Final Report Summary - INTEGER (INstitutional Transformation for Effecting Gender Equality in Research)
Executive Summary:
Despite increasing national and EU-level commitments towards gender equality in research, there is still an under-representation of women in STEM fields, especially at full professorship level and equivalent, and lack of gender balance on key decision-making bodies. The European Research Area (ERA) is confronted to structural obstacles within its research and higher education institutions which prevent it from reaching its goals on the full participation of women in research and innovation. The objective of the FP7-funded project INTEGER (INstitutional Transformation for Effecting Gender Equality in Research) was to address these and other imbalances through the implementation of sustainable Transformational Gender Action Plans (T-GAPs).
The INTEGER project brought together a focused and balanced partnership of three implementing institutions – a large research organisation, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France), and two universities, Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) and Siauliai University (Lithuania) – as well as an external evaluator, GESIS-Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (Germany). During the first 18 months of this 52-month project which started in March 2011 and ended in June 2015, Bradford College/UKRC (UK) was also a partner, but withdrew and was replaced by CNRS as Project Coordinator. Partner organisations share a top level commitment to gender equality and have been working together to transform academic and research institutions in order to address female under-representation and unconscious gender bias, and ensure environments in which women and men can equally perform, thus leading to an enhanced quality of research.
INTEGER has operated in 4 key areas of intervention and analysis: 1) Engagement of decision-makers, 2) Improvement of Organisational Structures, 3) Career Progression, Development and Support, 4) Work-Life Balance. The bespoke T-GAPs contain actions addressing the issues identified in each implementing organisation at institutional and local levels. On certain topics, some inspiring practices, including selected actions from NSF-ADVANCE (US) and Athena SWAN Awardees (UK), shared by our constituted network of INTEGER Ambassadors, have been adapted to meet each organisation’s situation. Implementation has been monitored through a set of key performance indicators and assessed by our external evaluator. Based on review reports, and self-monitoring, T-GAPs have been regularly updated.
Commitment to the project objectives and workplan has been enacted in all partner institutions, and T-GAP design and implementation was effected in all three implementing organisations. Despite some delays due mainly to institutional agendas and changes in the partnership, the consortium partners succeeded in holding all planned activities, and concrete steps towards sustainability and institutionalisation of measures have been taken with success.
An evaluation methodology was devised by GESIS, a self-assessment toolkit was developed, and both a central – formative – evaluation round and final – summative – evaluation round were carried-out in each of the three implementing institutions. It revealed that positive structural and cultural changes were taking place and that institutional transformation towards better gender equality was indeed under way in all three implementing organisations.
Project results have been disseminated through three final dissemination symposia held in June 2015 in three different regional locations (Ireland/UK, Western Europe, Eastern Europe), and comprehensive online guidelines have been produced (www.integer-tools-for-action.eu) in order to help peer research and higher education institutions engage into institutional change through the implementation of gender action plans. The guidelines, based on lessons learned and good practices brought together by the experience of the INTEGER project, are designed as a practical implementation manual providing a series of templates, how-to guides, and case studies, and are already a reference tool for several undergoing initiatives.
In conclusion, the INTEGER project has achieved its objectives and contributed to helping the ERA reach one of key priorities, gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research.
Project Context and Objectives:
When the INTEGER (Institutional Transformation for Effecting Gender Equality in Research) project was conceived, in 2009-2010, the recently-published She Figures 2009 indicated that women were making up 30% of all researchers across the EU, and were still largely under-represented in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and particularly so in decision-making positions.
The need to address the persistent structural barriers to the recruitment, retention and advancement of women existing in higher education and research institutions was being recognised at European level as being a necessity for achieving gender equality in research and innovation.
When the FP7 Science-in-Society SiS-2010-2.1.1.1 call topic entitled “Implementing structural change in research organisations/universities” was opened by the European Commission in 2009 – inaugurating a series of such annual structural/institutional change call topics supporting research institutions in the implementation of gender equality plans, which continues in the latest Horizon 2020 Science-with-and-for-Society work programme – the future INTEGER partners were determined to try to seize this opportunity.
The successful INTEGER proposal brought together a small and balanced consortium of organisations with very different national and institutional contexts, but with a shared top-level commitment to the implementation of sustainable transformational change to improve the career progression of women scientific researchers, embed structural changes in their own organisations, and create a legacy of learning and guidance to assist other practitioners in their implementation.
The initial consortium consisted of a resource centre on women in SET, the UKRC at Bradford College (UK), as project coordinator, 3 implementing research and higher education institutions – a large research organisation, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France), and 2 very different universities, Trinity College Dublin (TCD, Ireland) and Siauliai University (ŠU, Lithuania) – and an external evaluator, GESIS-Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences/ Center of Excellence Women and Science (GESIS, Germany).
After 18 months, Bradford College/UKRC withdrew from the project, and was replaced by CNRS as project coordinator. An amendment to the Grant Agreement including a 4-month cost-neutral extension of the project was requested by the remaining consortium to take into account the significant changes and delays encountered as a result, and was granted by the European Commission. The 52-month INTEGER project, launched on March 1st 2011 – with a Grant Agreement signed end of March 2011 –, thus ended on June 30th 2015.
The INTEGER project’s aim was the following: to create sustainable structural change for the benefit of research institutions/universities and the career paths of women researchers in STEM by the implementation of contextualised transformational gender action plans (T-GAPs) and the use of tested tools and instruments (e.g. those developed by the UK Athena SWAN awardees, or by the US National Science Foundation ADVANCE program awardee universities) to support an effective and comprehensive organisational gender management strategy – which we have named transformational change.
Our main objectives, reflected in the 7 Workpackages of the INTEGER workplan, were the following:
1) Enable participating organisations to carry out the project with efficient and effective project coordination and management (addressed in WP1-Project Management)
2) Develop bespoke T-GAPs that address key issues identified in each of the three implementing institutions through a detailed baseline data assessment, with a focus on structural change at the institutional level and at local unit level (in at least two different Faculties/Schools/Institutes), and set up gender-balanced implementation teams to support the implementation at each level (addressed in WP2-Transformational Gender Action Planning).
3) Implement the T-GAPs, embedding gender equality through the transformation of structures, processes and environments applicable to the national, institutional and local contexts of the participating partners, and addressing the following 4 key areas of intervention and analysis (addressed in WP4-Implementation):
• Engagement of decision-makers
• Organisational Structure
• Career Progression, Development and Support
• Work Life Balance
4) Support the T-GAP implementation through transformational change trainings at the institutional and unit level, through a network of experts and Ambassadors with previous experience in the implementation of gender equality initiatives in academia, as well as through mentoring by peer institutions from e.g. UK Athena SWAN and US NSF-ADVANCE awardee institutions (addressed in WP3-Exchange of Experience).
5) Transfer good practice and learning across the partnership through exchange-of-experience seminars addressing common issues and actions, linking to a wider network of expert practitioners (also addressed in WP3-Exchange of Experience).
6) Assess progress and impact of the T-GAP implementation within each implementing organisation through formative and summative evaluation methodology, and adapt T-GAPs accordingly (addressed in WP7-Evaluation and in WP4-Implementation).
7) Create a set of guidelines as a comprehensive gender management tool to ensure effective implementation and sustainability beyond the life of the project, and to encourage peer institutions to implement gender equality plans (addressed in WP5-Guidelines).
8) Disseminate results, lessons learned and tools from the project across partner organisations, regional networks and wider networks of research institutes and universities within each partner’s country, and across the member states, including main actors and relevant policy-makers in each context (addressed in WP6-Dissemination).
At the time of its launch, INTEGER was a pioneering effort at European level, but also at national level for each of the three implementing organisations, TCD in Ireland, ŠU in Lithuania, and CNRS in France. It was also an innovative effort for GESIS.
At the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Mission pour la place des femmes au CNRS (MPDF, Mission for the Place of Women at CNRS) had been created since 2001 and directly attached to the highest level of CNRS governance. The MPDF had significant experience of: internal gender data gathering, analysis and dissemination, pursuing targeted surveys and studies to identify the factors hindering the progress of women’s careers, supporting gender research and developing multidisciplinary gender training workshops, as well as organising/supporting outreach events and pedagogical tools on gender and research and on women in science. In particular, the MPDF had launched in 2006 an investigation of innovative and successful gender equality strategies developed in North America and, among key initiatives, had identified the NSF ADVANCE Program, dedicated to advancing women in academic science and engineering, and carried out site visits to several awardee universities.
Furthermore, in its recently signed contract of objectives with the French State, CNRS, had committed to developing a gender equality action plan during the 2009-2013 time period. The timing was thus perfect for the INTEGER project, which received strong support from the top leadership.
At local level, the two CNRS Institutes (divisions) with the lowest proportions of women among researchers, i.e. below 20%, the Institute of Physics (INP) and the National Institute for Mathematical Sciences (INSMI), were targeted. In addition, two laboratories were also more specifically targeted to best address the laboratory-level organisation and dynamics: the Institut Néel, affiliated to INP and located in Grenoble, and the Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu-Paris Rive Gauche (IMJ-PRG), affiliated to INSMI and located in Paris.
The objective for CNRS, through INTEGER, was to achieve gender equality in careers and in the workplace through the transformation of institutional policies and practices.
Prior to INTEGER, efforts to improve gender equality in Trinity College Dublin (TCD) had focused on providing direct support to women academics and researchers in the form of networking, professional development training, and policy advocacy, all enacted by the Centre for Women in Science & Engineering Research (WiSER).
Recognising the limitations of concentrating only on measures to help women, INTEGER at TCD shifted the emphasis from ‘fixing the women’ to institutional transformation and ‘fixing the institution’ in the context of gender mainstreaming. WiSER engaged in developing and implementing T-GAPs around the four INTEGER themes, in order to deliver meaningful structural transformation. Two Schools of the Faculty of Engineering, Mathematics and Science were targeted: the School of Natural Sciences and the School of Chemistry, soon to be joined by a third School, the School of Physics.
Project INTEGER at Šiauliai University (ŠU), aiming at initiating institutional change processes to advance gender equality in research, was the first of its kind in Lithuania. Prior to INTEGER ŠU had thus far not been operating with concepts or plans to implement or institutionalise actions aimed at reducing any kind of discrimination for reasons of gender. No previous experiences with transformational change or gender action plans have been established in the two pilot faculties, the Faculty of Technology (TF) and the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (MIF). The Centre for Gender Studies and Research of ŠU was the first in Lithuania to start implementing a structural change-based gender equality project (INTEGER) in an academic/research environment. At ŠU, its objectives were to improve organizational matters, awareness of gender correspondence and to initiate a more comprehensive working environment that way increasing the number of women researchers. The project was operating with the appreciation to differing conditions within the partner states, cultural and institutional contexts both on local and institution-wide levels.
It was observed that the target faculties at ŠU coincided with the standard gender equality situation in European STEM institutions. The analysis revealed that the highest research, academic and senior management positions were dominated by men, whereas women were left with lower-grade research and academic positions and were widely left with administrative duties.
The aim of the T-GAP at ŠU was to establish gender tools, fully and properly implement down to the local level from senior management, and with measured outputs to promote, embed and mainstream gender equity within ŠU; they resulted in the desired outcomes of improved career progression for women. In order to achieve the aim of the T-GAPs within each of the four key areas of implementation, certain objectives have been set and were incorporated into each part of respectful key area T-GAP. The ŠU T-GAP envisaged the implementation of a change management model incorporating two complementary approaches: a) the empowerment of women at ŠU (direct support) and b) utilising the EU approach to gender mainstreaming and gender equality, respectively. The T-GAP objectives and core strategy was formulated over a period of two years.
The national contexts, the nature and culture of each of the three implementing institutions were very different: CNRS is the largest public research organisation in France, and the largest public basic research organisation in Europe, recognised for excellence in research and covering all fields of knowledge as well as all regions of the national territory through its over 1000 labs, most of them joint labs with French universities – thus presenting a significant level of organisational complexity; TCD is one of the oldest universities in Europe, with a strong research-intensive profile; while ŠU is a smaller size regional university in Lithuania with a strong focus on teaching.
Yet, many issues were shared by the 3 implementing institutions and the 4 key themes chosen for the T-GAPs were key areas common to all.
WP7 of GENDER-NET was dedicated to the evaluation of the T-GAPs designed and implemented by the three implementing INTEGER partner institutions (CNRS, TCD and ŠU) and was led by GESIS-Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences/ Center of Excellence Women and Science (GESIS) in its role as the external evaluator.
The objective of WP7 was fourfold: Firstly, the evaluation process aimed to contribute to an improvement of the quality of the T-GAPs and their implementation through external feedback to partner institutions in the course of implementation of the action plans. Secondly, the external evaluation explored outputs and outcomes of each T-GAP at organisational and subordinate levels for the purpose of providing measurable results of the transformation processes relating to the T-GAPs. Thirdly, the evaluation aimed to assess and highlight the impacts of the action plans, analysing both their intended and their unintentional effects. Lastly, the WP aimed to supply higher education and research institutions which decide to follow the T-GAP implementation model with tools and guidance on how to use the evaluation methodology for their own programs’ quality assurance, to support legitimacy and dialogue, and thus measure institutional performance of implementing gender equality measures.
The evaluation concept that was designed by GESIS for these purposes combines elements of formative evaluations and summative evaluation courses at different points of time during the implementation process and resorts to both qualitative and quantitative data. The Evaluation Toolkit consists of a manual aimed to guide the practitioner through the self-assessment process as well as complementing templates which can be used as tools.
Project Results:
A common framework and an overall methodology for constructing the T-GAPs was shared by all three INTEGER implementing institutions: building institutional and local implementation teams; collecting and analysing quantitative secondary data; reviewing national and internal laws, policies, procedures and practices; undertaking primary data collection (mostly quantitative, through an on-line survey on career paths, work environments and work-life balance issues) and carrying out qualitative assessment at the local level through site visits and focus groups.
From the baseline data assessment findings and the input of Experts and Ambassadors (comprising researchers, managers and academics from the fields of science, engineering and social sciences, who have successfully implemented structural change in their own institutions), as well as the feedback received from the implementation teams, activities have been action-planned in each implementing institution to best address identified issues, and to fit in the 4 T-GAP themes or key indicators of gender equality progress i.e. 1) Engagement of decision-makers; 2) Organisational structures; 3) Career progression, development and support; 4) Work-life balance.
In addition, in all three implementing partners, at least two local units were targeted, in order to compare between sometimes very different disciplinary cultures, and create both a sense of community and a healthy competition between the targeted structures. Each institution’s top leader (i.e. the President of CNRS, the Provost of TCD and the Rector of ŠU) was also a member of the INTEGER Partnership Group which oversaw the whole project and met once a year, and was the owner of his institution’s T-GAP. However, given the very different national settings, local cultures and types of institutions involved in INTEGER, diverse methodologies have been used by consortium partners for the design of their T-GAPs and different strategies have been adopted for ensuring the effective and sustainable implementation of the T-GAPs.
Over the duration of the INTEGER project, implementation of a broad array of actions was fully established and realised at each partner institution, with many initiatives set to continue beyond the lifespan of the project. Due to the nature of the consultative implementation process and the central evaluation round, some actions from the initial T-GAPs (as planned at the outset of the project) were adapted, or reframed as longer-term goals, as changes in emphasis necessitated focus in other areas. Nonetheless, the majority of planned actions have now been addressed and many have been mainstreamed and institutionalised. A positive impact of project INTEGER can clearly be felt within each institution, and has indeed been assessed by our external evaluator, GESIS.
At an overall project level, all objectives listed in the previous section were achieved, all due Deliverables have been submitted, and all Milestones have been reached (see 3rd Periodic Report).
CNRS:
Due to the very large size of CNRS (with over 34,000 staff, among whom roughly 11,000 are permanent researchers), its dispersed national locations and organisational complexity, different implementation teams have been put into place:
• At Senior Management level, a standing committee of representatives from the top CNRS governance, the Steering Committee for Gender Equality at CNRS (“Comité de pilotage de l’égalité professionnelle entre femmes et hommes au CNRS”) was created and ensures commitment and support to gender equality from the top-level decision-makers at CNRS;
• At Institutional level, several implementation teams and working groups have been created, including a committee inspired from the University of Michigan’s STRIDE Committee (“Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting in Diversity and Excellence”) to best tackle the issue of potential gender bias in researchers’ recruitment, promotion and rewards procedures and practices. The membership of this Committee was initially focused on STEM fields, but in response to the strong interest displayed by the “Comité national” (CNRS’s researcher evaluation board), was extended to include all 46 Chairs (or their representative) of the different standing peer-review evaluation panels of the “Comité national”.
• At Local Level, implementation teams were put into place at INP and INSMI and at the Institut Néel and IMJ-PRG. Teams including women and men, junior and senior researchers, both CNRS researchers and university faculty, were constituted.
The CNRS T-GAP developed by the INTEGER team at MPDF was constructed as a flexible scheme to be adapted through discussions with local implementation teams and CNRS Senior Management, as well as following assessments carried out by GESIS. Based on the collected quantitative and qualitative data, the devised T-GAP also took into account the recent evolution of the national legislative and regulatory context (indeed, in 2012-2013, France made a major political leap in support of professional equality between women and men, through a series of Laws, Decrees, Agreements and Charters – INTEGER, and CNRS, were ahead of this trend) as well as EU recommendations and good practices already implemented by peer institutions (e.g. by Athena SWAN Awardees such as the University of York (UK) and US NSF-ADVANCE Awardees such as the University of Michigan), and relied on the knowledge brought by gender research, a field in which CNRS plays a prominent role.
Benefiting from these results, the strategy operated at CNRS to meet operational objectives, and overcome potential barriers, involved the following: participatory approaches (e.g. through workshops and seminars); creation of ownership (e.g. by undertaking actions proposed by teams); careful choice of data for maximized awareness (e.g. statistical data, but also selected qualitative studies, starting with key results from social and cognitive psychology experiments on implicit/unconscious gender bias and stereotype threat, including studies carried-out by CNRS teams); some degree of shaming and/or benchmarking (e.g. providing striking negative data from CNRS, with a comparison with other more advanced institutions/countries); putting forward the EU strategy and priorities which CNRS should follow (e.g. the ERA priorities, the H2020 cross-cutting integration of gender); using top-down power (e.g. asking the President to invite CNRS decision-makers to INTEGER activities); developing peer-to-peer learning by involving external scientific leaders as Ambassadors or representatives of mentoring peer-institutions to foster buy-in among researchers (e.g. Prof. Paul Walton, Gold Athena SWAN-winning Chemistry Department at the University of York, and Dr. Alice Hogan, former Program Director for NSF ADVANCE, for top CNRS leadership; Profs. Abigail Stewart and Wayne Jones, ADVANCE program at the University of Michigan, for “Comité National” members; Prof. Tomas Brage, Physics department at Lund University in Sweden, for decision-makers at the Institut Néel target laboratory; Gary Loke, UK Equality Challenge Unit and Athena SWAN Charter, for the Review Seminar following the first evaluation round); taking advantage of the institutional agenda to embed gender equality in it (e.g. CNRS President’s campaign in 2013-2014 for a new mandate; new contract of objectives 2014-2018 between CNRS and the government; enforcement of national legislation); etc.
