6-7 May 2019: Session ´It´s time for structural change, sister!` at the 18th Annual STS Conference, Graz Austria

S19: ´It´s time for structural change, sister!`

DAHMEN-ADKINS, Jennifer (RWTH Aachen University), Germany, RATZER, Brigitte (TU Wien), WROBLEWSKI, Angela (Institute for Advanced Studies), THALER, Anita (IFZ Graz), Austria  

Although women have been excluded from academia for a long time, they found their way into the system and represent now in most European countries the majority of students and graduates. Despite this positive development, research performing organisations remain gendered institutions which exclude women from top positions. This is mainly due to the fact that the dominant culture or the ideal of excellence are still based on the assumption that a good scientist has to devote his/her entire life to science, is free of any other obligations and mobile without restrictions.
Therefore it is common sense that successful gender equality policies in academia have to address this problem and should aim at cultural change. Numerous projects and initiatives aiming at cultural change have been developed and implemented so far. They differ regarding approach, focus, intensity, involvement of management etc. Nevertheless they are confronted with similar challenges or obstacles. Aim of the session is to discuss some of these aspects comparatively.

We are inviting structural change projects financed by the European Commission (former and current ‘sister projects' from TARGET, GEECCO and CHANGE) as well as gender scholars and practitioners who discuss approaches and experiences how
• to challenge the dominant excellence ideal
• to involve management in a serious and sustainable way in gender equality policies (going beyond lip service)
• to deal with and overcome resistance against gender equality and diversity within the organisation and in society in general
• to develop an intersectional understanding of gender equality
• to include a broad range of stakeholders in the development and implementation of gender equality policies
in research performing organisations and research funding organisations.

We are especially interested in lessons learned from approaches which have proven to be successful for a cultural change towards more gender equality in academia / science and research but also reflections of initiatives which didn't work out.

KEYWORDS: gendered organizations, structural change, gender equality plans

For further details regarding the conference please visit: https://sts-conference.isds.tugraz.at/event/5/page/38-gender-technology-environment