Promoting gender equality at two European universities through structural change interventions: The EQUAL-IST project

Abstract

[Excerpt] Policies promoting gender equality have existed in the European Union (EU) since the 1950s and for over two decades policy makers have been attempting specifically to address gender inequalities in academic careers (e.g., European Commission, 2019). A diminishing representation of women can be observed as they move up the academic ladder. According to statistics across the 28 EU Member States, in 2016 women constituted over half of graduates at the Bachelor and Master’s levels, but only 24 percent of staff at the highest academic positions (such as full professors). In the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, the gap between women and men is wider; in 2016 women formed 36 percent of STEM graduates at the Bachelor and Master’s levels and held only 15 percent of the highest academic positions. At the same time, an insufficient supply of STEM skills is forecasted between 2014 and 2025, which, together with a low participation rate of women in STEM, are perceived as “barriers that impede job-rich recovery and growth in the EU” (European Commission, 2019, p. 37). As a result, the EU research and innovation funding programs [1] continuously included calls for project proposals aimed at promoting gender equality in universities and, in particular, in STEM research institutions. In 2014–20 such a program, called Horizon 2020, [2] funded a number of projects promoting gender equality in research institutions. One of these projects, called EQUAL-IST (“Gender Equality Plans for Information Sciences and Technology Research Institutions”), [3] is discussed in this chapter. The chapter aims to provide insights into the work done and the challenges encountered by the two STEM research institutions participating in the EQUAL-IST project, namely the Departments of Information Systems at the University of Münster (Germany) and the University of Minho (Portugal). Furthermore, the peculiarities and similarities in lessons learned during the project implementation in Germany and Portugal are discussed. [...]