Early on, our INTEGER T-GAP, mostly dedicated to CNRS researchers, was framed as being part of an overarching global gender action plan (“Plan d’action pour l’égalité professionnelle entre femmes et hommes au CNRS”) addressing the whole organisation and for all personnel categories (i.e. including support staff: engineers, technicians and administrative personnel). The full-fledged CNRS T-GAP was thus presented in September 2013 to the Steering Committee for Gender Equality at CNRS within that global framework, and fully adopted, with a set of prioritised actions, in March 2014. A communication plan was devised to inform all staff about the CNRS gender action plan: a promotional video, featuring a commitment message from the CNRS President, and showcasing the INTEGER project, was released nationally early July 2014, including via the weekly CNRS e-newsletter received by all staff working in CNRS joint laboratories (i.e. over 60,000 people), and through national media. Regular progress reports on the T-GAP implementation have been – and will continue to be – presented to the Steering Committee.
The CNRS T-GAP contains about 45 actions, dispatched in 15 key objectives under the 4 themes, and 3 cross-cutting networking and mutual opening actions. Although some measures (e.g. gender equality trainings) had started being implemented in 2012, the relatively late start of the T-GAP implementation process at CNRS resulted from the additional workload caused by the transfer of coordination of the INTEGER project from Bradford College to CNRS. Most actions now have been implemented or are still under implementation, thus institutionalised. Some of the key achievements in each of the 4 themes are presented below:
Engagement of Decision-Makers
Commitment of decision-makers to the INTEGER project’s objectives has been increasing across CNRS, led by the CNRS President, Alain Fuchs, who expressed his commitment on numerous occasions, including in front of the French Senate and National Assembly in 2014, and recently in front of the Council of Ministers for research of the Council of the EU on July 21st 2015. Consistently, he agreed to include key performance indicators on women’s recruitment and promotion in his balanced scoreboard, and has been paying close attention to CNRS nominations and Awards in particular (in 2013, for the first time since 1986, the CNRS Gold Medal – the highest scientific award in France – was given to a woman, biologist Margaret Buckingham). Such commitment has also been demonstrated by the directors of the two targeted CNRS Divisions, INP and INSMI, who have heralded gender equality as a key issue for their teams, lab directors, fellow Institute Directors. Another distinctive feature at CNRS: the T-GAP stimulated the communication officers, at both central and Institute-level, into becoming active drivers for gender equality.
The INTEGER awareness-raising and capacity-building trainings on gender equality and unconscious bias that we have developed for all types of key decision-makers at CNRS have been key drivers to achieve the current level of buy in. As a direct consequence of their impact, gender equality contact points have been nominated in all 19 CNRS regional delegations. The purpose of this network, co-animated by the MPDF and one Regional Delegate, is to improve the local implementation of the T-GAP all over the country. The kick-off meeting occurred on July 6th 2015 and the second meeting will take place on December 15th 2015.
A pioneering effort was also led by the CNRS INTEGER team to address sexual harassment in the workplace. A practical factsheet was developed with the HR Department and a national awareness-raising day – the first one ever to be organised in France by a public or private employer – took place on November 26th 2014. A DVD was produced, and regional-level trainings have started and will carry on in all 19 regional delegations until 2016.
Organisational Structure
Many actions were implemented under this theme, which perhaps more directly translates the systemic nature of institutional transformation. In particular, the STRIDE-like Committee proved to be a major innovation at CNRS. Committee members, most of them decision-makers, are convened 2 to 3 times a year, and discuss key statistical data as well as research findings on gender inequalities in science. They have started to propose concrete measures to improve gender equality and gender balance in the recruitment, promotion and scientific recognition of researchers at CNRS. A pioneer action was set-up during the Spring 2015 concours: experienced gender experts were invited to observe the auditions of candidates in 12 volunteer sections, for both recruitment and promotion juries, in an effort to develop a reflective practice and correct any potential bias. The CNRS STRIDE Committee was identified as a best practice by the GESIS evaluators.
The procedure to award annual CNRS Medals was also reviewed, and most sections of the Comité national accepted to nominate 2 potential awardees for the Bronze and Silver Medals. Similar attention was paid to the Cristal rewarding CNRS support staff. The result is a significant improvement in the amount of women recognised for their scientific excellence, and serving as role models for younger researchers.
Interviews prior to, and after, long-term leaves (e.g. maternity/parental/adoption) are continuous in the Institut Néel since 2011, and duplicated in a growing number of CNRS labs. Setting the return from maternity/adoption/parental as a criterion for awarding the "délégations CNRS" (6-month period of teaching relief to university professors from CNRS labs) was institutionalised by INSMI and INP and is now expanding (a note on this possibility is currently being added to all online forms for the fall 2015 campaign).
In addition, the contents of the CNRS “parity” booklet (“La parité dans les métiers du CNRS”) – a comprehensive collection of sex-disaggregated statistics published yearly – were strengthened and disseminated broadly across CNRS, serving as a model for other national research organisations as well as French universities. Tailored data factsheets were also prepared for recruitment and promotion juries. The merging of the parity booklet and CNRS social report this year, with all data sex-disaggregated, goes even a step further and is again a pioneering move at national level.
Career Progression, Development and Support
Outreach actions to attract more women in STEM fields have also been developed. An online communication kit, featuring videos of women physicists working in CNRS labs, was conceived as a tool for interventions in high schools. We have also been partnering with the “Femmes et mathématiques” national association to further develop the annual “Forum des jeunes mathématicien-ne-s”, which targets female PhD and Masters Students in mathematics.
Professional development trainings on careers for young women researchers and professors (Springboard programme) were offered, which had strong impact, at the Institut Néel target laboratory in particular, and helped create a women researchers’ network. A similar training, opened to both women and men, was conceived by the IMJ-PRG INTEGER implementation team for the math community and its success is prompting its renewal beyond the duration of the project.
A partnership with AcademiaNet, the European level expert database of outstanding females scientists and scholars, was launched in 2014 with the objective of contributing to the visibility of women academics and scientists, i.e. CNRS Gold and Silver Medals. Another similar collaboration with the national database "Les Expertes" was also launched in the meantime with the aim of identifying women experts from all backgrounds, as speakers for the media, and conferences.
The CNRS “PEPS Egalité” action was launched end of 2014: this innovative type of call for proposals provided limited short-term financial support (from EUR3000 to EUR5000) to teams coordinated by a CNRS young woman researcher and with at least 35% of women among team members, for both a research project and a science popularisation project towards high school students, and especially female students. Overall, 15 projects in mathematics and 6 projects in physics were supported.
Work-Life Balance
A Worktime Management Charter was prepared through a series of workshops and is currently being integrated to a Guide on work time organisation to be released by the end of 2015 by the CNRS HR Department, which also offers detailed information on existing child-care and adult dependent-care supports – including the “accueils en délégation CNRS” provision put into place through INTEGER.
After long negotiations with the CNRS HR Department, Legal Department and Financial Officers, we succeeded in creating a pilot support scheme for covering work travel-related child-care & dependent-care related extra costs. “Professional Mobility Cheques for Universal Employment Services” (CESU) for the child and dependent care were made available, with however limiting requirements regarding applicants’ salary range, due to the obligation to fit in the framework of social action by national regulation. A budget for the pursuit of this action has been requested by the MPDF to the CNRS governance and is awaiting a decision.
In addition to the 4 T-GAP themes, CNRS has added a cross-cutting theme on networking and mutual opening among institutional change practitioners, which covered exchange of experience with sister “structural change” EC-funded projects (including GENIS LAB, STAGES, FESTA, GENDERTIME, GENOVATE, EGERA, TRIGGER, GARCIA, and lately, GENERA) through various workshops and events, some organised by INTEGER-CNRS (e.g. European Women Researchers’ Day in March 2014, Final INTEGER Dissemination Symposium, panel at the 8th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education) and some others organised by sister projects inviting INTEGER-CNRS (e.g. STAGES workshop and upcoming Final Conference, TRIGGER workshop; EGERA and GENERA kick-off meetings; GENIS LAB Final Conference).
Overall, as described by our external evaluator GESIS: “By initiating actions aimed at counteracting existing gender inequalities, CNRS demonstrates its position as an open-minded leader of societal change while simultaneously also being viewed as having a leading position at the forefront of research” (Central Evaluation Report for CNRS). The final evaluation round further enhanced the fact that institutional and cultural changes were taking place at CNRS.
Among key outcomes of INTEGER at CNRS:
• while the global amount of women researchers at CNRS has only slightly increased since the launch of the project (now at 33,3%) a decrease in male advantage at promotion is observed
• since December 2013, the CNRS Board of Trustees has 40% women, and the new CNRS Scientific Council now has 53.3% women
• the number of women Regional Delegate has increased from 26% to 42% from 2012 to 2015
• in 2014, the proportion of women among laureates at CR2 and DR2 levels increased
• in 2015, we count an unprecedented 60% of women among Bronze medallists ; in 2013, 2014 and 2015, we count 41%, 50% and 52% women for the Cristal (IT), 50%, 47% and 47% for CNRS Silver Medals; in 2013, a women receive the CNRS Gold Medal
• institutional cultural change is under way at CNRS, as the GESIS final evaluation has shown.
In addition to successfully implementing its T-GAP, CNRS has also ensured effective coordination of the INTEGER project, and been responsible for the technical development and design of the INTEGER online Guidelines (www.integer-tools-for-action.eu)
TCD
WiSER engaged in developing and implementing Gender Action Plans (T-GAPs) around the four INTEGER themes, in order to deliver meaningful structural transformation.
The key target groups were academic and research staff, and those involved in supporting research and academic work at School, Faculty and College levels. The formation of a College-wide Implementation Team and three School Implementation Teams reflected the involvement of senior administrators (Director of HR and Dean of Research) alongside the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Mathematics and Science, Heads of School, academic, technical and administrative staff in the three INTEGER pilot Schools (Chemistry, Natural Sciences and Physics). Initially, the INTEGER project had intended to target only academic staff e.g. in the INTEGER survey, but this was extended to research staff (Post-docs, Research Associates and Research Fellows) whose demands were incorporated into the INTEGER T-GAPs, most notably the Trinity Research Staff Association (TRSA) demand for an Early Career Researcher Support Office in Trinity College. Hence a TRSA representative sat on the College Implementation Team.
Quantitative and qualitative survey data were collected in March 2012 and 2015, as part of the INTEGER project activities. The survey examined the career ambitions, experiences and perceptions of the working environment, among academic staff. The survey objectives were to determine the forms of intervention and target actions to promote transformational change to ensure gender equality, within Trinity College in general, and the Faculty of Engineering, Mathematics and Science in particular.
Highlighted Results
• Of the 187 respondents with a partner, a higher proportion of female respondents’ (76%) partners were working full-time in the labour market compared with just over half of the male respondents (52%).
• A higher proportion of women are employed as contract, rather than permanent, academic staff. While more than three-quarters (77%) of male staff who responded were permanent staff, this applied to only two-thirds (66%) of female respondents.
• More women staff (77%) felt that they have not achieved their career ambitions, in terms of grade attainment, than men (64%).
• On average, the majority of men and a substantial minority of women work in excess of 50 hours per week (37% of women and 51% of men)
• More women than men avail of flexible working arrangements
The results of the 2012 survey, together with a comprehensive literature & policy review and data from focus groups in the Faculty of Engineering, Mathematics and Science, were used to develop a detailed set of recommendations for the university. A full report was produced and published, and is now widely available as the TCD INTEGER Baseline Data Report. The results of the 2015 survey will draw comparisons and further highlight ongoing gender issues.
In order to comprehensively address the issues identified by the INTEGER surveys and previous reports, tailored Transformational Gender Action Plans (T-GAPs) were developed for three INTEGER Schools and the College as a whole. In addition to the above-mentioned sources, a process of external consultation and review of international good practice was embarked upon to inform the creation of the T-GAPs. The model devised drew upon successful elements of both the Athena SWAN and NSF ADVANCE programmes.
A series of site visits was conducted to universities against which gender equality actions and objectives were benchmarked (e.g. Athena SWAN Award holders in the UK and NSF ADVANCE grant recipients in the US). Expert advice was sought and availed of both as an input into the T-GAPs and, via employment of guest speakers, as a means of engaging the university population and securing buy-in for institutional transformation. Expert speakers have included Prof Teresa Rees (Cardiff University), Prof Nancy Hopkins (MIT), Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell (University of Oxford), and Prof Paul Walton (University of York).
A combination of strategies evolved from INTEGER research conducted, as outlined above. The first strategy was to establish teams in each of the three pilot Schools and at College-wide level. These sought to have a cross section of staff (academic and non-academic) and were modelled on good practice from Athena SWAN Teams in Edinburgh University. The main objective of these was to get ‘buy-in’ at College and School levels and for the teams to take ‘ownership’ of the gender equality actions they prioritised and embarked upon. Knowing that staff are overworked and participating in their own time (e.g. lunch times), WiSER provide full administrative support (minute writing, agenda setting) and lunch. Flowing from these collective teams it was possible to forge strategic partnerships with key players, most notably, the Provost/Vice Provost, Chief Operating Officer, Dean of Research and the Director of Human Resources as well as the Equality Officer, FEMS Dean and Heads of Schools in Chemistry, Physics and Natural Sciences.
The School teams have served a further important function in spearheading activities to develop social cohesion within their local operating environments. For example, the School of Chemistry surveyed its staff members (academic and non-academic, including postdocs and postgraduate students) about their perceptions of the culture within the School, and the kinds of social activities they would like to engage in. They held a ‘Women in Chemistry Day’, while the School of Natural Sciences held a ‘Soapbox Science Day’ which showcased research by women scientists to the general public. Both events had the support of WiSER and received funding from the College Equality Fund. The School of Physics successfully applied for the JUNO Practitioner Award.
Benchmarking and institutional peer mentoring were fundamental strategies employed to drive the progress of INTEGER. Visits to TCD from key figures in the field of gender equality in academia were arranged throughout the course of the project. High-profile academic speakers were used as role models and influencers to build support at an institutional level for the structural change agenda, and to enhance institutional competence in this area. Speakers included Professor Paul Walton (York University, UK), Dr. Liz Elvidge (Imperial College, UK), Dr. Stephen Moggach (Edinburgh University, UK), Professor Teresa Rees (Cardiff University, UK), Professor Nancy Hopkins (MIT, US), Professor Alice Hogan (Consultant to NSF ADVANCE), Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell (Oxford University, UK), Professor Yvonne Galligan, (Queens University Belfast, UK) Dr Joyce Yen (University of Washington), and Professor Tomas Brage (Lund University, Sweden). The institutional mentoring process was complemented by visits of the TCD INTEGER team to peer institutions such as Edinburgh University (Athena SWAN personnel), Equality Challenge Unit (who manage Athena SWAN Award) and Queen’s University Belfast (holder of Institutional Silver Athena SWAN award). These were extended in February 2014 by visits to NSF ADVANCE award holders (UMBC, Columbia University and Hunter College NY), University of Michigan in April 2014 and University of Washington in October 2015
In terms of embedding gender equality into the governance of College, introducing Unconscious Bias training was identified as a critical step. The first occurrence of it was directed at the most senior decision-making body within the university, the Executive Officer Group (comprising the Provost, Vice Provosts (2), Faculty Deans and Dean of Research, Treasurer, Bursar and College Secretary), who were addressed on the subject by Professor Paul Walton, York University. Further workshops on unconscious bias were delivered to Senior and Junior Promotions Committees and to Fellows (who, along with the Provost, are responsible for the governance of College) by Professor Joyce Yen, University of Washington. The long- term objective, beyond INTEGER, is for these to cascade via faculties to Schools/Disciplines throughout College.
The cumulative effect of the INTEGER activities at TCD has been an increased awareness of, and commitment to addressing, gender equality issues at the university. What was once a peripheral issue is now embraced within overarching institutional strategy, coupled with measurable targets and monitoring. A framework for this process has been established and presented as an output to institutions which are only now embarking on their own structural transformation journeys.
SU
For the purposes of the project INTEGER prior to developing a unique Transformation Gender Equality Action Plan Šiauliai University designed a theoretical methodology specifically suited to the needs of a ŠU-like university that is reflected in the T-GAP and its implementation process.
In developing of ŠU approach to institutional transformational change, we employed multiple conceptual frameworks: holistic approach focusing on women’s researchers and structural reorganizations taking into account women professional and professional life needs; institution’s culture including quality (declared, aimed at conduct, ethical standards and values of a community, conditioned by national, social-political and legal traditions) development and change; structural / institutional approach to gender or gender structure approach emphasizes factors that are external to individuals, such as the organization of social institutions, including the concentration of power, the legal system, and organizational barriers that promote inequality; system approach – identification, understanding and managing interconnected processes as one system with the aim of improving the gender equality of ŠU; process approach – a desirable result is achieved more effectively when interrelated resources and activities are managed as one process; gender sensitive or equality approach (views gender as a fundamental and ubiquitous problem, with women and men both “needing to change”) through gender analysis; the transformation of gender relations describing the new standards for everyone replacing the segregated institutions and standards associated with masculinity and femininity; synthesis of modelling institutional transformation change, using: 1) cultural change models assume that change occurs in response to alterations in the internal human environment, including alteration of values, beliefs, myths, and rituals. The cultural models tend to place emphasis on the collective process of change and the significant role of each individual in the change process. Such change is long-term, slow, unpredictable, non-sequential, and seemingly difficult to manage and 2) social-cognition models incorporating human behaviour, individual learning and individual sense-making, and alters individual beliefs and construction of reality. The social cognition models emphasize discussion and learning among the participants, the opportunity for participants to discuss, debate, reframe, and make sense of the proposed changes allows for creative results
The T-GAP itself is a result of both in-depth quantitative and qualitative data analysis, cultural and work environment analysis. Taking into account all of the indexes pre-discussed in the developmental stages of the project as well as in the process of design and implementation. Developing the „architecture“ for pursuing of gender equality inclusion at the Šiauliai University (at all levels and layers) for the systemic reconstruction organizational culture using the gender mainstreaming framework simultaneously serving instrumental institution’s instrumental goals (quality assurance policy in higher education) at Šiauliai University. In and of itself is a tool and result of a scientific insight and implementation effort via trial and error. In order to employ a multi-layered approach as such, certain external resources in the design of the T-GAP concept were adapted: consultations with project ambassadors and experts; other gender equality oriented projects experience from USA and EU (ADVANCE NSF, Athena SWAN, GENDERA, PRAGES) and their meta-analysis. For almost a year, in order to design the T-GAPS a deep analysis of projects alike and gender implementation theory was done under the concept of INTEGER. This was done in order to perceive the methods of structural change. Also a deeper understanding of how gender equality and empowerment concepts and their specifics work together.
