Strong alliances and support from leaders play a crucial role for gender equality
Support from institutional leadership can play a crucial role for gender equality in research organisations. The right alliances, particularly getting leaders behind the design of a gender equality plan, has a significant effect on whether the implementation is successful or not.
Structural change requires commitment in both the short- and long-term. In MINDtheGEPs, seven organisations are developing and implementing gender quality plans. Each organisation is different and represent different disciplines and cultures. The seven are all of different size, most are public but one is private, some STEM, others cover different domains. All of these factors obviously play a role in the design of the process to develop a gender equality plan, or “GEP”. It also influences the kinds of alliances you can build. And together, having a good process and the right alliances can help break down resistance.
The GEPs are designed to fit the local context, and are designed to target the areas where the plans and actions can have most impact. There are big differences between the seven in terms of the connections with, and support from, the governance structures in the different organisations. According to Cristina Solera, Professor at the University of Turin and coordinator of the MINDtheGEPs project, involving key individuals in positions of power, committed to advancing gender equality, is an important cornerstone of structural change. Although the commitment and competence in the different teams working with different aspects of design and implementation of a gender equality is essential, resistance from governance can create significant challenges.
At the same, having the support of governance is not enough. For structural change, Cristina Solera points to the need for ongoing efforts to create and maintain spaces where people can reflect, discuss, and work together to design gender equality plans across different levels and fields. This way, even if governance changes in a negative way, the whole process isn’t derailed. In addition, any positive change in one area can spread and influence others, like a domino effect.
Do you want to know more?
- Designing GEPs for sustainable institutional change.
- Solera, Cristina, Balzano, Angela & The MINDtheGEPs Consortium. (2023). Gender Imbalances at the Macro-Level: A Comparative Analysis of Partners' Legal and Policy Contexts. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10078138
By Fanny Klingvall