GENERA implementation. The biggest challenge for the GENERA team has been to promote the project within the organization and to find support at the top management. This was seen as prerequisite for further progress and a crucial next step. At the time of the interviews only limited contacts with Physics departments had been established and no focus for the design of the GEP had been identified. However, some ideas about potential activities were mentioned. Goal: have a GEP designed at the end of the project’s lifetime for the whole organization (no activities implemented).
GENERA implementation. At the time of the interviews the process of engaging stakeholders within an organization seemed to have only started and it was described as an important next step to identify the relevant institutional actors and involve them in GENERA. From an evaluator’s perspective it seems of specific importance to establish cooperation between GENERA and local gender equality officer. Responsibilities and common interests should be clarified. Targets and benefits of GENERA for the organization were unclear to stakeholders, and the project was partly perceived as a research project, which is not really a part of the organizational activities to promote gender equality at DESY. XXXXXX has contributed to a higher awareness of the topic at DESY, but still, concerns were raised by several interview partners that GENERA is not so visible and well known within DESY so far. More efforts need to be invested in making GENERA and its objectives as well as activities more visible within the organization. The GENERA team is aiming to develop a GEP for DESY, but internal stakeholders were not (yet) convinced of the benefits of introducing a GEP as there already exist a lot of measures for gender equality and the top management is already committed to the topic. If no decision on a GEP can be achieved, there should still be an extended version of the employee development plan with some new measures/policies implemented that improve gender equality at DESY and which are complementary to the already existing policy mix.
GENERA implementation. The GENERA team is composed of the Head of HR, a member of the Gender Equality Commission, and a gender expert who was hired only for GENERA. This way it should be guaranteed that the work of GENERA and the existing structures are coordinated well and the necessary gender knowledge and implementation experience, as well as time resources are available. So far, the GENERA team feels well supported by the management when putting GENERA objectives into practice. Some resistance was reported by (senior) male and female researchers who questioned the data or the methods. The GENERA targets are still unclear. A main target is to further increase gender awareness and to make better known within IAC what is already implemented and available. Also the implementation of the existing GEP is seen as important. So more gender trainings will be organized; presenting the GEP and discussing the implementation in practice.
GENERA implementation. As gender awareness is low, the major challenge for the team will be to create awareness, develop strategies to involve and convince decision makers and to develop arguments for the implementation of a GEP. It is recommended to build a task force and strategic alliances within the institution and with important external stakeholders in order to be able to start the implementation process. It also became evident that further communication and awareness raising activities across the institution will be necessary to communicate GENERA and its objective and to create awareness for gender equality. The team mentioned various targets reaching from a general understanding of gender (in-)equality and interdisciplinary cooperation to raising awareness at the management level and developing a GEP. At the time of the interviews it seemed not clear if a GEP will be developed. There were different opinions on the need for and benefits of a GEP. Also it was questioned if it would be possible to get the necessary support for the implementation.
GENERA implementation. When setting up the GENERA team the regional heterogeneity of INFN had been taken into account. There are people included who had not been active in gender equality work before but also the head 9 National Institute for Nuclear Physics, CUG: Proposal of the Fifth INFN Three- Year Plan of Positive Actions for the realization of equal employment opportunities between women and men, approved in April 2015. of the CUG as implementation manager which guarantees continuity and coordination with gender activities before and parallel to GENERA, but which also implies the risk of too short time resources (CUG components perform this task without reducing their research work load). At the time of the interviews, no decisions had been made about the measures to be implemented by GENERA or/and to be integrated in the next GEP. The GENERA team did not express clear targets. It was seen as important to intensify the communication within the INFN GENERA team. One suggestion was to advance gender equality in different regional units. As an important next step, the goals and planned outcomes of GENERA need to be specified. The top management stated to have a maximum of openness for the GENERA approach. GENERA should outline problems, objectives and respective interventions, best in a visualized form.