One of the key indicators that have produced direct scientific results is the successfully implemented Grant-scheme for women scientists at Šiauliai University. The Grants have resulted in 23 publications produced by the women scientists with the financial aid of the Project INTEGER. In addition it provided extensive impact towards facilitating the research and publication processes in financial aid towards: Financial support for dissertation preparation and defending; foreign language courses; conference participation: travels, overnights, visa/insurance costs, participation fees; subscriptions to scientific databases; individual participation in personality development seminars and trainings; professional qualification development literature (books/journals); scientific publication, summary preparation, publication printing, review and display presentation technical preparation and printing, publication translation, etc.; work/ training related visit spending; etc.
In the initial stage of the project, after the analysis of baseline data, discussions with the Teams and the initial drafting of the T-GAP at ŠU we designed an awareness raising and learning on daily academic basis: I Am Learning, I Am Changing, We Are Learning, and We Are Changing!
The initial aim of the programme was to motivate and to encourage employee self-motivation; to encourage curiosity; relation of everyday activities with women and men equality and learning to strive for balance (self-learning). Objectives:
-Carry out activities that educate gender sensibility, awareness, comprehension, etc.;
-To encourage collective learning of men and women, thus raising the overall organisational environment in regard to gender awareness;
-To hold seminars trainings on handling stress, conflicts, negotiation, communication, institutional change, etc.
After the pilot of the Programme we constructed Training Module Mainstreaming Gender Equality for University Change. Having in mind that the ultimate objective of the institutional change process is to work towards better gender relation and equal representation of both genders all staff categories of the ŠU, the lack of knowledge was identified. The main definition of transformative change and structural change were defined.
Šiauliai University has also developed Recommendations for the Higher Education Institution and Research Institutions Marketing Communication with the Gender Equality Aspects which is included into the INTEGER Guidelines. In addition we performed a gender Pay-Gap data collection and analysis for ŠU.
As a direct result from the actions of ŠU INTEGER, ŠU, together with the partners of the consortium has released three publications based on the findings and implementation experience of the project.
1. Pépin, Anne; Drew, Eileen; Šidlauskienė, Virginija; Lipinsky, Anke. Fostering gender equality in research institutions through transformational-gender action plans (INTEGER project) // 8th European conference on gender equality in higher education, September 3-5, 2014, Vienna University of Technology, Austria: book of abstracts. [Vienna]: Vienna University of Technology, 2014. p. 18.
This paper draws upon baseline evidence compiled for the FP7 Project INstitutional Transformation for Effecting Gender Equality in Research (INTEGER) in three research performing organisations. Despite institutional commitments towards gender equality, there is an under-representation of women at full professorship (Grade A) and equivalent. Furthermore women and men are unequally represented on key committees and other decision-making bodies. INTEGER’s task is to address these and other imbalances through the adoption of Transformational Gender Action Plans (T-GAPs). These T-GAPs involve: increasing the visibility and leadership potential of women academics/researchers; monitoring and gender proofing of recruitment/retention and promotion policies and practices; ensuring gender balance on decision-making bodies/committees; providing mentoring programmes and training in gender awareness to overcome unconscious bias at all levels of the institution; setting targets for high level appointments; and promoting gender equality as a core value contributing to research excellence. The T-GAP process is informed by international good practice through peer mentoring with research institutions in the UK/EU and USA and alignment with the Athena SWAN Charter and equivalent award holders. In addition, an external evaluation team assesses progress and impacts of the T-GAPs in each organisation. The paper presents different approaches of designing institutional transformation, strategies for building alliances in the institution for effective implementation of the T-GAPs and how the processes can be evaluated.
2. Šidlauskienė, Virginija. Strategy to success (or failure) in senior management at a university (Lithuania case) // Gender in a changing world: Women's worlds congress, August 17-22, 2014, University of Hyderabad, India: [abstracts]. [Hyderabad]: [University of Hyderabad], [2014]. p. 161-162.
3. Šidlauskienė, Virginija; Butašova, Katarina. Designing Gender Equality as Institutional Transformation at a Higher Education Institution // Lyčių studijos ir tyrimai = Gender Studies and Research. Vilnius: BMK Leidykla. ISSN 1822-6310. 2013, [nr.] 11, p. 50-69.
These publications provide an input towards and overall development of Gender Equality theory and experience in the pool of European and Global knowledge of Institutional implementation of Gender Equality. Project INTEGER at ŠU is paving a pioneering way for future gender equality implementation in the national HEI context – together with the Ministry of Science developed Recommendation on ensuring of equal opportunities between women and men at higher education and research institutions. The improvement of career advancement of women in STEM is approved via the commitment in the renewed Project Šiauliai University Strategic Plan Project for the year 2014-2017 under measure of development of Employee motivation and encouragement system.
GESIS
In the framework of the INTEGER project GESIS has produced considerable research results in the area of assessing institutional transformation towards greater gender equality as well as impacts of gender equality measures in higher education and research institutions.
First, GESIS designed a detailed evaluation concept that is tailored to the external evaluation of the T-GAPs designed and implemented by INTEGER partner institutions but provides constructive insights of use in evaluations of further measures aiming at institutional change towards greater gender equality. The transferability is facilitated by the fact that the evaluation concept provides for a thorough assessment of national, institutional and local circumstances and their influence on the design and implementation of the T-GAP.
This evaluation concept that was delivered in M37 continues to be publicly available via the website of GESIS’ Center of Excellence Women and Science CEWS, a hub and actor for the realization of equal opportunities for women and men in science and research in Germany that is active and visible in this field beyond Germany, which gives the publication considerable visibility as well.
The evaluation concept defines a threefold objective of the evaluation of the T-GAPs designed and implemented by INTEGER partner institutions: First, the evaluation process is designed to provide local program coordinators with an outside view on the implementation process as support means for programme steering and quality assurance with respect to the program’s objectives, including sustainability of the advancement of gender equality. Second, the external evaluation explores output, outcome and impact of each T-GAP at organisational and subordinate levels for the purpose of making effects of its activities tangible. Finally, the evaluation methodology will supply project partners – and, possibly, higher education institutions which decide to follow the T-GAP implementation model – with tools and guidance on how to use the evaluation methodology for their own programs’ quality assurance, to support legitimacy and dialogue, and thus measure institutional performance of implementing gender equality measures.
The evaluation concept developed by GESIS contains the following elements:
• The rationale for the evaluation of T-GAPs;
• Information on the evaluation team;
• Elements of the evaluation procedure consisting of a preparation phase, the core evaluation rounds and the feedback procedure;
• A description of the assessment methodology based in social science research;
• An outline of the feedback procedure;
• An overview of elements of the evaluation toolkit to be delivered by GESIS-CEWS;
• Annexes and templates;
• A bibliography.
The annexes include further details in the following documents:
• Definition of Transformational Change;
• Recommendation of T-GAP elements;
• Letter to recruit control groups;
• Guideline for self-reporting;
• Draft course for site visits;
• Draft course for toolkit reality check.
The evaluation approach as presented in the evaluation concept consists of three complementary perspectives on the evaluation: a framework analysis, a process analysis and an impact analysis. The purpose of the framework analysis is to understand the contextual conditions and possible constraints at organisational and local level in relation to each of the four INTEGER themes: engagement of decision-makers; organisational structure; career progression and work-life balance. In order to carry out the framework analysis thorough background research is essential in the fields of: higher education legislation and research governance policy, employment policy in public research, gender equality policy applicable to HEI and research institutions, etc. The results of the framework analysis serve as background for weighting more specific assessments of processes, outcomes and impacts, e.g. the potential of the institution to demonstrate change within a specific area of the T-GAP. In order to assess the operationalization of the T-GAP, the evaluation approach includes a process analysis. By looking at key actors involved in T-GAP implementation, as well as the institutional behaviour (actors not directly involved but potentially affected) strengths and weaknesses of the institution managing the transformational change process are to be revealed. Due consideration is given to the role and position of the institutional T-GAP coordinator within the institutional hierarchy, who is managing the implementation process on behalf of the owner of the T-GAP (leader of institution) and in relation to the local schools, institutes or faculties. At the core of the assessment are the outcomes and impacts created within each theme at different levels within each institution. For the purpose of this analysis GESIS’ evaluation suggests the Logic Chart Model (cf. e.g. Balthasar 2011; Knowlton Wyatt/ Phillips 2009) adapted for the analysis of T-GAPs that draws relations between outputs, outcomes and impacts of gender equality measures.
For the analysis of these three perspectives GESIS developed indicators and tested them in the evaluation of the T-GAPs at its three partner institutions. Please find below a list of these indicators:
Evaluation perspective Indicators
Framework analysis
At national/regional level:
• Research policy and initiatives and respective legislation
- Degree of consideration of gender equality-related objectives
- Gender-related approach (transformative vs. “fix the women”)
• Gender equality policy and initiatives and respective legislation
- Relevance for higher education and research institutions
- Reference to & adoption of EU-level initiatives on gender equality and research
At the level of the organization:
• Gender equality actors and structures at different levels
- Position of relevant actors in the hierarchy of the organization
- Resources of gender equality actors and structures
- Cooperation between gender equality actors
- Alliances with other actors
• Gender Research
- Existence and position of gender research in the organization
- Integration of gender perspectives in research contents
• Financial situation of the organization as a whole
• Mission of the organization
- Existence and nature of gender-sensitive perspectives
- Coherence of objectives of the initiative and mission of the organization
- Degree of internationalization
Process analysis • Implementation structures
- Composition of implementation teams
- Recruitment practices
• Implementation processes & dynamics
- Distribution of tasks
- Workflows (design and implementation of initiatives)
- Communication structures & processes
- Cooperation between actors
Impact analysis • To what extent did the initiative reach its objective(s)?
• Can observed effect(s) be correlated with the measure/initiative? To what extent?
⇒ Logic Chart Model
Indicators developed by GESIS related to evaluation perspectives
The evaluation makes use of a triangulation of complementary empirical social science methods (statistical data assessment, self-reporting in writing, and site-visits with interviews) generating quantitative and qualitative data.
In terms of quantitative indicators, GESIS, in close collaboration with its project partners, developed a Data Monitoring Template that facilitates the repeated collection of sex-disaggregated data on the representation of women and men in different staff categories and decision-making bodies in higher education and research institutions. The template requests data on a series of data sets, e.g. types of academic positions, career and promotion systems, recruitment procedures, degrees, types of working contracts, salary systems, reward systems, research fellowships/grants, parental leave, decision-making bodies, boards and governance systems. The Data Monitoring Template constitutes a practice-proofed tool for the quantitative monitoring of the representation of women and men in all staff categories as well as decision-making bodies of an organisation. This template forms part of the INTEGER Guidelines and Toolkit and is available to the public on the website www.integer-tools-for-action.eu.
A further research-based tool that was developed by GESIS is a template for self-reporting that guides the self-reflection and –analysis of actors implementing gender action plans. The original template was manufactured for each of the project partners, CNRS, TCD and ŠU. Drawing on this templates and the experiences with their use, GESIS designed a ‘Context Report Templates’, a ‘Process Report Template’ and an ‘Impact Report Template’ that can be adapted and used by any actor interested in assessing their own gender equality plan. As a part of the INTEGER Guidelines and Toolkit these templates are available via the website www.integer-tools-for-action.eu.
The ‘Context Report Template’ addresses the following issues: (1) the national, institutional and local baseline situation (by means of quantitative data as requested in the Data Monitoring Template (see above) and background information and data); (2) the structure and organization of gender equality in the institution (focusing on the structure of gender policy at central and local levels, resources, and strengths and weaknesses relating to structural and organizational aspects); and (3) the objectives and overall concept of the gender action plan (analysing objectives relating to gender equality, target groups of measures, strategies as well as strengths and weaknesses of the chosen approaches). The ‘Process Report Template’, in turn, raises the following points for self-reflection and analysis: (1) the level of implementation of the gender action plan (assessing the status quo of the implementation of measures deriving from the gender action plan and the adaptation of measures in the course of the implementation process); (2) strengths and weaknesses of implementation structures; (3) strengths and weaknesses of communication processes; (4) strengths and weaknesses of internal quality control mechanisms; (5) strengths and weaknesses related to cooperation with actors within the institution, with other universities or research stakeholders and with actors outside the research sector); and (6) strengths and weaknesses of sustainability mechanisms. Finally, the ‘Impact Report Template’ requires the assessment of the assessment of the achievement of objectives and of causal relations between outputs, outcomes and impacts.
A further major research result is the concept for the final evaluation developed by GESIS that serves to assess to what extent and in what way Transformational Change has taken place in the INTEGER partner institutions since the beginning of the implementation of the T-GAPs.
For the purpose of the final evaluation, GESIS defined indicators based on the definition of Transformational Change developed in the INTEGER project. According to this definition, Transformational Change is a strategic means which is steered by institutions that employ research staff. Through operating transformational change, research institutions are demonstrating significant gender awareness and competency to use gender as a resource to create new knowledge and stimulate innovation by modernizing their organizational culture. The ultimate objective of the change process is to work towards a better gender relation and equal representation of both sexes in all staff categories of the institution. Resulting from this definition, GESIS identified three indicators of Transformational Change, namely “gender awareness among the target group of T-GAP measures and INTEGER implementation team members”, “gender competence among the target group of T-GAP measures and INTEGER implementation team members” and “gender relation and representation of both sexes in all staff categories of the institution”. Drawing on academic literature, GESIS defined sub-indicators of Transformational Change.
Based on these indicators, GESIS assessed Transformational Change at its three partner institutions, resorting to data collected through a web survey as well as through monitoring of quantitative staff and other data. GESIS compared the results regarding gender awareness and gender competence among staff at the INTEGER pilot entities, INTEGER implementation team members and further individuals particularly involved in the INTEGER project (e.g. STRIDE-like Committee members, at CNRS) to those among staff at the control group, and compared the responses of female and male respondents on all items. The monitoring of personnel data provided insights into the third indicator of Transformational Change as defined by GESIS, namely “gender relation and representation of both sexes in all staff categories of the institution”.
Potential Impact:
The main objective of the INTEGER project was to create measurable and sustainable structural change in three research and higher educations towards gender equality, and this objective has been achieved to a large extent. As the two-step evaluation carried out by GESIS has demonstrated, substantial progress has been made at each partner institution, despite the relatively short implementation period, and the impact of the project at institutional and local level is significant. Many actions have now been institutionalised and changes will endure beyond the life of the project as a result of the enhanced capacity built within partner organisations, the policy changes effected, and the ongoing commitment of senior management within those organisations due to the recognised benefits, in terms of enhanced reputation and profile but also of improved organisation management and research quality.
The T-GAPs’ contents and implementation results, as well as the comprehensive evaluation concept developed, have informed user-friendly joint guidelines in the form of a dedicated public website, www.integer-tools-for-action.eu conceived as an implementation manual providing templates and case study examples to peer institutions wishing to engaging in institutional change.
These instruments and tools from the project were disseminated across partner organisations, regional networks and wider networks of research institutes and universities within each partner’s country, and across member states an associated countries, including main actors and relevant policymakers in each context, to ensure the transferability of the T-GAP methodologies and support the wider implementation of gender equality good practice.
The INTEGER project has raised the profiles of its partner institutions in the academic stakeholder community, as role models for peer European research institutions, providing orientation and assistance. INTEGER has served as a practical catalyst for the larger community of research institutions to engage in transformational change in their respective partner countries, in complementarity with, and often, inspiring other similar ongoing European initiatives, such as younger sister FP7-funded and now H2020-funded “institutional change change” projects (including STAGES, GENDERTIME, EGERA, TRIGGER, and lately, GENERA).
The INTEGER project has been a trailblazer. It was launched prior to several key European-level and national-level policies and initiatives, such as e.g. the 2011 EC report on “Structural change in research institutions: Enhancing excellence, gender equality and efficiency in research and innovation”; the July 17th 2012 ERA Communication on “A Reinforced European Research Area Partnership for Excellence and Growth”; the new proactive legal framework for gender equality in the public service, and specifically in higher education and research in France; the extension of the Athena SWAN award scheme to Ireland; the new 2015-2020 National Action Plan (program Equal Opportunities between Women and Men) and Recommendation ensuring between Women and Men in Science and Study Institutions of Lithuania; the GENDER-NET ERA-NET, a pioneering transnational research policy initiative involving a set of key national-level players (e.g. ministries, funding agencies and other national organisations, joining forces to promote gender equality through structural change as well as the integration of the gender dimension into research contents and programmes, which CNRS is coordinating; the genderSTE COST policy-driven targeted network; the upcoming online tool from the European Institute for Gender Equality on the implementation of gender equality plans in higher education and research institutions developed by the Yellow Window company). In different ways, INTEGER has paved the way for these evolutions, and in some instances, has directly contributed to their development. The policy-level impact and societal impact of the INTEGER are considerable.
INTEGER organisations will represent an enduring resource and a diverse reference within Europe to support the wider implementation of gender equality good practice. Among proofs of the impact of each partner’s involvement in the project, the following achievements should be underlined:
CNRS:
At institutional level, the impact of the INTEGER project has been transformative on many levels, and is continuing beyond the project’s duration, thanks to the formal adoption of the global INTEGER-inspired T-GAP in March 2014.
The creation of the STRIDE-like Committee and the recent creation of an institutionalised network of 19 gender equality contact points, one for each regional CNRS representation, are strong outcomes of the INTEGER project. The STRIDE Committee has already started gender-proofing recruitment, promotion and appraisal of researchers at CNRS, and the network of regional gender equality correspondents is picking up speed after its kick-off workshop held early July 2015, and will improve the local implementation of the T-GAP in laboratories and services all over the country.
