutional actors develop 'an understanding of what constitutes a good society, without necessarily being able to achieve it, and how alternative institutions may be imagined to contribute to such a world' (March and Olsen, 1989: 91), whether such initiatives meet with resistance or not (Bencivenga and Drew, 2020;Lowndes, 2020).…”

“…Social and political institutions peak the interest of feminist scholars because of the influence they have in shaping, or, more often than not, frustrating 'the intentions of reforming actors' in order to implement gender-equity strategies (Lowndes, 2014: 689). However, more than this, is the potential for institutions to embed gender-just actions and pledges in a gender-sensitive university where the academy is reconceived as embodying greater inclusiveness in our understanding of gender and intersectionality (Bencivenga and Drew, 2020). It is this potential for reform, change and action that drives the search to uncover how and why institutional rules, processes and norms impact the way in which institutional change can be embedded, in order to inform and improve gender equality programmes and strategies.…”

Gender equality, diversity, and inclusion in academia: successes and failures of the initiatives promoted by the European Union

“…The range of positive changes in the academic sector may represent a model for other organisations in the public and private sectors. Notwithstanding the fact that positive developments lead to more gender-sensitive universities (Bencivenga & Drew, 2020), the measures promoted by the EU, at a broader level and in particular in the higher education sector, have raised a debate among scholars who have reported difficulties and strategies that have slowed down the process or favoured actions less efficient than others. The decision by the Commission to make mandatory, from 2022, Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) for all higher education institutions, research organisations and public bodies wishing to apply for EU funding through Horizon Europe will accelerate the process towards gender equality and diversity.…”