GENERA implementation. All GENERA team members are based in the Institute of Sociology, most of them working in the field of gender studies. The team managed to establish communication structures between the GENERA team (Institute of Sociology) and the Institute of Physics where the team identified one person responsible for direct communication. The team also communicated with various stakeholders and 10 See x.x. Xxxxxxxxxxx X., Xxxxx X., Xxxxxxx X., Xxxxxxxx B., Xxxxxxx A., Xxxxxxx-Xxxxxxxx B., Xxxxx M., Xxxxxxx B., 2016. Gender Equality and Quality of Life in Poland. A Survey Research Report. Krakow: Jagiellonian University, available at: xxxx://xxx.xxx.xxxxxxxxxx.xx.xxx.xx/documents/ 32447484/35419405/GEQ%20ENG.pdf identified the Xxxxxx’x Proxy for Student Safety and Security as an important supporter of the project. The team had planned to design the GEP only at a later stage in the project and only vague ideas existed so far. It was not decided yet if the GEP will be designed for the whole university (preferred option of the team) or only for the Institute of Physics. The core challenge for the team is to overcome the lack of awareness and interest in gender equality issues at the Institute of Physics and the reluctance/distance to the idea of planning gender equality measures. It was described as a pre-requisite for taking further steps to raise awareness concerning the sources and structural dimension of gender inequalities. Authorities at the faculty still have to be made aware of the topic and take it on board. The JU GENERA team still has to work on making the GENERA project well known and accepted in the Institute of Physics. In this context it is also challenging that the team members are from a different institute and not part of the physics community.
GENERA implementation. Since the Head of Diversity management and one of her staff are part of the team, the activities in GENERA are directly linked to existing structures. At the time of the ex-ante assessment, the team had already held a Gender in Physics workshop and GENERA progress was communicated internally. As there exists already a valid institution-level GEP the team decided to focus on the implementation of new measures, which are tailored to physics/physicists. Recruiting and networking will be the focus of these activities. Within the scope of GENERA the aim is to identify and integrate selected appropriate measures in the next GEP. It was described as a challenge to get people involved and motivate them to actively participate and contribute to GENERA. However, it could be an opportunity to use GENERA to strengthen internal networks and the link between the central and divisional levels. Another challenge is an increasing “gender fatigue”. As there has already been done a lot to promote gender equality, people are getting tired of the topic and opposition is increasing. This makes it challenging to implement further measures even though gender equality is not reached yet.
GENERA implementation. The central GEO of MPG is part of the GENERA team which implies that the project is directly linked to the existing gender equality structures and functions. Furthermore, the team can build on already established personal relations and networks to the MPG management and across the institution. Due to internal pressure there is currently high interest among institutes to develop and implement GEPs. XXXXXX has the chance to use this momentum and support three institutes in developing their GEPs. This is also the main goal of the team. At the beginning of the GENERA project the team approached the three institutes and secured the commitment of the institute directors. However, most interview partners argued that at the time of the interviews only little information about GENERA had been provided. As targets and measures need to be specified in each of the three implementing institutes, it will be important to establish good collaborations with divisional gender equality officers. At the time of the interviews these officers still had to be taken on board and be informed about their role in the implementation process. As they are in many cases new to the post and do not have resources for their work, they need to be empowered and supported on the implementation process as well as on topics for the GEP by the GENERA team.
GENERA implementation. The expectation is to check and improve the measures already in place and to develop them into a more formalized GEP. One of the core ideas here is to learn from other countries / GENERA institutions. Which measures or topics will be included in the GEP and who is responsible for suggestions was still unclear. The GEP should be targeted for NWO-I, taking into account different needs of different institutes. If possible the GEP could even be extended to all NWO institutes. It was not clear yet if the implementation of measures can start during the runtime of GENERA. It was suggested to use the window of opportunity that NWO-I is now part of a new organisational structure and have the GENERA-GEP as a pilot for further GEPs. The high commitment of management people was mentioned as strength of GENERA. There are also a lot of expectations towards the GENERA project. Therefore an efficient collaboration with the directors should be established. Clear tasks and responsibilities need to be defined. As there is a lot implemented already and a lot has been discussed, it is expected that GENERA makes targets more precise soon and suggests concrete measures to implement. Synergies to existing measures are expected.
GENERA implementation. The University of Geneva already has a GAP and a strong gender institutionalization. The GENERA team was successful in establishing strong ties to the Gender Equality Officers to find ways of collaborating with them in the future. It appears, GENERA team members were successful in referring heavily on the knowledge and experience of the established structures (the Gender Equality Office and the Science Commission for Equality), while making also GENERA visible to other parts of the university. To make progress in GENERA, collaboration with institutionalized Gender Equality Officers offers a better mechanism than top support from the management. As a general GAP is established at university level already, the idea is to develop not a full GEP but physics specific measures within the existing GEP. A focus for the implementation activities is still needed.