Likewise, the CNRS’s decision to dedicate the 2015 edition of the seminars for both the Jeunes Talents (Young talents) and Cadres de la Recherche (Future leading managers) promotions to the topic of “management and gender issues” is a strong marker of the consideration now given to gender equality issues at CNRS. Results of their findings and proposals for actions enforcing/expanding the CNRS T-GAP will be presented to the CNRS governance and Senior Management Team in December 2015, and these promotions have already decided that they wanted to pursue their involvement on this topic as a group, working in close collaboration with the Mission for the Place of Women (MPDF) at CNRS.
Another positive evolution at CNRS, and an additional guarantee for sustainability of INTEGER results at CNRS, is the upcoming nomination on December 1st 2015 of a woman, Anne Peyroche, as the next CNRS Chief Science Officer. While still working as a senior researcher, head of lab and member of the Comité national in 2013, Anne Peyroche had participated in the STRIDE Committee’s initial activities, and has since then shown consistent and effective support to gender equality in her new capacity as Principal Adviser on Research in the Cabinet of the Minister of National education, higher education and research.
At national level, the impact of the INTEGER project is significant on many different levels and in different arenas and has irrigated the national community, e.g. close collaboration with the Department for Human Resources Strategies, Parity and Fight against Discrimination at the National education, higher education and research; in the COMEGAL set by the Ministry to advise on gender equality issues; playing a leading role in the new national network of gender equality officers in higher education and research institutions in France; actively participating in the Université Sorbonne Paris Cité equality network, which also involves EC projects TRIGGER and EGERA; networking with all French associations on the topic of gender equality and gender research; and now co-leading the organisation of the 9th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education, to be held in September 2016 in Paris.
Another direct impact of the INTEGER project, and strong recognition of the institution’s involvement and role model position at national level, is the Trophy for gender equality of the APEC (Association for Executives’ Employment) that CNRS will be receiving on November 5th, 2015 in Paris, for its gender equality action plan. This recently-created French award celebrates institutional efforts supporting gender equality in the workplace, and the event is covered by a major weekly news magazine, l’Express, which will release that same day a special issue on gender equality, with a strong emphasis put on the CNRS experience (several interviews have been carried out, with the INTEGER project coordinator, the CNRS President, a CNRS regional delegate, STRIDE Committee members, etc.)
At European level, the invitation made by the Luxembourgish Presidency to the CNRS President Alain Fuchs to be a keynote speaker on gender equality issues and benefits of institutional change at the Informal Council of the Ministers responsible for Research that took place the 21st July 2015, in Luxembourg, is a clear testimony of the impact of the INTEGER project, and major recognition of CNRS’s achievements and leadership role on these issues.
As implementing partner and coordinator, CNRS has of course engaged in extensive dissemination activities, targeting key events, conferences, workshops, publication opportunities and national media and social media interventions (see following sections of this Final Report) and is responsible for the technical development, design and sustainable management of the INTEGER online Guidelines (www.integer-tools-for-action.eu)
As was underlined by GESIS in its evaluation, through its participation in, and coordination of, the INTEGER project, “the MPDF has expanded its involvement in national and international networks and formed strategic alliances with gender equality research communities, gender and science policy-makers, research funders and entities carrying out certification and quality assessment schemes in gender equality in research organisations. National and international visibility of MPDF, and thus CNRS, increased significantly. This current framework assures the highest standards in the implementation of CNRS’ activities” as well as the highest standards in the expertise that CNRS can provide to the wider community.
TCD:
The impact of INTEGER for TCD has been transformative, and will continue to have a substantial effect on the institution, and indeed the national context, far beyond the lifespan of the project. Perhaps the most demonstrative example of this is the successful negotiation by the TCD INTEGER coordinator, in collaboration with colleagues nationally, of the introduction of the Athena SWAN Charter for gender equality into the Irish higher education (HE) system.
This represents a groundbreaking new development and will ensure that gender equality is mainstreamed within the HE sector nationally, now and for the future. Leading directly out of a TCD INTEGER T-GAP action, led by WiSER in Trinity College, a national committee for gender equality in higher education and research institutions, the Athena SWAN Ireland Committee, was established to pursue these goals at a national level. The committee is chaired by the TCD INTEGER coordinator. Following the launch of Athena SWAN in Ireland, all seven Irish universities have established gender equality committees and created gender action plans, and within 2015 each has applied for an Athena SWAN award to recognize their progress toward gender equality. TCD was successful in achieving four such awards out of a total of five awarded nationally (TCD received an Institutional Bronze award, and three School Bronze awards for each of the three INTEGER pilot Schools).
That TCD was by far the most successful Irish institution, with the three TCD School who participated in the INTEGER project as the only Schools nationally to receive awards, is demonstrative of the direct and major impact of INTEGER in the Irish HEI sector. While this impact has clearly been keenly felt within TCD itself, it has also been substantially demonstrated on the sector as a whole, which can now be said to be collectively pursuing a gender equality agenda. This was not the case before INTEGER. Its impact will continue to grow and become further institutionalized.
Furthermore, a related outcome has been the establishment of a strong network of gender equality practitioners and stakeholders across Ireland, who now work together to advance this shared agenda. In addition, through the GENDER-NET ERA-NET, the Irish experience of importing an initially UK-based gender equality award (Athena SWAN), is being closely monitored to determine the possible extension of a ‘Gender Equality Mark’ into EU RPOs. The INTEGER Project has featured prominently in EIGE’s initial meeting of experts and online discussion on Integrating Gender Equality in Universities and Research Institutions.
Within TCD specifically, gender equality now occupies an acknowledged and central place within institutional planning and decision-making, which is a direct result of the work of INTEGER. The most recent TCD Strategic Plan includes, for the first time ever, a commitment to gender equality, and specifically to “advancing a structural change process to incorporate gender-balanced representation at all stages and levels, thereby enhancing the quality of Trinity’s institutional decision-making” .
Working closely with the other partners, TCD engaged in extensive and targeted dissemination activities throughout the lifespan of the project, both nationally within Ireland and internationally. These included presentation at numerous conferences, most notably as part of the INTEGER panel session at the Gender Summit Cape Town 2015 and a GENDERTIME event in Padua. National dissemination activities have been extensive. The TCD team has developed strong links with the other FP7 gender equality projects represented in Ireland, FESTA and GENOVATE, and the TCD INTEGER coordinator has spoken at several events organized by these projects and at other universities such as University College Dublin.
A national INTEGER dissemination event was held in June 2015, launched by the Minister of State with responsibility for Equality. The event was very well attended. The results of the INTEGER project have also been exploited substantially. The INTEGER T-GAP Wheel Model has been shared widely, and is available for use by other institutions seeking to create gender equality plans. Similarly, the INTEGER coordinator at TCD has advised, and continues to advise, other institutions on the pursuit of gender equality, structural transformation, and the creation of gender equality plans, including as a model for Athena SWAN success in Ireland.
SU:
At Šiauliai University the results can be differentiated into two groups on the basis of quantitative and qualitative indicators.
One of the major accomplishments in regard to the qualitative results of project INTEGER at Šiauliai University is the direct outcome of the Election Campaign Strategy Case Study that was developed and implemented by the INTEGER ŠU Team. The issue was that in 2010 no women have been elected between 11 members of Council of ŠU. Referring to the Law on Higher Education and Research (2009) the Council of a state university is one of the main collegial management bodies. Council approves the institution's vision and mission, a strategic action plan; set the procedure of management, use and disposal of funds of University. The aim was to increase women representation in 2014 ŠU Council election in average reaching critical mass (to 25%).
The need for such an intervention was due to the convenient circumstance of an upcoming election and the fact that it was integral initiative. This involved a step-by-step strategy to overcome gender unbalance at the top-decision making bodies of the University. After the election the representation of women increased dramatically.
The election campaign of project INTGER was coordinated by the GSC and the Implementation team. This was done via active candidate search and recruitment, planning, consultations with legal officers and dissemination actions. A 36.3% representation is achieved in the Council which above the critical mass (25%) margin.
Engagement of the top is expressed by explicitly incorporating gender equality targets in the university’s mission statement, Code of ethics, Code of conduct, staff motivation regulation, etc. This commitment is echoed in university communications and policy measures of 2 university Faculties. Another indicator for the commitment of academic leaders is the extent to which gender equality is incorporated as a one of the tasks in the work description of top and senior staff. To underline the seriousness of the matter, academic leaders should be regularly trained to enhance their awareness of gender issues and gender equality results should be incorporated in their performance reviews (external evaluation of study programmes at the 2 Faculties). Due to structural changes and management change at the faculties this was not viable. However during the lifespan of the project in the former Faculty of Technology two women were appointed Heads of Departments, one of which (Urban Engineering) first time in the history of the Faculty. This led to an even closer and stronger collaboration between the GSC and the Target Faculties and is also related to the sustainability of the gender equality practice and willingness to participate in future EU and National level Gender Equality intiatives.
University leaders were responsible for establishing an effective infrastructure for gender implementation of GE. Mainstreaming demands sufficient means and facilities for planning, executing, monitoring and sharing information and expertise were dedicated to GSC as one of the main infrastructure for implementation GE, sustain INTEGER project impact in the future. Since May 2015 the HR at GSC increased (0.25 work load unit).
On Faculty level INTEGER project aimed to:
• Realise and maintain a balanced influx, mobility of personnel (negative turnover was experienced, when young researcher after defending her Doctoral Thesis and pro-activist in project institutional implementation team left university);
• Identified, developed and maintained the expertise and competences of individuals;
• Involved staff by giving them responsibility, but the motivation of participation the project was problematic (academic staff is too busy with teaching, research and some of them with the administration);
• Initiated and facilitated a dialogue between the organisation and its community;
• Reviewed and rewarded and academic staff engagement and performance (sanctioning wasn‘t used).
In terms of structural change one of ŠU’s most successful actions towards gender equity in the theme of work-life balance. One of the critical points in an academic or research career of an individual is the necessity to balance life and work, especially when one has children. Therefore, as a continuation of a former initiative we reinstated and relocated a short-term (2-3 hrs.) childcare centre. The centre needed to be relocated due to the availability of it being at a geographically more suitable position as well as being in University Library facilities. For the 2013 the hourly childcare centre had 570 children, where 274 (48% were girls and 296 (52%) were boys. All of the children left for the hourly supervision were of the university community and library visitors that were either using the library facilities or were attending an event taking place at the library. Moreover, ŠU INTEGER initiated an Alteration the Minimal Position Qualifying Requirements for Research and Higher Education Institution Research Workers which involves the possibility under the request of a member of the teaching or research staff, the time period of pregnancy, birth and childcare leave can be excluded from the Regulated time frame in which the minimal qualifying requirements should be met. The tenure can be extended for the time of leave as well. The target group for this measure is not only researchers at SU but all researchers nation-wide will be affected. As of January 29, 2014 it was approved in Seimas and is now the official law.
At ŠU, after the creation of the Teams we have established a Women’s network which served as an overall communication from micro (internal project affairs and organisation) to macro (faculty and senior management) levels. The network and its internal communications platform (Moodle) will continue to function after the project, serving as a direct link among the two target faculties and the Centre for Gender Studies and Research in identifying and solving Gender Equality issues.
In 2014 Rector’s annual report included a section on women and men balance at the University which was never before done in the history of the University. Data is being collected for the Rector’s report that not only allows collecting data of high relevance to the project but in addition enables to reflect the situation for gender equality at the university in the report. Moreover the annual, institutional employee opinion research on quality of University management was amended with consulting the project INTEGER implementation teams at ŠU in terms of developing the HR section.
The experience and findings within the implementation process of Project INTEGER was employed on the national levels in form of Consultations to Ministry of Social Security and Labor on new 2015-2020 National Action Plan (program Equal Opportunities between Women and Men) as well as collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Education on recommendation in regard to Equal opportunity ensuring between Women and Men in Science and Study Institutions of Lithuania. These measures influence not only Šiauliai University but the Higher Education system of Lithuania.
Qualitative indicators:
Individuals (academic staff): changes in attitudes, e.g. perceptions and beliefs – equality is value; changes in gender equality knowledge, gender issues sensitivity; changes in awareness – increased awareness of Lithuanian laws regarding equal opportunities, non-discrimination and gender equality; changes in skills (inter faculties’ and senior management communication); in transnational communication, English language, increased parent ability to locate child care at university, etc. Changes in behaviour (gender equality knowledge is transferred to other institutions, to projects, website materials linguistically and visually are more sensitive); Changes in financial status (increased spending of women researchers’ for the international collaboration, participation in conferences).
The University: increased visibility of issue at national level, media cover the message of the project implementation process; changes in partnerships (partners become more strategic, partners deepen their collaborative relationships, partners jointly implement actions toward agreed-upon aims, partners improve group functioning, partnership increases ability to articulate a shared purpose, partnership shares a plan of action (T-GAP), partners increase sharing of resources, partners increase sharing of data. ŠU INTEGER has initiated a tradition of establishing and rewarding the most gender equality encouraging department/unit since 2013 at ŠU.
We learned that dissemination of project activities play an important role to an overarching awareness of the project and its activities, allowing the increase in its importance and spreading the message across the University, this was done by employing the dissemination through project website and the University website, and will continue through the INTEGER Guidelines website.
GESIS:
The products designed by GESIS, in particular the Detailed Evaluation Concept and the Evaluation Toolkit, are expected to meet great interest and create a strong impact among its target groups.
Whereas the Detailed Evaluation Concept is tailored to the external evaluation of Transformational Gender Action Plans in higher education and research institutions, the Evaluation Toolkit addresses gender equality (and other) actors who are interested in conducting a self-assessment of such action plans. Both the Detailed Evaluation Concept and the Evaluation Toolkit suggest to assess gender action plans from three complementary perspectives by analysing (1) the framework conditions, (2) the preparation and implementation processes, and (3) the impacts created by the action plan.
The Detailed Evaluation Concept, in particular, lays out specific objectives of external evaluations of the partner institutions’ T-GAPs. Similarly, the overall approach and some methods are manufactured to the specificities of an external evaluation in an EU project context. Thus, this publication that is available via the website of GESIS’ Center of Excellence Women and Science CEWS offers targeted insights to external evaluators tasked with assessing Transformational Gender Action Plans.
Both the Detailed Evaluation Concept and GESIS’ concept for the Final Evaluation within the INTEGER project depart from the definition of Transformational Change agreed upon by all INTEGER partner institutions. The Final Evaluation Concept provides a framework including indicators for assessing to what extent and in what way Transformational Change has taken place in the INTEGER partner institutions, in particular, and higher education and research institutions in general. This design is of particular interest to researchers and practitioners dealing with the measurement of institutional change towards gender equality in research because few sound indicators on this phenomenon have been developed and tested thus far.
The Evaluation Toolkit aims to supply higher education and research institutions with tools and guidance for the assessment of their Transformational Gender Action Plans. It is tailored for practical use, and the practical examples aim to provide orientation in particular to users with limited or no previous experiences. The toolkit suggests using evaluation methodology for quality assurance of gender action plans, to support legitimacy and in-house dialogue, and to measure institutional performance of the implementation of these plans to foster gender equality. Its target group comprises any actors in charge of or interested in conducting an assessment of (parts of a) Transformational Gender Action Plan. These may include coordinators of gender action plans, gender equality bodies and quality management entities, amongst others.
The Evaluation Toolkit, in particular the 29 pages long manual, guides the readers through the self-assessment process. The structure of this manual follows the evaluation cycle as suggested by GESIS. The first step of the cycle is the preparation of the self-assessment activities that is described in detail in chapter 2 of the manual. Subsequently, data is to be collected, followed by the analysis of these data. GESIS identified three perspectives of analysis and two phases of collecting and analysing data, and considers these perspectives a more useful structure for the presentation of this part of the guidelines than the distinction between data collection and data analysis. Both of these steps of the evaluation cycle are thus addressed in chapter 3. Having analysed the data, the next step is to provide feedback on the self-assessment results. Based on this feedback, it is to be discussed how to implement recommendations resulting from the self-assessment. This follow-up is crucial in order for the evaluation to have any impact on further strategy development, structures and practices. The feedback and the follow-up steps are presented in chapter 4 of the manual. Furthermore, the manual features a section dedicated to the quality assurance of self-assessment (chapter 5). The manual is complemented by templates which can be used as tools, namely (1) a check list for the preparation of self-assessments that gives an overview of relevant steps to be taken in the preparatory phase of the assessment of the Transformational Gender Action Plan; (2) a Data Monitoring Template that aims to facilitate the repeated collection of sex-disaggregated data on the representation of women and men in different staff categories and decision-making bodies in the organization; (3) a Context Report Template; (4) a Process Report Template; and (5) an Impact Report Template, each of which focuses on one of the three suggested perspectives of the self-assessment (see above); as well as (6) the Self-Assessment (Final) Report Template aimed to support the writing of the final report, providing a structure and a list of suggested issues to address in the feedback process.
As this toolkit forms part of the INTEGER Guidelines and Toolkit it is publicly available and easily accessible via the website www.integer-tools-for-action.eu. The manual can be downloaded in pdf format and all templates can be downloaded in MS Word or Excel format in order to facilitate their adaptation to specific contexts, needs and interests. The website has been and is continued to be disseminated widely among stakeholders (see section 4.1 below).
Thus, the products delivered by GESIS serve both researchers and practitioners in the field of gender equality in science and research. They stimulate and support the evaluation of gender equality initiatives in higher education and research institutions which is supposed to feed into the optimization of the evaluated initiatives and, possibly, the development of new ones. The improvement of measures is expected to support advances towards greater gender equality in higher education and research institutions.
List of Websites:
The address of the online Guidelines, and legacy of the INTEGER project, is the following: www.integer-tools-for-action.eu.
The website has been designed to be both instructive and a contact point. It showcases the INTEGER project (presentation, results) and proposes our toolkit, as well as it ensures a system that enables to stay in touch (the “Stay informed” tool is used to collect the emails of the visitors who would want to be informed of all relevant news).
In parallel, it was chosen to create dedicated webpages on each partners’ websites, that provide information regarding INTEGER in each of the consortium’s languages.
These are the following:
• CNRS: www.cnrs.fr/mission-femme/integer [FR];
• TCD: www.tcd.ie/wiser/integer/ [EN];
• SU: http://integer.su.lt [EN – LT];
• GESIS: www.gesis.org/cews/en/about-cews/en-cews-project-work/cews-project work/euprojects/integer/ [DE].
