Institutional Context. 2.1 The university’s mission
Institutional Context. At DESY, gender equality is managed by the gender equality officer which is a staff position subordinate to the board of directors. Additionally, a committee of women representatives is responsible for equal opportunities for women. Generally speaking gender equality work is mostly directed at women. Gender equality is an important topic at DESY at this time. One focus of the gender equality work is recruitment procedures. With the introduction of the cascade model in 2012 DESY has set targets for the participation of women in groups with different status, which should be reached in 2017. These targets are monitored on annual basis and the results are discussed by monitoring group consisting of high-level representatives of different departments, and the management. New targets for 2020 have been set in coordination with the gender equality officer, the board of directors and the foundation council. To reach the 2017 and the 2020 targets, a set of measures has been developed and implemented. Although gender equality is considered relevant for DESY to present itself as an attractive employer and a modern research organization, some interviewees mentioned that DESY still does not realize its full potential and that not everyone is highly committed to improve the status quo of gender equality.
Institutional Context. At MPG women, historically, have been and still are underrepresented. Especially the management is very male dominated. The MPG has made a voluntary commitment in 2012 to increase the number of female scientists. It also recognized the problem of the lack of women in leading positions and has established goals and measures to address this. The MPG has a well-established structure for gender equality. It has a central gender equality officer (GEO) as well as gender equality officers at all institutes. At the central there is a Permanent Presidential Committee “Opportunities”11 which is chaired by the vice president of the human science section. Gender equality has not been a main strategic target of MPG in former days, but at the moment there is a lot of activity and momentum for gender equality. During the runtime of GENERA the MPG president reinforced the obligation of all institutes to implement GEPs, which existed since 2008. The overall aim of gender equality policies at MPG is to transform the culture of this research organization. However, triggering (cultural) change in the different institutes and creating gender awareness is still a challenge.
Institutional Context. CNRS is a large public research organization, covering all fields of research. Gender institutionalization is at a high level. CNRS was a pioneer in France concerning the implementation of a gender equality structure and established a gender equality office (GEO) (“Mission pour la place de femmes”) already in 2001. There is also a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) for the whole institution in place and many measures for more gender equality have already been implemented (e.g. unconscious bias trainings, prizes for women and encouragement of women to lead etc.). Selection procedures and committees are at the core of gender activities. Gender awareness in general is high and the management is supporting actions to promote gender equality. Yet, it was stated that not all employees are sensitized and aware of the existing instruments.
Institutional Context. FOM as partner organization of GENERA recently underwent a re-organization process: on 1 January 2017 FOM became part of the NWO Institutes Organisation, together with other NWO divisions. The former FOM has been active in gender policies since the late 1990’s when the FOM/f program 12 Before 2017: Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) started, which provides postdoc positions to bridge the gap to a regular position for female physicists. Gender awareness in general is high (also compared to other GENERA partners). The main aim of gender policies at the moment is to increase the number of female researchers. In management positions women are quite well represented, but only 2 out of 18 (11%) scientific group leaders are women. A recent focus is on gender bias. Besides reflecting on individual bias it is now the main strategy at NWO to strive for (more) women in the research workforce as well as in selection committees. At NWO-I there is no formal gender institutionalization yet, such as having a gender equality plan or a function that takes care of equal opportunity issues, but in the former units a broad range of gender equality measures was implemented (e.g. gender trainings for HR people, mentoring, films to raise awareness). Measures were started bottom-up or top-down - often by women, in senior or leading positions, but more recently also by male directors who feel the need to change the situation. Therefore, the, so-called, ‘spray gun method’ was applied: this means that many different actions are implemented at the same time to make faster progress in changing gender imbalances. This approach was assessed as very effective, in contrast to the often heard argument that not too much should be changed at the same time.
Institutional Context. In the interviews the legal requirement to introduce a GEP was discussed critically, arguing that there is some tension between having a plan approved and really implementing the selected measures. It was argued that institutions have no problem with approving GEPs but that implementation is the challenge because organizations often lack staff with appropriate expertise/knowledge and budget for the implementation. Based on the national legal framework, some activities for gender equality have been set up at IAC (e.g. maternity leave regulations, child care, selection procedures, awareness raising) and the gender institutionalization was strengthened. A Gender Equality Commission was established and a first GEP was implemented for the period from 2010-2014. A second one was approved in 2016. The first GEP had ambitious aims but was lacking implementation, which was justified as being caused by the lack of time resources. Increasing gender awareness was reported and in the interviews all management stakeholders declared their support to gender policies and GEPs. However, there is also lack of expertise how to address the existing weaknesses in IAC.
Institutional Context. KIT has already established structures and a broad range of measures to promote gender equality. The diversity management team in the HR department is in charge of the strategic work for and implementation of gender equality. Based on a legal requirement there have also been equal opportunity officers established who participate in recruitment processes, appointment committees and other bodies. A Committee for Equal Opportunities and Diversity has been also set up. KIT is legally required to have a gender equality plan (GEP). The first GEP was implemented in 2014 and is binding until the end of 2018. All five divisions of KIT are supposed to make a written statement regarding the current gender equality situation in their disciplines. These statements are part of the GEP. The proportion of women is low in all career stages, but KIT aims at increasing the share of women and creates annual gender monitoring reports summarizing measures taken and progress made. There have already been implemented a wide range of measures for gender equality (e.g. mentoring, telework, childcare-facilities, gender-sensitive publicity content). Still, interview partners identified room for further improvement especially regarding the practical implementation of measures and the level of awareness and engagement at the divisional level. It became evident that not only measures but also cultural change is needed.
Institutional Context. The Institute of Physics is located within the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science which has now a female Xxxx. Only 4% of full professors at the Institute of Physics are female. At the Jagiellonian University in Krakow the awareness for gender equality is rather low, no specific structures or measures for gender equality are implemented so far. Gender equality is addressed as part of broader anti-discrimination programmes. Regarding measures to facilitate work-life balance it was reported that very flexible working hours are provided. Additionally, the Jagiellonian University provides parents with preschool and nursery funding possibilities.
Institutional Context. The University of Geneva’s first GAP concerned the period 2013-2016. Recently, the newly implemented GAP for the period 2017-2020 has been accepted by the rectorate and publicly announced. It is binding for implementation. The Faculty of Science at the University of Geneva was described as very male dominated, having 93% male and only 7% female full professors. Traditionally, women are working more often in precarious positions. So far, no specific gender equality measures have been put in place for the Faculty of Science.
Institutional Context. There is a comparatively high representation of women at IFIN-HH with 36% of researchers and 17% of Heads of Departments being women. The strong presence of women in the institution implies a lot of role models for young female researchers and might lead to an organizational culture in which women feel comfortable and supported. At IFIN-HH no measures or structures are in place to promote gender equality. The general perception at the institution is that there are equal opportunities for men and women and that there is no need for action. However, a leaky pipeline becomes visible in the numbers.
