Promoting gender equality and structural change in academia through gender equality plans: Harmonising EU and national initiatives

Rita Bencivenga,Eileen Drew

doi:10.3224/gender.v13i1.03

Abstract

Gender equality has been actively promoted in EU academic institutions by the European Commission’s Science with and for Society (SwafS) programme through the implementation of gender equality plans (GEP). GEP formulation and implementation was strongly influenced by involvement in EU projects in Irish as well as Italian higher education institutions. The paper draws upon experience of the EU project SAGE (H2020), in which Irish and Italian universities actively cooperated, the Athena SWAN Charter in Ireland, Positive Action Plans (PAP) in Italy, and semi structured interviews with gender experts in Irish and Italian higher education institutions to explore the degree to which participation in EU and national initiatives can promote similar outcomes by the adoption of positive actions. The paper concludes that a harmonised strategy, focusing on common priorities and respecting cultural, political and social diversity, could promote the internationalization of the higher education sector and accelerate the process towards gender equality in academia.

Highlights

This paper examines how participation in European Union (EU) Framework Programmes (FP) and na tional initiatives has supported the adoption of actions promoting gender equality in academia in Ireland and Italy
The findings presented in this paper are part of a wider research agenda relating to gendered career progression in higher education institutions (HEIs)
This article builds upon existing literature on gender and structural change in academia suggesting that gender equality plans (GEP) created through EU financial support may be shaped by, as well as influence, national strategies, as in the case of Ireland, or work in parallel with similar initiatives, as in Italy

Summary

Introduction

This paper examines how participation in EU Framework Programmes (FP) and na tional initiatives has supported the adoption of actions promoting gender equality in academia in Ireland and Italy. Since the 1990s, the European Union (EU) has played a pivotal role in promoting and implementing gender mainstreaming, through fixing the principle of gender equal ity into treaty articles, advocating action programmes and communications and setting up institutional bodies and mechanisms to support the inclusion of a gender perspective into policymaking (Drew/Canavan 2021). To this end, the European Commission has required the scientific community to address gender issues while preparing research proposals. The European Commission subsequently launched a new set of calls for proposals, Science with and for Society (SwafS), to support universities and other research performing organisations (RPO) in structural change, through tailored gender equality plans

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Conclusion