Despite increasing national and EU-level commitments towards gender equality in research, there is still an under-representation of women in STEM fields, especially at full professorship level and equivalent, and lack of gender balance on key decision-making bodies. The European Research Area (ERA) is confronted to structural obstacles within its research and higher education institutions which prevent it from reaching its goals on the full participation of women in research and innovation. The objective of the FP7-funded project INTEGER (INstitutional Transformation for Effecting Gender Equality in Research) was to address these and other imbalances through the implementation of sustainable Transformational Gender Action Plans (T-GAPs).
The INTEGER project brought together a focused and balanced partnership of three implementing institutions – a large research organisation, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France), and two universities, Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) and Siauliai University (Lithuania) – as well as an external evaluator, GESIS-Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (Germany). During the first 18 months of this 52-month project which started in March 2011 and ended in June 2015, Bradford College/UKRC (UK) was also a partner, but withdrew and was replaced by CNRS as Project Coordinator. Partner organisations share a top level commitment to gender equality and have been working together to transform academic and research institutions in order to address female under-representation and unconscious gender bias, and ensure environments in which women and men can equally perform, thus leading to an enhanced quality of research.
INTEGER has operated in 4 key areas of intervention and analysis: 1) Engagement of decision-makers, 2) Improvement of Organisational Structures, 3) Career Progression, Development and Support, 4) Work-Life Balance. The bespoke T-GAPs contain actions addressing the issues identified in each implementing organisation at institutional and local levels. On certain topics, some inspiring practices, including selected actions from NSF-ADVANCE (US) and Athena SWAN Awardees (UK), shared by our constituted network of INTEGER Ambassadors, have been adapted to meet each organisation’s situation. Implementation has been monitored through a set of key performance indicators and assessed by our external evaluator. Based on review reports, and self-monitoring, T-GAPs have been regularly updated.
Commitment to the project objectives and workplan has been enacted in all partner institutions, and T-GAP design and implementation was effected in all three implementing organisations. Despite some delays due mainly to institutional agendas and changes in the partnership, the consortium partners succeeded in holding all planned activities, and concrete steps towards sustainability and institutionalisation of measures have been taken with success.
An evaluation methodology was devised by GESIS, a self-assessment toolkit was developed, and both a central – formative – evaluation round and final – summative – evaluation round were carried-out in each of the three implementing institutions. It revealed that positive structural and cultural changes were taking place and that institutional transformation towards better gender equality was indeed under way in all three implementing organisations.
Project results have been disseminated through three final dissemination symposia held in June 2015 in three different regional locations (Ireland/UK, Western Europe, Eastern Europe), and comprehensive online guidelines have been produced (www.integer-tools-for-action.eu) in order to help peer research and higher education institutions engage into institutional change through the implementation of gender action plans. The guidelines, based on lessons learned and good practices brought together by the experience of the INTEGER project, are designed as a practical implementation manual providing a series of templates, how-to guides, and case studies, and are already a reference tool for several undergoing initiatives.
In conclusion, the INTEGER project has achieved its objectives and contributed to helping the ERA reach one of key priorities, gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research.
Project Context and Objectives:
When the INTEGER (Institutional Transformation for Effecting Gender Equality in Research) project was conceived, in 2009-2010, the recently-published She Figures 2009 indicated that women were making up 30% of all researchers across the EU, and were still largely under-represented in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and particularly so in decision-making positions.
The need to address the persistent structural barriers to the recruitment, retention and advancement of women existing in higher education and research institutions was being recognised at European level as being a necessity for achieving gender equality in research and innovation.
When the FP7 Science-in-Society SiS-2010-2.1.1.1 call topic entitled “Implementing structural change in research organisations/universities” was opened by the European Commission in 2009 – inaugurating a series of such annual structural/institutional change call topics supporting research institutions in the implementation of gender equality plans, which continues in the latest Horizon 2020 Science-with-and-for-Society work programme – the future INTEGER partners were determined to try to seize this opportunity.
The successful INTEGER proposal brought together a small and balanced consortium of organisations with very different national and institutional contexts, but with a shared top-level commitment to the implementation of sustainable transformational change to improve the career progression of women scientific researchers, embed structural changes in their own organisations, and create a legacy of learning and guidance to assist other practitioners in their implementation.
The initial consortium consisted of a resource centre on women in SET, the UKRC at Bradford College (UK), as project coordinator, 3 implementing research and higher education institutions – a large research organisation, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France), and 2 very different universities, Trinity College Dublin (TCD, Ireland) and Siauliai University (ŠU, Lithuania) – and an external evaluator, GESIS-Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences/ Center of Excellence Women and Science (GESIS, Germany).
After 18 months, Bradford College/UKRC withdrew from the project, and was replaced by CNRS as project coordinator. An amendment to the Grant Agreement including a 4-month cost-neutral extension of the project was requested by the remaining consortium to take into account the significant changes and delays encountered as a result, and was granted by the European Commission. The 52-month INTEGER project, launched on March 1st 2011 – with a Grant Agreement signed end of March 2011 –, thus ended on June 30th 2015.
The INTEGER project’s aim was the following: to create sustainable structural change for the benefit of research institutions/universities and the career paths of women researchers in STEM by the implementation of contextualised transformational gender action plans (T-GAPs) and the use of tested tools and instruments (e.g. those developed by the UK Athena SWAN awardees, or by the US National Science Foundation ADVANCE program awardee universities) to support an effective and comprehensive organisational gender management strategy – which we have named transformational change.
Our main objectives, reflected in the 7 Workpackages of the INTEGER workplan, were the following:
1) Enable participating organisations to carry out the project with efficient and effective project coordination and management (addressed in WP1-Project Management)
2) Develop bespoke T-GAPs that address key issues identified in each of the three implementing institutions through a detailed baseline data assessment, with a focus on structural change at the institutional level and at local unit level (in at least two different Faculties/Schools/Institutes), and set up gender-balanced implementation teams to support the implementation at each level (addressed in WP2-Transformational Gender Action Planning).
3) Implement the T-GAPs, embedding gender equality through the transformation of structures, processes and environments applicable to the national, institutional and local contexts of the participating partners, and addressing the following 4 key areas of intervention and analysis (addressed in WP4-Implementation):
• Engagement of decision-makers
• Organisational Structure
• Career Progression, Development and Support
• Work Life Balance
4) Support the T-GAP implementation through transformational change trainings at the institutional and unit level, through a network of experts and Ambassadors with previous experience in the implementation of gender equality initiatives in academia, as well as through mentoring by peer institutions from e.g. UK Athena SWAN and US NSF-ADVANCE awardee institutions (addressed in WP3-Exchange of Experience).
5) Transfer good practice and learning across the partnership through exchange-of-experience seminars addressing common issues and actions, linking to a wider network of expert practitioners (also addressed in WP3-Exchange of Experience).
6) Assess progress and impact of the T-GAP implementation within each implementing organisation through formative and summative evaluation methodology, and adapt T-GAPs accordingly (addressed in WP7-Evaluation and in WP4-Implementation).
7) Create a set of guidelines as a comprehensive gender management tool to ensure effective implementation and sustainability beyond the life of the project, and to encourage peer institutions to implement gender equality plans (addressed in WP5-Guidelines).
8) Disseminate results, lessons learned and tools from the project across partner organisations, regional networks and wider networks of research institutes and universities within each partner’s country, and across the member states, including main actors and relevant policy-makers in each context (addressed in WP6-Dissemination).
At the time of its launch, INTEGER was a pioneering effort at European level, but also at national level for each of the three implementing organisations, TCD in Ireland, ŠU in Lithuania, and CNRS in France. It was also an innovative effort for GESIS.
At the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Mission pour la place des femmes au CNRS (MPDF, Mission for the Place of Women at CNRS) had been created since 2001 and directly attached to the highest level of CNRS governance. The MPDF had significant experience of: internal gender data gathering, analysis and dissemination, pursuing targeted surveys and studies to identify the factors hindering the progress of women’s careers, supporting gender research and developing multidisciplinary gender training workshops, as well as organising/supporting outreach events and pedagogical tools on gender and research and on women in science. In particular, the MPDF had launched in 2006 an investigation of innovative and successful gender equality strategies developed in North America and, among key initiatives, had identified the NSF ADVANCE Program, dedicated to advancing women in academic science and engineering, and carried out site visits to several awardee universities.
Furthermore, in its recently signed contract of objectives with the French State, CNRS, had committed to developing a gender equality action plan during the 2009-2013 time period. The timing was thus perfect for the INTEGER project, which received strong support from the top leadership.
At local level, the two CNRS Institutes (divisions) with the lowest proportions of women among researchers, i.e. below 20%, the Institute of Physics (INP) and the National Institute for Mathematical Sciences (INSMI), were targeted. In addition, two laboratories were also more specifically targeted to best address the laboratory-level organisation and dynamics: the Institut Néel, affiliated to INP and located in Grenoble, and the Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu-Paris Rive Gauche (IMJ-PRG), affiliated to INSMI and located in Paris.
The objective for CNRS, through INTEGER, was to achieve gender equality in careers and in the workplace through the transformation of institutional policies and practices.
Prior to INTEGER, efforts to improve gender equality in Trinity College Dublin (TCD) had focused on providing direct support to women academics and researchers in the form of networking, professional development training, and policy advocacy, all enacted by the Centre for Women in Science & Engineering Research (WiSER).
Recognising the limitations of concentrating only on measures to help women, INTEGER at TCD shifted the emphasis from ‘fixing the women’ to institutional transformation and ‘fixing the institution’ in the context of gender mainstreaming. WiSER engaged in developing and implementing T-GAPs around the four INTEGER themes, in order to deliver meaningful structural transformation. Two Schools of the Faculty of Engineering, Mathematics and Science were targeted: the School of Natural Sciences and the School of Chemistry, soon to be joined by a third School, the School of Physics.
Project INTEGER at Šiauliai University (ŠU), aiming at initiating institutional change processes to advance gender equality in research, was the first of its kind in Lithuania. Prior to INTEGER ŠU had thus far not been operating with concepts or plans to implement or institutionalise actions aimed at reducing any kind of discrimination for reasons of gender. No previous experiences with transformational change or gender action plans have been established in the two pilot faculties, the Faculty of Technology (TF) and the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (MIF). The Centre for Gender Studies and Research of ŠU was the first in Lithuania to start implementing a structural change-based gender equality project (INTEGER) in an academic/research environment. At ŠU, its objectives were to improve organizational matters, awareness of gender correspondence and to initiate a more comprehensive working environment that way increasing the number of women researchers. The project was operating with the appreciation to differing conditions within the partner states, cultural and institutional contexts both on local and institution-wide levels.
It was observed that the target faculties at ŠU coincided with the standard gender equality situation in European STEM institutions. The analysis revealed that the highest research, academic and senior management positions were dominated by men, whereas women were left with lower-grade research and academic positions and were widely left with administrative duties.
The aim of the T-GAP at ŠU was to establish gender tools, fully and properly implement down to the local level from senior management, and with measured outputs to promote, embed and mainstream gender equity within ŠU; they resulted in the desired outcomes of improved career progression for women. In order to achieve the aim of the T-GAPs within each of the four key areas of implementation, certain objectives have been set and were incorporated into each part of respectful key area T-GAP. The ŠU T-GAP envisaged the implementation of a change management model incorporating two complementary approaches: a) the empowerment of women at ŠU (direct support) and b) utilising the EU approach to gender mainstreaming and gender equality, respectively. The T-GAP objectives and core strategy was formulated over a period of two years.
The national contexts, the nature and culture of each of the three implementing institutions were very different: CNRS is the largest public research organisation in France, and the largest public basic research organisation in Europe, recognised for excellence in research and covering all fields of knowledge as well as all regions of the national territory through its over 1000 labs, most of them joint labs with French universities – thus presenting a significant level of organisational complexity; TCD is one of the oldest universities in Europe, with a strong research-intensive profile; while ŠU is a smaller size regional university in Lithuania with a strong focus on teaching.
Yet, many issues were shared by the 3 implementing institutions and the 4 key themes chosen for the T-GAPs were key areas common to all.
WP7 of GENDER-NET was dedicated to the evaluation of the T-GAPs designed and implemented by the three implementing INTEGER partner institutions (CNRS, TCD and ŠU) and was led by GESIS-Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences/ Center of Excellence Women and Science (GESIS) in its role as the external evaluator.
The objective of WP7 was fourfold: Firstly, the evaluation process aimed to contribute to an improvement of the quality of the T-GAPs and their implementation through external feedback to partner institutions in the course of implementation of the action plans. Secondly, the external evaluation explored outputs and outcomes of each T-GAP at organisational and subordinate levels for the purpose of providing measurable results of the transformation processes relating to the T-GAPs. Thirdly, the evaluation aimed to assess and highlight the impacts of the action plans, analysing both their intended and their unintentional effects. Lastly, the WP aimed to supply higher education and research institutions which decide to follow the T-GAP implementation model with tools and guidance on how to use the evaluation methodology for their own programs’ quality assurance, to support legitimacy and dialogue, and thus measure institutional performance of implementing gender equality measures.
The evaluation concept that was designed by GESIS for these purposes combines elements of formative evaluations and summative evaluation courses at different points of time during the implementation process and resorts to both qualitative and quantitative data. The Evaluation Toolkit consists of a manual aimed to guide the practitioner through the self-assessment process as well as complementing templates which can be used as tools.
Project Results:
A common framework and an overall methodology for constructing the T-GAPs was shared by all three INTEGER implementing institutions: building institutional and local implementation teams; collecting and analysing quantitative secondary data; reviewing national and internal laws, policies, procedures and practices; undertaking primary data collection (mostly quantitative, through an on-line survey on career paths, work environments and work-life balance issues) and carrying out qualitative assessment at the local level through site visits and focus groups.
From the baseline data assessment findings and the input of Experts and Ambassadors (comprising researchers, managers and academics from the fields of science, engineering and social sciences, who have successfully implemented structural change in their own institutions), as well as the feedback received from the implementation teams, activities have been action-planned in each implementing institution to best address identified issues, and to fit in the 4 T-GAP themes or key indicators of gender equality progress i.e. 1) Engagement of decision-makers; 2) Organisational structures; 3) Career progression, development and support; 4) Work-life balance.
In addition, in all three implementing partners, at least two local units were targeted, in order to compare between sometimes very different disciplinary cultures, and create both a sense of community and a healthy competition between the targeted structures. Each institution’s top leader (i.e. the President of CNRS, the Provost of TCD and the Rector of ŠU) was also a member of the INTEGER Partnership Group which oversaw the whole project and met once a year, and was the owner of his institution’s T-GAP. However, given the very different national settings, local cultures and types of institutions involved in INTEGER, diverse methodologies have been used by consortium partners for the design of their T-GAPs and different strategies have been adopted for ensuring the effective and sustainable implementation of the T-GAPs.
Over the duration of the INTEGER project, implementation of a broad array of actions was fully established and realised at each partner institution, with many initiatives set to continue beyond the lifespan of the project. Due to the nature of the consultative implementation process and the central evaluation round, some actions from the initial T-GAPs (as planned at the outset of the project) were adapted, or reframed as longer-term goals, as changes in emphasis necessitated focus in other areas. Nonetheless, the majority of planned actions have now been addressed and many have been mainstreamed and institutionalised. A positive impact of project INTEGER can clearly be felt within each institution, and has indeed been assessed by our external evaluator, GESIS.
At an overall project level, all objectives listed in the previous section were achieved, all due Deliverables have been submitted, and all Milestones have been reached (see 3rd Periodic Report).
CNRS:
Due to the very large size of CNRS (with over 34,000 staff, among whom roughly 11,000 are permanent researchers), its dispersed national locations and organisational complexity, different implementation teams have been put into place:
• At Senior Management level, a standing committee of representatives from the top CNRS governance, the Steering Committee for Gender Equality at CNRS (“Comité de pilotage de l’égalité professionnelle entre femmes et hommes au CNRS”) was created and ensures commitment and support to gender equality from the top-level decision-makers at CNRS;
• At Institutional level, several implementation teams and working groups have been created, including a committee inspired from the University of Michigan’s STRIDE Committee (“Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting in Diversity and Excellence”) to best tackle the issue of potential gender bias in researchers’ recruitment, promotion and rewards procedures and practices. The membership of this Committee was initially focused on STEM fields, but in response to the strong interest displayed by the “Comité national” (CNRS’s researcher evaluation board), was extended to include all 46 Chairs (or their representative) of the different standing peer-review evaluation panels of the “Comité national”.
• At Local Level, implementation teams were put into place at INP and INSMI and at the Institut Néel and IMJ-PRG. Teams including women and men, junior and senior researchers, both CNRS researchers and university faculty, were constituted.
The CNRS T-GAP developed by the INTEGER team at MPDF was constructed as a flexible scheme to be adapted through discussions with local implementation teams and CNRS Senior Management, as well as following assessments carried out by GESIS. Based on the collected quantitative and qualitative data, the devised T-GAP also took into account the recent evolution of the national legislative and regulatory context (indeed, in 2012-2013, France made a major political leap in support of professional equality between women and men, through a series of Laws, Decrees, Agreements and Charters – INTEGER, and CNRS, were ahead of this trend) as well as EU recommendations and good practices already implemented by peer institutions (e.g. by Athena SWAN Awardees such as the University of York (UK) and US NSF-ADVANCE Awardees such as the University of Michigan), and relied on the knowledge brought by gender research, a field in which CNRS plays a prominent role.
Benefiting from these results, the strategy operated at CNRS to meet operational objectives, and overcome potential barriers, involved the following: participatory approaches (e.g. through workshops and seminars); creation of ownership (e.g. by undertaking actions proposed by teams); careful choice of data for maximized awareness (e.g. statistical data, but also selected qualitative studies, starting with key results from social and cognitive psychology experiments on implicit/unconscious gender bias and stereotype threat, including studies carried-out by CNRS teams); some degree of shaming and/or benchmarking (e.g. providing striking negative data from CNRS, with a comparison with other more advanced institutions/countries); putting forward the EU strategy and priorities which CNRS should follow (e.g. the ERA priorities, the H2020 cross-cutting integration of gender); using top-down power (e.g. asking the President to invite CNRS decision-makers to INTEGER activities); developing peer-to-peer learning by involving external scientific leaders as Ambassadors or representatives of mentoring peer-institutions to foster buy-in among researchers (e.g. Prof. Paul Walton, Gold Athena SWAN-winning Chemistry Department at the University of York, and Dr. Alice Hogan, former Program Director for NSF ADVANCE, for top CNRS leadership; Profs. Abigail Stewart and Wayne Jones, ADVANCE program at the University of Michigan, for “Comité National” members; Prof. Tomas Brage, Physics department at Lund University in Sweden, for decision-makers at the Institut Néel target laboratory; Gary Loke, UK Equality Challenge Unit and Athena SWAN Charter, for the Review Seminar following the first evaluation round); taking advantage of the institutional agenda to embed gender equality in it (e.g. CNRS President’s campaign in 2013-2014 for a new mandate; new contract of objectives 2014-2018 between CNRS and the government; enforcement of national legislation); etc.
Early on, our INTEGER T-GAP, mostly dedicated to CNRS researchers, was framed as being part of an overarching global gender action plan (“Plan d’action pour l’égalité professionnelle entre femmes et hommes au CNRS”) addressing the whole organisation and for all personnel categories (i.e. including support staff: engineers, technicians and administrative personnel). The full-fledged CNRS T-GAP was thus presented in September 2013 to the Steering Committee for Gender Equality at CNRS within that global framework, and fully adopted, with a set of prioritised actions, in March 2014. A communication plan was devised to inform all staff about the CNRS gender action plan: a promotional video, featuring a commitment message from the CNRS President, and showcasing the INTEGER project, was released nationally early July 2014, including via the weekly CNRS e-newsletter received by all staff working in CNRS joint laboratories (i.e. over 60,000 people), and through national media. Regular progress reports on the T-GAP implementation have been – and will continue to be – presented to the Steering Committee.
The CNRS T-GAP contains about 45 actions, dispatched in 15 key objectives under the 4 themes, and 3 cross-cutting networking and mutual opening actions. Although some measures (e.g. gender equality trainings) had started being implemented in 2012, the relatively late start of the T-GAP implementation process at CNRS resulted from the additional workload caused by the transfer of coordination of the INTEGER project from Bradford College to CNRS. Most actions now have been implemented or are still under implementation, thus institutionalised. Some of the key achievements in each of the 4 themes are presented below:
Engagement of Decision-Makers
Commitment of decision-makers to the INTEGER project’s objectives has been increasing across CNRS, led by the CNRS President, Alain Fuchs, who expressed his commitment on numerous occasions, including in front of the French Senate and National Assembly in 2014, and recently in front of the Council of Ministers for research of the Council of the EU on July 21st 2015. Consistently, he agreed to include key performance indicators on women’s recruitment and promotion in his balanced scoreboard, and has been paying close attention to CNRS nominations and Awards in particular (in 2013, for the first time since 1986, the CNRS Gold Medal – the highest scientific award in France – was given to a woman, biologist Margaret Buckingham). Such commitment has also been demonstrated by the directors of the two targeted CNRS Divisions, INP and INSMI, who have heralded gender equality as a key issue for their teams, lab directors, fellow Institute Directors. Another distinctive feature at CNRS: the T-GAP stimulated the communication officers, at both central and Institute-level, into becoming active drivers for gender equality.
The INTEGER awareness-raising and capacity-building trainings on gender equality and unconscious bias that we have developed for all types of key decision-makers at CNRS have been key drivers to achieve the current level of buy in. As a direct consequence of their impact, gender equality contact points have been nominated in all 19 CNRS regional delegations. The purpose of this network, co-animated by the MPDF and one Regional Delegate, is to improve the local implementation of the T-GAP all over the country. The kick-off meeting occurred on July 6th 2015 and the second meeting will take place on December 15th 2015.
A pioneering effort was also led by the CNRS INTEGER team to address sexual harassment in the workplace. A practical factsheet was developed with the HR Department and a national awareness-raising day – the first one ever to be organised in France by a public or private employer – took place on November 26th 2014. A DVD was produced, and regional-level trainings have started and will carry on in all 19 regional delegations until 2016.
Organisational Structure
Many actions were implemented under this theme, which perhaps more directly translates the systemic nature of institutional transformation. In particular, the STRIDE-like Committee proved to be a major innovation at CNRS. Committee members, most of them decision-makers, are convened 2 to 3 times a year, and discuss key statistical data as well as research findings on gender inequalities in science. They have started to propose concrete measures to improve gender equality and gender balance in the recruitment, promotion and scientific recognition of researchers at CNRS. A pioneer action was set-up during the Spring 2015 concours: experienced gender experts were invited to observe the auditions of candidates in 12 volunteer sections, for both recruitment and promotion juries, in an effort to develop a reflective practice and correct any potential bias. The CNRS STRIDE Committee was identified as a best practice by the GESIS evaluators.
The procedure to award annual CNRS Medals was also reviewed, and most sections of the Comité national accepted to nominate 2 potential awardees for the Bronze and Silver Medals. Similar attention was paid to the Cristal rewarding CNRS support staff. The result is a significant improvement in the amount of women recognised for their scientific excellence, and serving as role models for younger researchers.
Interviews prior to, and after, long-term leaves (e.g. maternity/parental/adoption) are continuous in the Institut Néel since 2011, and duplicated in a growing number of CNRS labs. Setting the return from maternity/adoption/parental as a criterion for awarding the "délégations CNRS" (6-month period of teaching relief to university professors from CNRS labs) was institutionalised by INSMI and INP and is now expanding (a note on this possibility is currently being added to all online forms for the fall 2015 campaign).
In addition, the contents of the CNRS “parity” booklet (“La parité dans les métiers du CNRS”) – a comprehensive collection of sex-disaggregated statistics published yearly – were strengthened and disseminated broadly across CNRS, serving as a model for other national research organisations as well as French universities. Tailored data factsheets were also prepared for recruitment and promotion juries. The merging of the parity booklet and CNRS social report this year, with all data sex-disaggregated, goes even a step further and is again a pioneering move at national level.
Career Progression, Development and Support
Outreach actions to attract more women in STEM fields have also been developed. An online communication kit, featuring videos of women physicists working in CNRS labs, was conceived as a tool for interventions in high schools. We have also been partnering with the “Femmes et mathématiques” national association to further develop the annual “Forum des jeunes mathématicien-ne-s”, which targets female PhD and Masters Students in mathematics.
Professional development trainings on careers for young women researchers and professors (Springboard programme) were offered, which had strong impact, at the Institut Néel target laboratory in particular, and helped create a women researchers’ network. A similar training, opened to both women and men, was conceived by the IMJ-PRG INTEGER implementation team for the math community and its success is prompting its renewal beyond the duration of the project.
A partnership with AcademiaNet, the European level expert database of outstanding females scientists and scholars, was launched in 2014 with the objective of contributing to the visibility of women academics and scientists, i.e. CNRS Gold and Silver Medals. Another similar collaboration with the national database "Les Expertes" was also launched in the meantime with the aim of identifying women experts from all backgrounds, as speakers for the media, and conferences.
The CNRS “PEPS Egalité” action was launched end of 2014: this innovative type of call for proposals provided limited short-term financial support (from EUR3000 to EUR5000) to teams coordinated by a CNRS young woman researcher and with at least 35% of women among team members, for both a research project and a science popularisation project towards high school students, and especially female students. Overall, 15 projects in mathematics and 6 projects in physics were supported.
Work-Life Balance
A Worktime Management Charter was prepared through a series of workshops and is currently being integrated to a Guide on work time organisation to be released by the end of 2015 by the CNRS HR Department, which also offers detailed information on existing child-care and adult dependent-care supports – including the “accueils en délégation CNRS” provision put into place through INTEGER.
After long negotiations with the CNRS HR Department, Legal Department and Financial Officers, we succeeded in creating a pilot support scheme for covering work travel-related child-care & dependent-care related extra costs. “Professional Mobility Cheques for Universal Employment Services” (CESU) for the child and dependent care were made available, with however limiting requirements regarding applicants’ salary range, due to the obligation to fit in the framework of social action by national regulation. A budget for the pursuit of this action has been requested by the MPDF to the CNRS governance and is awaiting a decision.
In addition to the 4 T-GAP themes, CNRS has added a cross-cutting theme on networking and mutual opening among institutional change practitioners, which covered exchange of experience with sister “structural change” EC-funded projects (including GENIS LAB, STAGES, FESTA, GENDERTIME, GENOVATE, EGERA, TRIGGER, GARCIA, and lately, GENERA) through various workshops and events, some organised by INTEGER-CNRS (e.g. European Women Researchers’ Day in March 2014, Final INTEGER Dissemination Symposium, panel at the 8th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education) and some others organised by sister projects inviting INTEGER-CNRS (e.g. STAGES workshop and upcoming Final Conference, TRIGGER workshop; EGERA and GENERA kick-off meetings; GENIS LAB Final Conference).
Overall, as described by our external evaluator GESIS: “By initiating actions aimed at counteracting existing gender inequalities, CNRS demonstrates its position as an open-minded leader of societal change while simultaneously also being viewed as having a leading position at the forefront of research” (Central Evaluation Report for CNRS). The final evaluation round further enhanced the fact that institutional and cultural changes were taking place at CNRS.
Among key outcomes of INTEGER at CNRS:
• while the global amount of women researchers at CNRS has only slightly increased since the launch of the project (now at 33,3%) a decrease in male advantage at promotion is observed
• since December 2013, the CNRS Board of Trustees has 40% women, and the new CNRS Scientific Council now has 53.3% women
• the number of women Regional Delegate has increased from 26% to 42% from 2012 to 2015
• in 2014, the proportion of women among laureates at CR2 and DR2 levels increased
• in 2015, we count an unprecedented 60% of women among Bronze medallists ; in 2013, 2014 and 2015, we count 41%, 50% and 52% women for the Cristal (IT), 50%, 47% and 47% for CNRS Silver Medals; in 2013, a women receive the CNRS Gold Medal
• institutional cultural change is under way at CNRS, as the GESIS final evaluation has shown.
In addition to successfully implementing its T-GAP, CNRS has also ensured effective coordination of the INTEGER project, and been responsible for the technical development and design of the INTEGER online Guidelines (www.integer-tools-for-action.eu)
TCD
WiSER engaged in developing and implementing Gender Action Plans (T-GAPs) around the four INTEGER themes, in order to deliver meaningful structural transformation.
The key target groups were academic and research staff, and those involved in supporting research and academic work at School, Faculty and College levels. The formation of a College-wide Implementation Team and three School Implementation Teams reflected the involvement of senior administrators (Director of HR and Dean of Research) alongside the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Mathematics and Science, Heads of School, academic, technical and administrative staff in the three INTEGER pilot Schools (Chemistry, Natural Sciences and Physics). Initially, the INTEGER project had intended to target only academic staff e.g. in the INTEGER survey, but this was extended to research staff (Post-docs, Research Associates and Research Fellows) whose demands were incorporated into the INTEGER T-GAPs, most notably the Trinity Research Staff Association (TRSA) demand for an Early Career Researcher Support Office in Trinity College. Hence a TRSA representative sat on the College Implementation Team.
Quantitative and qualitative survey data were collected in March 2012 and 2015, as part of the INTEGER project activities. The survey examined the career ambitions, experiences and perceptions of the working environment, among academic staff. The survey objectives were to determine the forms of intervention and target actions to promote transformational change to ensure gender equality, within Trinity College in general, and the Faculty of Engineering, Mathematics and Science in particular.
Highlighted Results
• Of the 187 respondents with a partner, a higher proportion of female respondents’ (76%) partners were working full-time in the labour market compared with just over half of the male respondents (52%).
• A higher proportion of women are employed as contract, rather than permanent, academic staff. While more than three-quarters (77%) of male staff who responded were permanent staff, this applied to only two-thirds (66%) of female respondents.
• More women staff (77%) felt that they have not achieved their career ambitions, in terms of grade attainment, than men (64%).
• On average, the majority of men and a substantial minority of women work in excess of 50 hours per week (37% of women and 51% of men)
• More women than men avail of flexible working arrangements
The results of the 2012 survey, together with a comprehensive literature & policy review and data from focus groups in the Faculty of Engineering, Mathematics and Science, were used to develop a detailed set of recommendations for the university. A full report was produced and published, and is now widely available as the TCD INTEGER Baseline Data Report. The results of the 2015 survey will draw comparisons and further highlight ongoing gender issues.
In order to comprehensively address the issues identified by the INTEGER surveys and previous reports, tailored Transformational Gender Action Plans (T-GAPs) were developed for three INTEGER Schools and the College as a whole. In addition to the above-mentioned sources, a process of external consultation and review of international good practice was embarked upon to inform the creation of the T-GAPs. The model devised drew upon successful elements of both the Athena SWAN and NSF ADVANCE programmes.
A series of site visits was conducted to universities against which gender equality actions and objectives were benchmarked (e.g. Athena SWAN Award holders in the UK and NSF ADVANCE grant recipients in the US). Expert advice was sought and availed of both as an input into the T-GAPs and, via employment of guest speakers, as a means of engaging the university population and securing buy-in for institutional transformation. Expert speakers have included Prof Teresa Rees (Cardiff University), Prof Nancy Hopkins (MIT), Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell (University of Oxford), and Prof Paul Walton (University of York).
A combination of strategies evolved from INTEGER research conducted, as outlined above. The first strategy was to establish teams in each of the three pilot Schools and at College-wide level. These sought to have a cross section of staff (academic and non-academic) and were modelled on good practice from Athena SWAN Teams in Edinburgh University. The main objective of these was to get ‘buy-in’ at College and School levels and for the teams to take ‘ownership’ of the gender equality actions they prioritised and embarked upon. Knowing that staff are overworked and participating in their own time (e.g. lunch times), WiSER provide full administrative support (minute writing, agenda setting) and lunch. Flowing from these collective teams it was possible to forge strategic partnerships with key players, most notably, the Provost/Vice Provost, Chief Operating Officer, Dean of Research and the Director of Human Resources as well as the Equality Officer, FEMS Dean and Heads of Schools in Chemistry, Physics and Natural Sciences.
The School teams have served a further important function in spearheading activities to develop social cohesion within their local operating environments. For example, the School of Chemistry surveyed its staff members (academic and non-academic, including postdocs and postgraduate students) about their perceptions of the culture within the School, and the kinds of social activities they would like to engage in. They held a ‘Women in Chemistry Day’, while the School of Natural Sciences held a ‘Soapbox Science Day’ which showcased research by women scientists to the general public. Both events had the support of WiSER and received funding from the College Equality Fund. The School of Physics successfully applied for the JUNO Practitioner Award.
Benchmarking and institutional peer mentoring were fundamental strategies employed to drive the progress of INTEGER. Visits to TCD from key figures in the field of gender equality in academia were arranged throughout the course of the project. High-profile academic speakers were used as role models and influencers to build support at an institutional level for the structural change agenda, and to enhance institutional competence in this area. Speakers included Professor Paul Walton (York University, UK), Dr. Liz Elvidge (Imperial College, UK), Dr. Stephen Moggach (Edinburgh University, UK), Professor Teresa Rees (Cardiff University, UK), Professor Nancy Hopkins (MIT, US), Professor Alice Hogan (Consultant to NSF ADVANCE), Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell (Oxford University, UK), Professor Yvonne Galligan, (Queens University Belfast, UK) Dr Joyce Yen (University of Washington), and Professor Tomas Brage (Lund University, Sweden). The institutional mentoring process was complemented by visits of the TCD INTEGER team to peer institutions such as Edinburgh University (Athena SWAN personnel), Equality Challenge Unit (who manage Athena SWAN Award) and Queen’s University Belfast (holder of Institutional Silver Athena SWAN award). These were extended in February 2014 by visits to NSF ADVANCE award holders (UMBC, Columbia University and Hunter College NY), University of Michigan in April 2014 and University of Washington in October 2015
In terms of embedding gender equality into the governance of College, introducing Unconscious Bias training was identified as a critical step. The first occurrence of it was directed at the most senior decision-making body within the university, the Executive Officer Group (comprising the Provost, Vice Provosts (2), Faculty Deans and Dean of Research, Treasurer, Bursar and College Secretary), who were addressed on the subject by Professor Paul Walton, York University. Further workshops on unconscious bias were delivered to Senior and Junior Promotions Committees and to Fellows (who, along with the Provost, are responsible for the governance of College) by Professor Joyce Yen, University of Washington. The long- term objective, beyond INTEGER, is for these to cascade via faculties to Schools/Disciplines throughout College.
The cumulative effect of the INTEGER activities at TCD has been an increased awareness of, and commitment to addressing, gender equality issues at the university. What was once a peripheral issue is now embraced within overarching institutional strategy, coupled with measurable targets and monitoring. A framework for this process has been established and presented as an output to institutions which are only now embarking on their own structural transformation journeys.
SU
For the purposes of the project INTEGER prior to developing a unique Transformation Gender Equality Action Plan Šiauliai University designed a theoretical methodology specifically suited to the needs of a ŠU-like university that is reflected in the T-GAP and its implementation process.
In developing of ŠU approach to institutional transformational change, we employed multiple conceptual frameworks: holistic approach focusing on women’s researchers and structural reorganizations taking into account women professional and professional life needs; institution’s culture including quality (declared, aimed at conduct, ethical standards and values of a community, conditioned by national, social-political and legal traditions) development and change; structural / institutional approach to gender or gender structure approach emphasizes factors that are external to individuals, such as the organization of social institutions, including the concentration of power, the legal system, and organizational barriers that promote inequality; system approach – identification, understanding and managing interconnected processes as one system with the aim of improving the gender equality of ŠU; process approach – a desirable result is achieved more effectively when interrelated resources and activities are managed as one process; gender sensitive or equality approach (views gender as a fundamental and ubiquitous problem, with women and men both “needing to change”) through gender analysis; the transformation of gender relations describing the new standards for everyone replacing the segregated institutions and standards associated with masculinity and femininity; synthesis of modelling institutional transformation change, using: 1) cultural change models assume that change occurs in response to alterations in the internal human environment, including alteration of values, beliefs, myths, and rituals. The cultural models tend to place emphasis on the collective process of change and the significant role of each individual in the change process. Such change is long-term, slow, unpredictable, non-sequential, and seemingly difficult to manage and 2) social-cognition models incorporating human behaviour, individual learning and individual sense-making, and alters individual beliefs and construction of reality. The social cognition models emphasize discussion and learning among the participants, the opportunity for participants to discuss, debate, reframe, and make sense of the proposed changes allows for creative results
The T-GAP itself is a result of both in-depth quantitative and qualitative data analysis, cultural and work environment analysis. Taking into account all of the indexes pre-discussed in the developmental stages of the project as well as in the process of design and implementation. Developing the „architecture“ for pursuing of gender equality inclusion at the Šiauliai University (at all levels and layers) for the systemic reconstruction organizational culture using the gender mainstreaming framework simultaneously serving instrumental institution’s instrumental goals (quality assurance policy in higher education) at Šiauliai University. In and of itself is a tool and result of a scientific insight and implementation effort via trial and error. In order to employ a multi-layered approach as such, certain external resources in the design of the T-GAP concept were adapted: consultations with project ambassadors and experts; other gender equality oriented projects experience from USA and EU (ADVANCE NSF, Athena SWAN, GENDERA, PRAGES) and their meta-analysis. For almost a year, in order to design the T-GAPS a deep analysis of projects alike and gender implementation theory was done under the concept of INTEGER. This was done in order to perceive the methods of structural change. Also a deeper understanding of how gender equality and empowerment concepts and their specifics work together.
One of the key indicators that have produced direct scientific results is the successfully implemented Grant-scheme for women scientists at Šiauliai University. The Grants have resulted in 23 publications produced by the women scientists with the financial aid of the Project INTEGER. In addition it provided extensive impact towards facilitating the research and publication processes in financial aid towards: Financial support for dissertation preparation and defending; foreign language courses; conference participation: travels, overnights, visa/insurance costs, participation fees; subscriptions to scientific databases; individual participation in personality development seminars and trainings; professional qualification development literature (books/journals); scientific publication, summary preparation, publication printing, review and display presentation technical preparation and printing, publication translation, etc.; work/ training related visit spending; etc.
In the initial stage of the project, after the analysis of baseline data, discussions with the Teams and the initial drafting of the T-GAP at ŠU we designed an awareness raising and learning on daily academic basis: I Am Learning, I Am Changing, We Are Learning, and We Are Changing!
The initial aim of the programme was to motivate and to encourage employee self-motivation; to encourage curiosity; relation of everyday activities with women and men equality and learning to strive for balance (self-learning). Objectives:
-Carry out activities that educate gender sensibility, awareness, comprehension, etc.;
-To encourage collective learning of men and women, thus raising the overall organisational environment in regard to gender awareness;
-To hold seminars trainings on handling stress, conflicts, negotiation, communication, institutional change, etc.
After the pilot of the Programme we constructed Training Module Mainstreaming Gender Equality for University Change. Having in mind that the ultimate objective of the institutional change process is to work towards better gender relation and equal representation of both genders all staff categories of the ŠU, the lack of knowledge was identified. The main definition of transformative change and structural change were defined.
Šiauliai University has also developed Recommendations for the Higher Education Institution and Research Institutions Marketing Communication with the Gender Equality Aspects which is included into the INTEGER Guidelines. In addition we performed a gender Pay-Gap data collection and analysis for ŠU.
As a direct result from the actions of ŠU INTEGER, ŠU, together with the partners of the consortium has released three publications based on the findings and implementation experience of the project.
1. Pépin, Anne; Drew, Eileen; Šidlauskienė, Virginija; Lipinsky, Anke. Fostering gender equality in research institutions through transformational-gender action plans (INTEGER project) // 8th European conference on gender equality in higher education, September 3-5, 2014, Vienna University of Technology, Austria: book of abstracts. [Vienna]: Vienna University of Technology, 2014. p. 18.
This paper draws upon baseline evidence compiled for the FP7 Project INstitutional Transformation for Effecting Gender Equality in Research (INTEGER) in three research performing organisations. Despite institutional commitments towards gender equality, there is an under-representation of women at full professorship (Grade A) and equivalent. Furthermore women and men are unequally represented on key committees and other decision-making bodies. INTEGER’s task is to address these and other imbalances through the adoption of Transformational Gender Action Plans (T-GAPs). These T-GAPs involve: increasing the visibility and leadership potential of women academics/researchers; monitoring and gender proofing of recruitment/retention and promotion policies and practices; ensuring gender balance on decision-making bodies/committees; providing mentoring programmes and training in gender awareness to overcome unconscious bias at all levels of the institution; setting targets for high level appointments; and promoting gender equality as a core value contributing to research excellence. The T-GAP process is informed by international good practice through peer mentoring with research institutions in the UK/EU and USA and alignment with the Athena SWAN Charter and equivalent award holders. In addition, an external evaluation team assesses progress and impacts of the T-GAPs in each organisation. The paper presents different approaches of designing institutional transformation, strategies for building alliances in the institution for effective implementation of the T-GAPs and how the processes can be evaluated.
2. Šidlauskienė, Virginija. Strategy to success (or failure) in senior management at a university (Lithuania case) // Gender in a changing world: Women's worlds congress, August 17-22, 2014, University of Hyderabad, India: [abstracts]. [Hyderabad]: [University of Hyderabad], [2014]. p. 161-162.
3. Šidlauskienė, Virginija; Butašova, Katarina. Designing Gender Equality as Institutional Transformation at a Higher Education Institution // Lyčių studijos ir tyrimai = Gender Studies and Research. Vilnius: BMK Leidykla. ISSN 1822-6310. 2013, [nr.] 11, p. 50-69.
These publications provide an input towards and overall development of Gender Equality theory and experience in the pool of European and Global knowledge of Institutional implementation of Gender Equality. Project INTEGER at ŠU is paving a pioneering way for future gender equality implementation in the national HEI context – together with the Ministry of Science developed Recommendation on ensuring of equal opportunities between women and men at higher education and research institutions. The improvement of career advancement of women in STEM is approved via the commitment in the renewed Project Šiauliai University Strategic Plan Project for the year 2014-2017 under measure of development of Employee motivation and encouragement system.
GESIS
In the framework of the INTEGER project GESIS has produced considerable research results in the area of assessing institutional transformation towards greater gender equality as well as impacts of gender equality measures in higher education and research institutions.
First, GESIS designed a detailed evaluation concept that is tailored to the external evaluation of the T-GAPs designed and implemented by INTEGER partner institutions but provides constructive insights of use in evaluations of further measures aiming at institutional change towards greater gender equality. The transferability is facilitated by the fact that the evaluation concept provides for a thorough assessment of national, institutional and local circumstances and their influence on the design and implementation of the T-GAP.
This evaluation concept that was delivered in M37 continues to be publicly available via the website of GESIS’ Center of Excellence Women and Science CEWS, a hub and actor for the realization of equal opportunities for women and men in science and research in Germany that is active and visible in this field beyond Germany, which gives the publication considerable visibility as well.
The evaluation concept defines a threefold objective of the evaluation of the T-GAPs designed and implemented by INTEGER partner institutions: First, the evaluation process is designed to provide local program coordinators with an outside view on the implementation process as support means for programme steering and quality assurance with respect to the program’s objectives, including sustainability of the advancement of gender equality. Second, the external evaluation explores output, outcome and impact of each T-GAP at organisational and subordinate levels for the purpose of making effects of its activities tangible. Finally, the evaluation methodology will supply project partners – and, possibly, higher education institutions which decide to follow the T-GAP implementation model – with tools and guidance on how to use the evaluation methodology for their own programs’ quality assurance, to support legitimacy and dialogue, and thus measure institutional performance of implementing gender equality measures.
The evaluation concept developed by GESIS contains the following elements:
• The rationale for the evaluation of T-GAPs;
• Information on the evaluation team;
• Elements of the evaluation procedure consisting of a preparation phase, the core evaluation rounds and the feedback procedure;
• A description of the assessment methodology based in social science research;
• An outline of the feedback procedure;
• An overview of elements of the evaluation toolkit to be delivered by GESIS-CEWS;
• Annexes and templates;
• A bibliography.
The annexes include further details in the following documents:
• Definition of Transformational Change;
• Recommendation of T-GAP elements;
• Letter to recruit control groups;
• Guideline for self-reporting;
• Draft course for site visits;
• Draft course for toolkit reality check.
The evaluation approach as presented in the evaluation concept consists of three complementary perspectives on the evaluation: a framework analysis, a process analysis and an impact analysis. The purpose of the framework analysis is to understand the contextual conditions and possible constraints at organisational and local level in relation to each of the four INTEGER themes: engagement of decision-makers; organisational structure; career progression and work-life balance. In order to carry out the framework analysis thorough background research is essential in the fields of: higher education legislation and research governance policy, employment policy in public research, gender equality policy applicable to HEI and research institutions, etc. The results of the framework analysis serve as background for weighting more specific assessments of processes, outcomes and impacts, e.g. the potential of the institution to demonstrate change within a specific area of the T-GAP. In order to assess the operationalization of the T-GAP, the evaluation approach includes a process analysis. By looking at key actors involved in T-GAP implementation, as well as the institutional behaviour (actors not directly involved but potentially affected) strengths and weaknesses of the institution managing the transformational change process are to be revealed. Due consideration is given to the role and position of the institutional T-GAP coordinator within the institutional hierarchy, who is managing the implementation process on behalf of the owner of the T-GAP (leader of institution) and in relation to the local schools, institutes or faculties. At the core of the assessment are the outcomes and impacts created within each theme at different levels within each institution. For the purpose of this analysis GESIS’ evaluation suggests the Logic Chart Model (cf. e.g. Balthasar 2011; Knowlton Wyatt/ Phillips 2009) adapted for the analysis of T-GAPs that draws relations between outputs, outcomes and impacts of gender equality measures.
For the analysis of these three perspectives GESIS developed indicators and tested them in the evaluation of the T-GAPs at its three partner institutions. Please find below a list of these indicators:
Evaluation perspective Indicators
Framework analysis
At national/regional level:
• Research policy and initiatives and respective legislation
- Degree of consideration of gender equality-related objectives
- Gender-related approach (transformative vs. “fix the women”)
• Gender equality policy and initiatives and respective legislation
- Relevance for higher education and research institutions
- Reference to & adoption of EU-level initiatives on gender equality and research
At the level of the organization:
• Gender equality actors and structures at different levels
- Position of relevant actors in the hierarchy of the organization
- Resources of gender equality actors and structures
- Cooperation between gender equality actors
- Alliances with other actors
• Gender Research
- Existence and position of gender research in the organization
- Integration of gender perspectives in research contents
• Financial situation of the organization as a whole
• Mission of the organization
- Existence and nature of gender-sensitive perspectives
- Coherence of objectives of the initiative and mission of the organization
- Degree of internationalization
Process analysis • Implementation structures
- Composition of implementation teams
- Recruitment practices
• Implementation processes & dynamics
- Distribution of tasks
- Workflows (design and implementation of initiatives)
- Communication structures & processes
- Cooperation between actors
Impact analysis • To what extent did the initiative reach its objective(s)?
• Can observed effect(s) be correlated with the measure/initiative? To what extent?
⇒ Logic Chart Model
Indicators developed by GESIS related to evaluation perspectives
The evaluation makes use of a triangulation of complementary empirical social science methods (statistical data assessment, self-reporting in writing, and site-visits with interviews) generating quantitative and qualitative data.
In terms of quantitative indicators, GESIS, in close collaboration with its project partners, developed a Data Monitoring Template that facilitates the repeated collection of sex-disaggregated data on the representation of women and men in different staff categories and decision-making bodies in higher education and research institutions. The template requests data on a series of data sets, e.g. types of academic positions, career and promotion systems, recruitment procedures, degrees, types of working contracts, salary systems, reward systems, research fellowships/grants, parental leave, decision-making bodies, boards and governance systems. The Data Monitoring Template constitutes a practice-proofed tool for the quantitative monitoring of the representation of women and men in all staff categories as well as decision-making bodies of an organisation. This template forms part of the INTEGER Guidelines and Toolkit and is available to the public on the website www.integer-tools-for-action.eu.
A further research-based tool that was developed by GESIS is a template for self-reporting that guides the self-reflection and –analysis of actors implementing gender action plans. The original template was manufactured for each of the project partners, CNRS, TCD and ŠU. Drawing on this templates and the experiences with their use, GESIS designed a ‘Context Report Templates’, a ‘Process Report Template’ and an ‘Impact Report Template’ that can be adapted and used by any actor interested in assessing their own gender equality plan. As a part of the INTEGER Guidelines and Toolkit these templates are available via the website www.integer-tools-for-action.eu.
The ‘Context Report Template’ addresses the following issues: (1) the national, institutional and local baseline situation (by means of quantitative data as requested in the Data Monitoring Template (see above) and background information and data); (2) the structure and organization of gender equality in the institution (focusing on the structure of gender policy at central and local levels, resources, and strengths and weaknesses relating to structural and organizational aspects); and (3) the objectives and overall concept of the gender action plan (analysing objectives relating to gender equality, target groups of measures, strategies as well as strengths and weaknesses of the chosen approaches). The ‘Process Report Template’, in turn, raises the following points for self-reflection and analysis: (1) the level of implementation of the gender action plan (assessing the status quo of the implementation of measures deriving from the gender action plan and the adaptation of measures in the course of the implementation process); (2) strengths and weaknesses of implementation structures; (3) strengths and weaknesses of communication processes; (4) strengths and weaknesses of internal quality control mechanisms; (5) strengths and weaknesses related to cooperation with actors within the institution, with other universities or research stakeholders and with actors outside the research sector); and (6) strengths and weaknesses of sustainability mechanisms. Finally, the ‘Impact Report Template’ requires the assessment of the assessment of the achievement of objectives and of causal relations between outputs, outcomes and impacts.
A further major research result is the concept for the final evaluation developed by GESIS that serves to assess to what extent and in what way Transformational Change has taken place in the INTEGER partner institutions since the beginning of the implementation of the T-GAPs.
For the purpose of the final evaluation, GESIS defined indicators based on the definition of Transformational Change developed in the INTEGER project. According to this definition, Transformational Change is a strategic means which is steered by institutions that employ research staff. Through operating transformational change, research institutions are demonstrating significant gender awareness and competency to use gender as a resource to create new knowledge and stimulate innovation by modernizing their organizational culture. The ultimate objective of the change process is to work towards a better gender relation and equal representation of both sexes in all staff categories of the institution. Resulting from this definition, GESIS identified three indicators of Transformational Change, namely “gender awareness among the target group of T-GAP measures and INTEGER implementation team members”, “gender competence among the target group of T-GAP measures and INTEGER implementation team members” and “gender relation and representation of both sexes in all staff categories of the institution”. Drawing on academic literature, GESIS defined sub-indicators of Transformational Change.
Based on these indicators, GESIS assessed Transformational Change at its three partner institutions, resorting to data collected through a web survey as well as through monitoring of quantitative staff and other data. GESIS compared the results regarding gender awareness and gender competence among staff at the INTEGER pilot entities, INTEGER implementation team members and further individuals particularly involved in the INTEGER project (e.g. STRIDE-like Committee members, at CNRS) to those among staff at the control group, and compared the responses of female and male respondents on all items. The monitoring of personnel data provided insights into the third indicator of Transformational Change as defined by GESIS, namely “gender relation and representation of both sexes in all staff categories of the institution”.
Potential Impact:
The main objective of the INTEGER project was to create measurable and sustainable structural change in three research and higher educations towards gender equality, and this objective has been achieved to a large extent. As the two-step evaluation carried out by GESIS has demonstrated, substantial progress has been made at each partner institution, despite the relatively short implementation period, and the impact of the project at institutional and local level is significant. Many actions have now been institutionalised and changes will endure beyond the life of the project as a result of the enhanced capacity built within partner organisations, the policy changes effected, and the ongoing commitment of senior management within those organisations due to the recognised benefits, in terms of enhanced reputation and profile but also of improved organisation management and research quality.
The T-GAPs’ contents and implementation results, as well as the comprehensive evaluation concept developed, have informed user-friendly joint guidelines in the form of a dedicated public website, www.integer-tools-for-action.eu conceived as an implementation manual providing templates and case study examples to peer institutions wishing to engaging in institutional change.
These instruments and tools from the project were disseminated across partner organisations, regional networks and wider networks of research institutes and universities within each partner’s country, and across member states an associated countries, including main actors and relevant policymakers in each context, to ensure the transferability of the T-GAP methodologies and support the wider implementation of gender equality good practice.
The INTEGER project has raised the profiles of its partner institutions in the academic stakeholder community, as role models for peer European research institutions, providing orientation and assistance. INTEGER has served as a practical catalyst for the larger community of research institutions to engage in transformational change in their respective partner countries, in complementarity with, and often, inspiring other similar ongoing European initiatives, such as younger sister FP7-funded and now H2020-funded “institutional change change” projects (including STAGES, GENDERTIME, EGERA, TRIGGER, and lately, GENERA).
The INTEGER project has been a trailblazer. It was launched prior to several key European-level and national-level policies and initiatives, such as e.g. the 2011 EC report on “Structural change in research institutions: Enhancing excellence, gender equality and efficiency in research and innovation”; the July 17th 2012 ERA Communication on “A Reinforced European Research Area Partnership for Excellence and Growth”; the new proactive legal framework for gender equality in the public service, and specifically in higher education and research in France; the extension of the Athena SWAN award scheme to Ireland; the new 2015-2020 National Action Plan (program Equal Opportunities between Women and Men) and Recommendation ensuring between Women and Men in Science and Study Institutions of Lithuania; the GENDER-NET ERA-NET, a pioneering transnational research policy initiative involving a set of key national-level players (e.g. ministries, funding agencies and other national organisations, joining forces to promote gender equality through structural change as well as the integration of the gender dimension into research contents and programmes, which CNRS is coordinating; the genderSTE COST policy-driven targeted network; the upcoming online tool from the European Institute for Gender Equality on the implementation of gender equality plans in higher education and research institutions developed by the Yellow Window company). In different ways, INTEGER has paved the way for these evolutions, and in some instances, has directly contributed to their development. The policy-level impact and societal impact of the INTEGER are considerable.
INTEGER organisations will represent an enduring resource and a diverse reference within Europe to support the wider implementation of gender equality good practice. Among proofs of the impact of each partner’s involvement in the project, the following achievements should be underlined:
CNRS:
At institutional level, the impact of the INTEGER project has been transformative on many levels, and is continuing beyond the project’s duration, thanks to the formal adoption of the global INTEGER-inspired T-GAP in March 2014.
The creation of the STRIDE-like Committee and the recent creation of an institutionalised network of 19 gender equality contact points, one for each regional CNRS representation, are strong outcomes of the INTEGER project. The STRIDE Committee has already started gender-proofing recruitment, promotion and appraisal of researchers at CNRS, and the network of regional gender equality correspondents is picking up speed after its kick-off workshop held early July 2015, and will improve the local implementation of the T-GAP in laboratories and services all over the country.
Likewise, the CNRS’s decision to dedicate the 2015 edition of the seminars for both the Jeunes Talents (Young talents) and Cadres de la Recherche (Future leading managers) promotions to the topic of “management and gender issues” is a strong marker of the consideration now given to gender equality issues at CNRS. Results of their findings and proposals for actions enforcing/expanding the CNRS T-GAP will be presented to the CNRS governance and Senior Management Team in December 2015, and these promotions have already decided that they wanted to pursue their involvement on this topic as a group, working in close collaboration with the Mission for the Place of Women (MPDF) at CNRS.
Another positive evolution at CNRS, and an additional guarantee for sustainability of INTEGER results at CNRS, is the upcoming nomination on December 1st 2015 of a woman, Anne Peyroche, as the next CNRS Chief Science Officer. While still working as a senior researcher, head of lab and member of the Comité national in 2013, Anne Peyroche had participated in the STRIDE Committee’s initial activities, and has since then shown consistent and effective support to gender equality in her new capacity as Principal Adviser on Research in the Cabinet of the Minister of National education, higher education and research.
At national level, the impact of the INTEGER project is significant on many different levels and in different arenas and has irrigated the national community, e.g. close collaboration with the Department for Human Resources Strategies, Parity and Fight against Discrimination at the National education, higher education and research; in the COMEGAL set by the Ministry to advise on gender equality issues; playing a leading role in the new national network of gender equality officers in higher education and research institutions in France; actively participating in the Université Sorbonne Paris Cité equality network, which also involves EC projects TRIGGER and EGERA; networking with all French associations on the topic of gender equality and gender research; and now co-leading the organisation of the 9th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education, to be held in September 2016 in Paris.
Another direct impact of the INTEGER project, and strong recognition of the institution’s involvement and role model position at national level, is the Trophy for gender equality of the APEC (Association for Executives’ Employment) that CNRS will be receiving on November 5th, 2015 in Paris, for its gender equality action plan. This recently-created French award celebrates institutional efforts supporting gender equality in the workplace, and the event is covered by a major weekly news magazine, l’Express, which will release that same day a special issue on gender equality, with a strong emphasis put on the CNRS experience (several interviews have been carried out, with the INTEGER project coordinator, the CNRS President, a CNRS regional delegate, STRIDE Committee members, etc.)
At European level, the invitation made by the Luxembourgish Presidency to the CNRS President Alain Fuchs to be a keynote speaker on gender equality issues and benefits of institutional change at the Informal Council of the Ministers responsible for Research that took place the 21st July 2015, in Luxembourg, is a clear testimony of the impact of the INTEGER project, and major recognition of CNRS’s achievements and leadership role on these issues.
As implementing partner and coordinator, CNRS has of course engaged in extensive dissemination activities, targeting key events, conferences, workshops, publication opportunities and national media and social media interventions (see following sections of this Final Report) and is responsible for the technical development, design and sustainable management of the INTEGER online Guidelines (www.integer-tools-for-action.eu)
As was underlined by GESIS in its evaluation, through its participation in, and coordination of, the INTEGER project, “the MPDF has expanded its involvement in national and international networks and formed strategic alliances with gender equality research communities, gender and science policy-makers, research funders and entities carrying out certification and quality assessment schemes in gender equality in research organisations. National and international visibility of MPDF, and thus CNRS, increased significantly. This current framework assures the highest standards in the implementation of CNRS’ activities” as well as the highest standards in the expertise that CNRS can provide to the wider community.
TCD:
The impact of INTEGER for TCD has been transformative, and will continue to have a substantial effect on the institution, and indeed the national context, far beyond the lifespan of the project. Perhaps the most demonstrative example of this is the successful negotiation by the TCD INTEGER coordinator, in collaboration with colleagues nationally, of the introduction of the Athena SWAN Charter for gender equality into the Irish higher education (HE) system.
This represents a groundbreaking new development and will ensure that gender equality is mainstreamed within the HE sector nationally, now and for the future. Leading directly out of a TCD INTEGER T-GAP action, led by WiSER in Trinity College, a national committee for gender equality in higher education and research institutions, the Athena SWAN Ireland Committee, was established to pursue these goals at a national level. The committee is chaired by the TCD INTEGER coordinator. Following the launch of Athena SWAN in Ireland, all seven Irish universities have established gender equality committees and created gender action plans, and within 2015 each has applied for an Athena SWAN award to recognize their progress toward gender equality. TCD was successful in achieving four such awards out of a total of five awarded nationally (TCD received an Institutional Bronze award, and three School Bronze awards for each of the three INTEGER pilot Schools).
That TCD was by far the most successful Irish institution, with the three TCD School who participated in the INTEGER project as the only Schools nationally to receive awards, is demonstrative of the direct and major impact of INTEGER in the Irish HEI sector. While this impact has clearly been keenly felt within TCD itself, it has also been substantially demonstrated on the sector as a whole, which can now be said to be collectively pursuing a gender equality agenda. This was not the case before INTEGER. Its impact will continue to grow and become further institutionalized.
Furthermore, a related outcome has been the establishment of a strong network of gender equality practitioners and stakeholders across Ireland, who now work together to advance this shared agenda. In addition, through the GENDER-NET ERA-NET, the Irish experience of importing an initially UK-based gender equality award (Athena SWAN), is being closely monitored to determine the possible extension of a ‘Gender Equality Mark’ into EU RPOs. The INTEGER Project has featured prominently in EIGE’s initial meeting of experts and online discussion on Integrating Gender Equality in Universities and Research Institutions.
Within TCD specifically, gender equality now occupies an acknowledged and central place within institutional planning and decision-making, which is a direct result of the work of INTEGER. The most recent TCD Strategic Plan includes, for the first time ever, a commitment to gender equality, and specifically to “advancing a structural change process to incorporate gender-balanced representation at all stages and levels, thereby enhancing the quality of Trinity’s institutional decision-making” .
Working closely with the other partners, TCD engaged in extensive and targeted dissemination activities throughout the lifespan of the project, both nationally within Ireland and internationally. These included presentation at numerous conferences, most notably as part of the INTEGER panel session at the Gender Summit Cape Town 2015 and a GENDERTIME event in Padua. National dissemination activities have been extensive. The TCD team has developed strong links with the other FP7 gender equality projects represented in Ireland, FESTA and GENOVATE, and the TCD INTEGER coordinator has spoken at several events organized by these projects and at other universities such as University College Dublin.
A national INTEGER dissemination event was held in June 2015, launched by the Minister of State with responsibility for Equality. The event was very well attended. The results of the INTEGER project have also been exploited substantially. The INTEGER T-GAP Wheel Model has been shared widely, and is available for use by other institutions seeking to create gender equality plans. Similarly, the INTEGER coordinator at TCD has advised, and continues to advise, other institutions on the pursuit of gender equality, structural transformation, and the creation of gender equality plans, including as a model for Athena SWAN success in Ireland.
SU:
At Šiauliai University the results can be differentiated into two groups on the basis of quantitative and qualitative indicators.
One of the major accomplishments in regard to the qualitative results of project INTEGER at Šiauliai University is the direct outcome of the Election Campaign Strategy Case Study that was developed and implemented by the INTEGER ŠU Team. The issue was that in 2010 no women have been elected between 11 members of Council of ŠU. Referring to the Law on Higher Education and Research (2009) the Council of a state university is one of the main collegial management bodies. Council approves the institution's vision and mission, a strategic action plan; set the procedure of management, use and disposal of funds of University. The aim was to increase women representation in 2014 ŠU Council election in average reaching critical mass (to 25%).
The need for such an intervention was due to the convenient circumstance of an upcoming election and the fact that it was integral initiative. This involved a step-by-step strategy to overcome gender unbalance at the top-decision making bodies of the University. After the election the representation of women increased dramatically.
The election campaign of project INTGER was coordinated by the GSC and the Implementation team. This was done via active candidate search and recruitment, planning, consultations with legal officers and dissemination actions. A 36.3% representation is achieved in the Council which above the critical mass (25%) margin.
Engagement of the top is expressed by explicitly incorporating gender equality targets in the university’s mission statement, Code of ethics, Code of conduct, staff motivation regulation, etc. This commitment is echoed in university communications and policy measures of 2 university Faculties. Another indicator for the commitment of academic leaders is the extent to which gender equality is incorporated as a one of the tasks in the work description of top and senior staff. To underline the seriousness of the matter, academic leaders should be regularly trained to enhance their awareness of gender issues and gender equality results should be incorporated in their performance reviews (external evaluation of study programmes at the 2 Faculties). Due to structural changes and management change at the faculties this was not viable. However during the lifespan of the project in the former Faculty of Technology two women were appointed Heads of Departments, one of which (Urban Engineering) first time in the history of the Faculty. This led to an even closer and stronger collaboration between the GSC and the Target Faculties and is also related to the sustainability of the gender equality practice and willingness to participate in future EU and National level Gender Equality intiatives.
University leaders were responsible for establishing an effective infrastructure for gender implementation of GE. Mainstreaming demands sufficient means and facilities for planning, executing, monitoring and sharing information and expertise were dedicated to GSC as one of the main infrastructure for implementation GE, sustain INTEGER project impact in the future. Since May 2015 the HR at GSC increased (0.25 work load unit).
On Faculty level INTEGER project aimed to:
• Realise and maintain a balanced influx, mobility of personnel (negative turnover was experienced, when young researcher after defending her Doctoral Thesis and pro-activist in project institutional implementation team left university);
• Identified, developed and maintained the expertise and competences of individuals;
• Involved staff by giving them responsibility, but the motivation of participation the project was problematic (academic staff is too busy with teaching, research and some of them with the administration);
• Initiated and facilitated a dialogue between the organisation and its community;
• Reviewed and rewarded and academic staff engagement and performance (sanctioning wasn‘t used).
In terms of structural change one of ŠU’s most successful actions towards gender equity in the theme of work-life balance. One of the critical points in an academic or research career of an individual is the necessity to balance life and work, especially when one has children. Therefore, as a continuation of a former initiative we reinstated and relocated a short-term (2-3 hrs.) childcare centre. The centre needed to be relocated due to the availability of it being at a geographically more suitable position as well as being in University Library facilities. For the 2013 the hourly childcare centre had 570 children, where 274 (48% were girls and 296 (52%) were boys. All of the children left for the hourly supervision were of the university community and library visitors that were either using the library facilities or were attending an event taking place at the library. Moreover, ŠU INTEGER initiated an Alteration the Minimal Position Qualifying Requirements for Research and Higher Education Institution Research Workers which involves the possibility under the request of a member of the teaching or research staff, the time period of pregnancy, birth and childcare leave can be excluded from the Regulated time frame in which the minimal qualifying requirements should be met. The tenure can be extended for the time of leave as well. The target group for this measure is not only researchers at SU but all researchers nation-wide will be affected. As of January 29, 2014 it was approved in Seimas and is now the official law.
At ŠU, after the creation of the Teams we have established a Women’s network which served as an overall communication from micro (internal project affairs and organisation) to macro (faculty and senior management) levels. The network and its internal communications platform (Moodle) will continue to function after the project, serving as a direct link among the two target faculties and the Centre for Gender Studies and Research in identifying and solving Gender Equality issues.
In 2014 Rector’s annual report included a section on women and men balance at the University which was never before done in the history of the University. Data is being collected for the Rector’s report that not only allows collecting data of high relevance to the project but in addition enables to reflect the situation for gender equality at the university in the report. Moreover the annual, institutional employee opinion research on quality of University management was amended with consulting the project INTEGER implementation teams at ŠU in terms of developing the HR section.
The experience and findings within the implementation process of Project INTEGER was employed on the national levels in form of Consultations to Ministry of Social Security and Labor on new 2015-2020 National Action Plan (program Equal Opportunities between Women and Men) as well as collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Education on recommendation in regard to Equal opportunity ensuring between Women and Men in Science and Study Institutions of Lithuania. These measures influence not only Šiauliai University but the Higher Education system of Lithuania.
Qualitative indicators:
Individuals (academic staff): changes in attitudes, e.g. perceptions and beliefs – equality is value; changes in gender equality knowledge, gender issues sensitivity; changes in awareness – increased awareness of Lithuanian laws regarding equal opportunities, non-discrimination and gender equality; changes in skills (inter faculties’ and senior management communication); in transnational communication, English language, increased parent ability to locate child care at university, etc. Changes in behaviour (gender equality knowledge is transferred to other institutions, to projects, website materials linguistically and visually are more sensitive); Changes in financial status (increased spending of women researchers’ for the international collaboration, participation in conferences).
The University: increased visibility of issue at national level, media cover the message of the project implementation process; changes in partnerships (partners become more strategic, partners deepen their collaborative relationships, partners jointly implement actions toward agreed-upon aims, partners improve group functioning, partnership increases ability to articulate a shared purpose, partnership shares a plan of action (T-GAP), partners increase sharing of resources, partners increase sharing of data. ŠU INTEGER has initiated a tradition of establishing and rewarding the most gender equality encouraging department/unit since 2013 at ŠU.
We learned that dissemination of project activities play an important role to an overarching awareness of the project and its activities, allowing the increase in its importance and spreading the message across the University, this was done by employing the dissemination through project website and the University website, and will continue through the INTEGER Guidelines website.
GESIS:
The products designed by GESIS, in particular the Detailed Evaluation Concept and the Evaluation Toolkit, are expected to meet great interest and create a strong impact among its target groups.
Whereas the Detailed Evaluation Concept is tailored to the external evaluation of Transformational Gender Action Plans in higher education and research institutions, the Evaluation Toolkit addresses gender equality (and other) actors who are interested in conducting a self-assessment of such action plans. Both the Detailed Evaluation Concept and the Evaluation Toolkit suggest to assess gender action plans from three complementary perspectives by analysing (1) the framework conditions, (2) the preparation and implementation processes, and (3) the impacts created by the action plan.
The Detailed Evaluation Concept, in particular, lays out specific objectives of external evaluations of the partner institutions’ T-GAPs. Similarly, the overall approach and some methods are manufactured to the specificities of an external evaluation in an EU project context. Thus, this publication that is available via the website of GESIS’ Center of Excellence Women and Science CEWS offers targeted insights to external evaluators tasked with assessing Transformational Gender Action Plans.
Both the Detailed Evaluation Concept and GESIS’ concept for the Final Evaluation within the INTEGER project depart from the definition of Transformational Change agreed upon by all INTEGER partner institutions. The Final Evaluation Concept provides a framework including indicators for assessing to what extent and in what way Transformational Change has taken place in the INTEGER partner institutions, in particular, and higher education and research institutions in general. This design is of particular interest to researchers and practitioners dealing with the measurement of institutional change towards gender equality in research because few sound indicators on this phenomenon have been developed and tested thus far.
The Evaluation Toolkit aims to supply higher education and research institutions with tools and guidance for the assessment of their Transformational Gender Action Plans. It is tailored for practical use, and the practical examples aim to provide orientation in particular to users with limited or no previous experiences. The toolkit suggests using evaluation methodology for quality assurance of gender action plans, to support legitimacy and in-house dialogue, and to measure institutional performance of the implementation of these plans to foster gender equality. Its target group comprises any actors in charge of or interested in conducting an assessment of (parts of a) Transformational Gender Action Plan. These may include coordinators of gender action plans, gender equality bodies and quality management entities, amongst others.
The Evaluation Toolkit, in particular the 29 pages long manual, guides the readers through the self-assessment process. The structure of this manual follows the evaluation cycle as suggested by GESIS. The first step of the cycle is the preparation of the self-assessment activities that is described in detail in chapter 2 of the manual. Subsequently, data is to be collected, followed by the analysis of these data. GESIS identified three perspectives of analysis and two phases of collecting and analysing data, and considers these perspectives a more useful structure for the presentation of this part of the guidelines than the distinction between data collection and data analysis. Both of these steps of the evaluation cycle are thus addressed in chapter 3. Having analysed the data, the next step is to provide feedback on the self-assessment results. Based on this feedback, it is to be discussed how to implement recommendations resulting from the self-assessment. This follow-up is crucial in order for the evaluation to have any impact on further strategy development, structures and practices. The feedback and the follow-up steps are presented in chapter 4 of the manual. Furthermore, the manual features a section dedicated to the quality assurance of self-assessment (chapter 5). The manual is complemented by templates which can be used as tools, namely (1) a check list for the preparation of self-assessments that gives an overview of relevant steps to be taken in the preparatory phase of the assessment of the Transformational Gender Action Plan; (2) a Data Monitoring Template that aims to facilitate the repeated collection of sex-disaggregated data on the representation of women and men in different staff categories and decision-making bodies in the organization; (3) a Context Report Template; (4) a Process Report Template; and (5) an Impact Report Template, each of which focuses on one of the three suggested perspectives of the self-assessment (see above); as well as (6) the Self-Assessment (Final) Report Template aimed to support the writing of the final report, providing a structure and a list of suggested issues to address in the feedback process.
As this toolkit forms part of the INTEGER Guidelines and Toolkit it is publicly available and easily accessible via the website www.integer-tools-for-action.eu. The manual can be downloaded in pdf format and all templates can be downloaded in MS Word or Excel format in order to facilitate their adaptation to specific contexts, needs and interests. The website has been and is continued to be disseminated widely among stakeholders (see section 4.1 below).
Thus, the products delivered by GESIS serve both researchers and practitioners in the field of gender equality in science and research. They stimulate and support the evaluation of gender equality initiatives in higher education and research institutions which is supposed to feed into the optimization of the evaluated initiatives and, possibly, the development of new ones. The improvement of measures is expected to support advances towards greater gender equality in higher education and research institutions.
List of Websites:
The address of the online Guidelines, and legacy of the INTEGER project, is the following: www.integer-tools-for-action.eu.
The website has been designed to be both instructive and a contact point. It showcases the INTEGER project (presentation, results) and proposes our toolkit, as well as it ensures a system that enables to stay in touch (the “Stay informed” tool is used to collect the emails of the visitors who would want to be informed of all relevant news).
In parallel, it was chosen to create dedicated webpages on each partners’ websites, that provide information regarding INTEGER in each of the consortium’s languages.
These are the following:
• CNRS: www.cnrs.fr/mission-femme/integer [FR];
• TCD: www.tcd.ie/wiser/integer/ [EN];
• SU: http://integer.su.lt [EN – LT];
• GESIS: www.gesis.org/cews/en/about-cews/en-cews-project-work/cews-project work/euprojects/integer/ [DE].